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You don’t have to be teaching youth for very long before you end up having to deal with negative behavior. Seems like youth at church would know how to act. Surely they should respect you and appreciate your investment of time. You would think so, but probably not.

There is a really not a panacea that will solve every behavior problem, but let me suggest some things I have found to be effective.

1. Keep the class moving. I usually find that younger students tend to disrupt when nothing seems to be happening. Pauses while you find materials or consult your notes can open a door to disruption. Try to move from one activity to the next, one idea to the next quickly . . . especially if you have mostly younger students.

2. Build relationships. Students who feel like you care about them and want them to be there are a lot less likely to disrupt your study.

3. Use body language to gain control over disruptive students. Standing up can get their attention. When I have two kids picking on each other, I go sit right between them and don’t miss a beat on what I’m saying.

4. Avoid embarrassing students. Most students don’t like to be called out and scolded in class. Once in a while you can’t help singling a kid out, but try everything else first.

5. Use humor. A friend of mine used to stop and quickly say, “Raise your hand if you’re not listening” when the group got out of control. Students would usually laugh and refocus on what he was saying.

6. Sometimes students disrupt because they don’t really see the value in what you are doing. Try sharing with them why you are doing what you are doing and how valuable you think it is.

7. Older teenagers are more likely to disrupt when they feel like they are being treated like children. I think it is okay to do something silly with older youth as long as you admit you are asking them to do something childish. Say something like, “I know this is stupid, but just go with me. I’m trying to make a point.”

Occasionally, you have no choice but to address behavior sternly. A fight breaks out in class. A kid is being victimized or intimidated by other students. Students are being destructive. A student is intentionally sabotaging the lesson. Stop the class. Isolate the student or students involved. Address the behavior directly and insist that you will not allow it. Involve the parents if they are available.

Last night, I happened to catch Mike Huckabee’s interview of Bill Maher. Apparently, Maher is releasing a new documentary movie “taking on” religion called, “Religulous.” Maher identified himself as agnostic. He said he has no understanding of why people would want to live their lives according to ancient myth and went as far as to say that all religious people have some kind of psychological problem. Maher cited all of the wars fought in the name of religion as a real problem with enlightened people accepting these “mythical beliefs.” He asked how a loving God could allow so much suffering to exist in the world.

I don’t mention all of this so you and I can get mad at Bill Maher together. Rather, it is important to keep in mind that our students will face opposition in their faith.

For me, the best thing about the interview was that Huckabee, in his home-spun, corn-fed way, was able to give a reason for his Christian faith. True religion, the faith Jesus died for, does not inspire people to violence, but to love, forgiveness, and reconciliation. People don’t need religion to be bad. We live in a broken world. God didn’t make it that way; we did. And God allows us the freedom to love him . . . or to reject him.

I don’t really care whether you like or dislike Huckabee as a politician. My point is I want students to leave my youth group with enough understanding of their faith that they, too, can give a reasonable defense for the faith they have in Christ.

How does the Bible answer hard questions like those Bill Maher was asking? Even if our students are content with simplistic answers, I don’t think we can be. There is no reason to fear hard questions from your students. In fact, if they aren’t raising hard questions in your youth Bible study, perhaps you should.

I teach a youth ministry class at the Birmingham extension of New Orleans Seminary. This week one of the experienced students in my class raised this question: If I’m teaching a class of youth, I probably have two punching each other, three counting ceiling tile, and maybe one or two interested in Bible study. How do I help all of those students to grow in their faith?

That is an amazing question. In a small church, you may well have three 12 year olds, a 13 year old, and a 16 year old in your youth class. Even if your students were all at the same age, their development–emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and physically–would be at different stages. How do you engage all of them with the truths of Christ?

The work of spiritual development is really the work of the Holy Spirit. As a youth leader, you get to parnter with the Spirit as he works in students’ lives. Leading engaging Bible study is an important part of your partnership, but I am convinced that most youth need to see what the Bible looks like when it is fleshed out in real life. When students see you up close living out the principles of Scripture, they are often very open to what the Spirit would like to do in their hearts.

