Mob, Not a Ministry
There are some amazing ministries that are fortunate to have vans or buses to bring in students and help grow their ministries. Though this is an awesome way to grow your ministry, sometimes there are some special challenges that come along with this type of growth.
You may find that your growth is from a different demographic as your group of core students. Your challenge is not that they're a different color skin...the challenge is that they are hungry, that probably lots of them have no idea who one of their parents are, they're probably not the star achievers in school and these demographics can make an immense difference. If you attempt to grow this second demographic too fast and the original kids feel overtaken, you'll never get them to merge. Always make sure that you maintain your tenor as you go. Get your key kids away and tell them stories from some of the new kids, win their hearts, and get them on your team by sharing stories. Ask them to help you show the Love of Christ to these kids, but make them the commitment that you will handle it if things start to get out of line. Tell your key influencers you need their help and ask them to make you aware when this happens.
Though Jesus didn't die for empty seats, sometimes you may find that your ministry is growing too fast and all of a sudden you don't have enough leaders to reach all the kids you've added. If this happens, recruiting new leaders needs to be your primary goal. You may find that you need to slow down or stop your ministry growth until you get either some good small groups going or some new recruited leaders. If not, you will have a mob, not a ministry.
There are some amazing ministries that are fortunate to have vans or buses to bring in students and help grow their ministries. Though this is an awesome way to grow your ministry, sometimes there are some special challenges that come along with this type of growth.
You may find that your growth is from a different demographic as your group of core students. Your challenge is not that they're a different color skin...the challenge is that they are hungry, that probably lots of them have no idea who one of their parents are, they're probably not the star achievers in school and these demographics can make an immense difference. If you attempt to grow this second demographic too fast and the original kids feel overtaken, you'll never get them to merge. Always make sure that you maintain your tenor as you go. Get your key kids away and tell them stories from some of the new kids, win their hearts, and get them on your team by sharing stories. Ask them to help you show the Love of Christ to these kids, but make them the commitment that you will handle it if things start to get out of line. Tell your key influencers you need their help and ask them to make you aware when this happens.
Though Jesus didn't die for empty seats, sometimes you may find that your ministry is growing too fast and all of a sudden you don't have enough leaders to reach all the kids you've added. If this happens, recruiting new leaders needs to be your primary goal. You may find that you need to slow down or stop your ministry growth until you get either some good small groups going or some new recruited leaders. If not, you will have a mob, not a ministry.
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I've always loved sports because I think sports captures a microcosm of life. I've always looked at my youth ministry as a team that I was coaching and the same dynamics that puts a winning sports team on the map, helps put a winning youth ministry team on the map.
Listen in as we extract some pragmatic keys from a high school coach who led his team to championship meets 30 times in 31 years. Let's jump in as we parallel breeding track champions to champions in our youth ministry.
Lovingly coaching from a distance,
While we all know numbers are not the only factor, or even the strongest factor, in determining the health of your ministry, it is also true that we can't make an eternal difference in an empty chair. In this Youth Leader's Coach we are talking about one of youth ministries' most puzzling topics, "How To Hold On To Numerical Growth."
So grab your coffee and join me as we talk about a few key pragmatic ways to get kids in the door and keep them.
Still Growing 1% at a Time,
The majority of us have seen or channel surfed past "Flip That House" or a show like it. And, whether you're a HGTV/TLC fan or not, most of us in youth ministry have felt a similar need to "Flip That Youth Group." This need for a new and improved look may be in the area of outreach, worship, community, spiritual tenor or something entirely different. Regardless, whether now or later, we know the need for change is inevitable. Navigating that change can either be glorious if done well or catastrophic if not.
In this Youth Leader's Coach, we look at how to create specific change in our youth ministries without demolishing them. So, grab a cup of coffee and join me as we look at four things that will help us accomplish the task at hand one kid at a time.
Lovingly,
As leaders, many times we communicate, "We're not into quantity; we're into quality." Often, that's a cop-out. Winning youth ministry leadership teams PLAY TO WIN. Don't you want to be a part of a CHAMPION leadership team?
This Youth Leader's Coach, "Attitudes Of A Winning Youth Leadership Team," will help equip you with all the strategies to not only have a thriving team, but one that WINS souls for the kingdom of God to make you absolutely UNSTOPPABLE! In this resource you will find pragmatics to help you identify the overarching goal of your ministry and how can you instill an unshakable method of accomplishing that goal for both yourself and in your leaders! I'll also talk about being successful from the smallest scale, to the biggest as we address some of the most CRUCIAL practices in continued growth and relevance in today's leadership culture, while at the same time, talking about the pitfalls to avoid as you lead your team into your best winning season!
Lovingly,
I got off the phone not long ago with an "unhappy" (code language for "ticked") mom who comes to our church. She went on a long, emotional banter about how our youth ministry "shouldn't be letting "THOSE KIDS" in...after all, her daughter was a pretty model teenager until she met a certain young man at the youth group!" Long sigh in my heart.
It's the repeating dilemma that youth leaders face often. How do you create a youth service that both disciples and motivates your "already Jesus followers" at the same time you are also reaching teenagers who are far from being anything close to being a Christ-follower? That's the challenge I tried to unpack for the mom who was calling me to "verbalize her strong disappointment in my approach."
Lovingly,