Good discipleship is not just a matter of good teaching; it is a matter of intentional relationships. Capture the flag may be the best ministry with the two guys elbowing each other in class. Show the students counting tiles how to share show Christ’s love to an underpriviledged kid and she may suddenly get why the Bible study is important. Youth who are ready to learn may need some new tools that allow them to dig deeper into God’s word. The relationships can be very different, but the goal is the same . . . to get students face to face with Christ so that his Spirit can transform their hearts.

Leading students to grow in their faith is a life-on-life issue. And the way the relationships get fleshed out will be as different as the students you are teaching.

Most of us in small churches (big churches, too) deal with losing students as they get older. Sixth or seventh graders come into our youth ministries with lots of excitement. A few years later, high school sophomores begin to disappear. We plan activities and can’t seem to motivate our older students to get involved. They opt out of going to camp and are working part-time jobs on Sunday morning.

Why does it happen? Several reasons. Students lives are busy. They have more activities to choose from than ever before in their lives. Students are more mobile. Once they get a drivers license, they are no longer dependent on parents to drive them around. Students feel the need for money. Maybe for dates; maybe for college. Part-time jobs may make them choose between working on Friday night and missing the football game and working on Sunday morning and missing church. Students want to see themselves as independent adults and youth groups often make them feel like kids. Students may have a “been there, done that” feeling, since a 16 year old has been able to participate in everything the youth group offers since he was 12.

No easy answers to this problem exist, but let me suggest a couple of things that I think are helpful. First, create opportunities for older students to have greater status in the youth ministry because of their age and experience. For example, ask them to be team leaders for your mission projects; allow them to lead part of the Bible study on Sunday. Ask them to organize a game for your fun times.

Second, give them experiences in ministry that excite their imagination. When I was at a big church in Nashville, we took graduating seniors on an international mission trip every summer. Little churches can’t do that? Actually, it may be easier for us. Two years ago, I took our one graduating senior on a mission trip to Ukraine. It was an amazing trip for both of us and changed his perspective on God’s movement in the world. The church helped with the cost.

Third, help students find their place in the church . . . even if it isn’t in the youth ministry. Last year, we graduated a student who seldom came to youth ministry events. However, she had invested more than a year in helping with preschoolers. It is a ministry she loved and kept her growing and learning in her own faith. One of our juniors, Adam, plays the base in our praise band. He is plugged into the youth ministry, but his real love is hanging with the four or five musicians that lead worship on Sunday morning. God has used his love for music to help him grow in Christ.

As parents allow older students to begin to make their own choices about church, some will opt out. It is a great disappointment. However, our call as youth leaders is not a call to get kids to our activities. It is a call to invest in the spiritual lives of students. Don’t let the fact that students don’t show up at your fun night mean that you quit investing in them. Pray for them. Encourage them. Confront them with humility and love. Speak words of truth into their lives. Your relationship may be what God uses to draw them to himself.

Podcasts are a great thing, but keeping up with them is a bit of a challenge. So, I’m not sure when David Platt (Pastor of The Church at Brookhills in Birmingham) taught it, but I was listening to one of his sermons this morning. He was teaching on Exodus 33. In the passage, God told Moses he was going to give the Israelites the blessings he had promised them–the holy land and all–but God himself was not going to go with them because they were a stiff-necked people.

Moses would not leave. He pleaded with God to go with them. God agreed. There is much about God’s conversations with Moses that I don’t understand, but Platt asked a very pointed question:

If God offered to give us his blessings without his presence, how would we respond?

Is it possible that God could fail to show up in our youth ministries . . . in our Bible study classes, youth mission projects, or fellowship activities . . . and we would not even notice?

We in America are good at doing church. Your church may be small, but, compared to the standards of history, it is probably very wealthy. You have a place to meet, resources to help you, and probably some trained leadership. Is it possible that we have become so comfortable with the blessings of God that we no longer feel the need for his presence?

The most important aspect of youth ministry is a leader who is passionately clinging to the presence of the living God. Nothing can replace that. Can we do good youth ministry without the presence of God? I shudder to think, but perhaps we can.

What a dismal failure to experience God’s promised land . . . but not have the presence of God.

Youth ministry in Urban settings carries unique challenges. Some small churches are located in the city and are dealing with the issues that plague many of our major population centers . . . poverty, violence, high drop-out rates, high rates of substance abuse. I don’t mean to stereotype inner-city students. Certainly youth in the country and in suburban settings have their share of challenges. Still, many churches have abandoned the city because of the perceived danger of the city.

Fernando Arzola has just released an interesting book called, Toward a Prophetic Youth Ministry. Arzola contends that some inner city churches have focused solely on discipleship and have neglected the very real human needs of their students. Other churches have focused on meeting the needs for food, education, and affirmation, and have missed calling students to faith in Christ. Other churches have called students to social activism to address the overall problems of the city, but fail to do that in a way that makes a relationship to Christ the center of the ministry. Arzola calls inner-city churches to “prophetic youth ministry,” that is, a ministry that focuses on Christian ministry that addresses human needs and the systems that create that need, but does it with a clear focus on biblical discipleship.

I believe in discipleship. We cannot neglect it, but focusing on social justice is an important call of Scripture and of biblical discipleship. We will never eliminate poverty, but we can address its causes. We will never meet all of the needs students have, but focusing on human needs often opens the door for a walk with Christ. Recently, I heard Arzola say, “A tutoring hour can be every bit as spiritual as another discipleship group.” Interesting perspective.

If youth ministry is really “ministry,” should we bother with time to plan activities that are “just for fun”? Yes . . . and no.

Fun activities are essential in youth ministry . . . but they need to be the RIGHT fun activities. There are several reasons why we do fun activities, but one of the most important reasons is that they do a great job of building community among students. What builds community? Well, a lot of things, but here are a few:

1. Communities of teenagers have shared experiences. The students in my group love to tell the story of almost being killed by a tornado that swept across Florida while we were on an “amazing race” last summer. It really wasn’t as life-threatening as they make out, but the winds did get scary enough for us to take shelter in a truck stop. The story is important because it is an experience they share.

2. Communities have shared stories. One youth group I worked with used to go to this retreat center that had a cemetery beside it. Once while we were walking through the cemetery, one of the middle schoolers asked me why one of the headstones had a carved dog on top. Honestly, I had no idea, but I made up a story about how the guy buried there had a faithful dog that tried to save him from a fire. The dog failed, and was so damaged that friends decided he should remain with his master. “What you see here is not a replica of the dog, but the actual dog encased in concrete,” I concluded. While the students decided I had a worse sense of humor than they had realized, the story became a defining myth of our ministry. Every time we went back to the retreat center, they insisted we go to the tombstone and I tell the story again.

3. Communities have inside jokes. Some time ago, I started calling all the students in our youth ministry “Charlie.” We even did a T-shirt once that said our church was a place where we call you by your name–”and your name is Charlie.” When I call one of the kids Charlie and a guest tries to figure out why, they explain, “It’s just a thing with our group. Go with it.”

So, what fun activities are NOT the right kind? The kind that don’t build community. Take students to an amusement park and let them run off to ride roller-coasters with their friends from school. Meet together to eat supper. Then, meet to go home. Was it fun? Yes. Did it build community? Not likely. I’m not saying don’t do amusement parks; I’m saying make sure any activity you do gives kids an opportunity to connect with each other.

If our discipleship of students does not lead to students getting their hands dirty in the lives of other people, we are kidding ourselves about how much discipling we are really doing.

Doing a mission trip to Nicaragua may be a challenge for the typical small church. (Don’t rule it out. No telling what God will do.) But that doesn’t change the fact that our youth ministry has to involve students in ministry. Simple forms of ministry are cool. Collect food for a food bank. Send shoes to a mission in Mexico. Serve a meal at a homeless shelter. But get kids involved in doing the gospel.

We sometimes overlook the most important things. Prayer is not just a precursor to ministry; it is ministry. At my church this Sunday, we gave the kids some pizza and took about eight of them to the high school and middle school campuses in our community. We talked about the power of prayer and how to pray. Then, we gave each of them a partner and sent them around the school to be prayer warriors for the students, faculty, and staff at their schools.

Prayerwalking is a simple ministry that advances the kingdom in at least two ways. First, God really does choose to move when we pray. Second, our students are more aware of the spiritual needs as they go back to school on Sunday. They will be quicker to pray . . . and quicker to speak a word for Christ.

A.W. Tozer’s book, The Knowledge of the Holy, was published in 1961, probably before most volunteer youth workers were born. The book really could not be more relevant for today. Tozer’s basic concern in writing the book was that so much bad theology is being taught and so much bad ministry is being practiced because we really don’t know God. We really don’t have a clear picture of who God really is.

Youth ministry in a small church should never be youth ministry with a “small God.” We need to help our students capture a vision of God as He really is. Our students need to see God as the One who defines goodness, who is ever merciful, who is always righteous, and who never changes. We need to challenge the kind of thinking about God that tries to put Him in a human box or keep Him in the far distant sky, and help students truly capture a vision of the God who transcends from heaven to be ever present in our lives and in our world.

As you are teaching your students this week, help them to see God as He truly is. Maybe, like me, you will find Tozer’s book a good reminder. I recommend it.

Those of us who have the spiritual gift of teaching usually love to teach. We spend the entire week thinking about a passage of Scripture. We may have time to dig into commentaries. We find nuggets of truth that are absolutely intriguing and we just can’t wait to share them with our classes. Students enjoy being in our classes which are at least occasionally exciting places to be.

But, are our students really growing in their faith?

The question bothers me. Sometimes I’m afraid my teaching is more about presenting a lesson than discipling the students God has entrusted to me. We have a set hour we fill with Bible study at my church. Your church is probably the same. We spend a little time talking about what happened in kids’ lives the previous week, I present a lesson, someone prays and we leave. It is a program more than an opportunity for students to get face to face with the living God.

I don’t mean to imply that nothing important happens in those meetings. The Spirit often chooses to work in students’ lives little by little, punctuated by significant moments of growth. But, I believe we need to approach Bible study as an intentional time of stretching the understanding and faith of our students.

Discipleship will include a lot of things; some of them don’t really happen in a class setting. However, I think weekly Bible study needs to include at least three things in order to help students to grow. Not every lesson will include all three. In fact, some ought to really focus on one of these things and others on another. But, if we miss any of these things, I think we miss the opportunity of discipling.

1. Students need to understand the Bible. Okay, I know this is pedestrian. This really is the point. But, if students are going to build their lives on biblical truth, they need to know what the Bible says and what it means. Be careful. This is different than helping them to simply understand what the Bible says about their current crush or the importance of the church mission trip. They need to truly understand the story of Scripture. Real Bible study is not as much about how God fits into our lives as it is how our lives fit into God.

2. Students need to learn practical skills. A lot of us tell our students they need to do personal Bible study, but if they don’t know how to do it we sound like the adults in Charlie Brown specials. Wah wah wah wah. Students need to know how to pray, witness, study the Bible, offer godly counsel, encourage others, and minister to others’ needs. Sometimes Bible study needs to teach students skills. Usually skill development involves providing a step-by-step plan, showing them how it works, and letting them practice. As they get better, they can vary the plan and even develop their own plan.

3. Students need to be inspired to pursue Christ. A student understands what God has called him to do. He knows how to do it. Does that mean he does it? Not necessarily. We line our lives up with God’s call because we are moved by His Spirit to do it. Inspiration is a funny thing. I don’t think there is a simple formula. But I do believe inspiration requires us to, at times, speak to the heart and not the head of our students. Personal stories can often help with that as well as stories of other people. For those of you who are creative, designing representational experiences where you simulate something significant in terms of their faith can inspire students. (Real experiences are even better.)

I don’t mean this to feel overwhelming. I just think we need to focus more on filling students with God’s Word rather than presenting a lesson.

Several years ago, I walked into a Bible study class, told the students to open their Bible and read the verse our curriculum said we were to study for the day. It was a verse about Jesus touching someone and changing their lives. I asked, “What did Jesus do?” They answered, “He helped that person.” I said, “What do you think it means for us?” They said, “It probably means we should care for other people, too.” I said, “So, do you think we should talk about it or go do it?” They said, “We should probably go do it.” So, we loaded into my car and went to a local nursing home. On the way over, I told the students how many people in the nursing home feel alone. Holding their hands and listening can be great ministry, I told them. When we arrived, I began speaking to the residents, offering my hand to them. The students followed me at first, watching what I did. Then, they began to do the same things. On the way back to the church, I talked t them about the difference they had made that morning. I believe they learned more about following Jesus’ example that morning than they ever would have if I had explained what the commentaries say about the passage.

As you teach, don’t just present a lesson. Engage students. Inspire them. Train them. Help them to truly understand.

Disciple them.