Strategy

“Follow me.” That was Jesus simple call to the tax collector, Matthew (Matt. 9:9). And Matthew immediately got up and followed Jesus. In youth ministry, we are in the disciple-making business. And no greater model of disciple-making exists–especially for those of us in the small church–than the model of Jesus. So, here are some thoughts on the lessons from Jesus’ call to Matthew.

1. Jesus did not choose disciples because they would have great influence on the people he was preaching to. Matthew would have been despised by most Jews who knew him. He was a collaborator with the Romans at best and a thief at worst. Jesus’ relationship with Matthew almost immediately got him into a conflict with the local religious leaders. Still, Jesus chose Matthew.Investing in students who are well-liked is easy. Discipling some students may earn you the disapproval of the church leaders and parents of other students. Our job is not to find the kids who will make our ministries look good. It is to find those Jesus is calling to a life of devotion to him.
2. Jesus didn’t call Matthew to study his curriculum or join his organization. He called him to “follow.” Curriculum is a useful tool in discipleship and affiliating with Christian organizations is usually a positive thing. But we can’t lose sight of the real call to discipleship. Kids don’t become disciples because they show up at church events. (Notice how many drop out after a few years.) Discipleship is still about the call to Matthew, a call to follow Jesus.
3. Jesus immediately involved himself in the social circles of his new disciple. In verse 9, Matthew follows Christ. In verse 10, Jesus is eating with his friends. I think that must be significant. Youth ministry does mean assimilation . . . helping teenagers to find a place in your group. But it also means investment of you and others in the ministry in loving and caring for those a new teenagers loves: family and friends.

by Roger Glidewell

As a young youth pastor I was not too eager to take my youth group to camp. Why? Because as a youth I had been to youth camp. Sadly, my first camp experience was more about short-sheeting the counselor’s bed, sneaking out at night, and dozing through dry sermons than it was about spiritual growth. I came home from that camp little better off spiritually than when I left home. Why would I want my youth group to be involved in that? Then a fellow youth minister invited our church to join them one summer for a multi-church youth camp.

Wow, was I ever in for a surprise; my youth encountered Christ that week in a way that I had never experienced before. Now, decades and thousands of campers later, I am a firm believer in the value of those moments with God that happen in special ways at camp. In fact, Global Youth Ministry utilizes youth camps in the U.S. and around the world as a vital link in reaching youth and raising young leaders for local churches. We have learned that when camps are “pre-prayered” well, the result will be a more focused, God-honoring youth group.

If you are seeking a meaningful camp program for your youth, here are some questions to ask about the camp that will help you determine if the investment in time, money, and energy will be productive for your youth over the long term.

WHAT PRINCIPLES GUIDE THE CAMP?

Be sure the camp is biblically centered. Your youth can get activities and entertainment anywhere, but they are unlikely to get God’s Word anywhere else but at church activities. People joke about how bad “camp food” is, but sometimes a camp’s spiritual fare is even worse. Don’t settle for a camp where the messages consist of a video clip and a verse! Many Christian youth already suffer from “spiritual malnutrition.” Be sure your camp is “beefed up” with an appetizing diet of spiritual food where the messages, drama, music, recreation, and everything else point to the truth of God’s Word. Don’t settle for topical Bible studies if you can find a camp where an expository teaching approach is offered.

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE WHO LEAD THE CAMP?

Be sure the camp leaders are not only godly guides but that they are accessible to your youth, as well. Don’t settle for camp speakers or musicians that breeze in, blow up and then buzz out, never spending time with your youth except from a stage. Look for a camp where godly leaders will pour into your kids up close and personal. The influence these leaders have on your kids will be in proportion to the time they are willing to spend with them.

Don’t be afraid to let other believers be role models for your youth. I know how it is; you spoke on a biblical truth the week before camp but when the camp speaker or the camp staff says the exact same thing, your kids act like they never heard it before. It isn’t a bad thing that God lets one plant and another water or cultivate.

WILL THE PROGRAM LAST BEYOND CAMP?

You need to use that extremely strategic week of the calendar year to motivate every camper to keep growing the rest of the year. So, be careful to find out whether the camp program has something for every camper:

For Unsaved and spiritually unmotivated Youth: Will there be opportunities for them to encounter Christ? An interesting question to ask in behalf of spiritually marginal youth whom you want to get to camp is this: “Will this camp appeal to 10th and 11th grade guys?” Why should you ask this question? Well, Connie Francis didn’t sing the song “Where the Boys Are” for nothing! If the older guys are involved during camp, chances increase that other campers will be involved as well.

For Younger Believers: Will these youth be challenged to grow spiritually in meaningful ways? Salvation should not be the “end all” of youth camps. More than half the youth who attend camps are already believers. These young believers needs must be addressed, too. They need to have opportunities to learn how to grow spiritually through small groups.

For Older Teen Believers: Will these “veteran campers” have the opportunity to practice and learn leadership? They need to be given opportunities to be “co-leaders” with older camp leaders, to assume greater responsibility. To treat them the same as you treat first-time campers is to risk having to deal with bad attitudes from many of the older campers.

For Adult sponsors: Will any ministry speak directly to needs of adult believers? The adult leaders are the ones who will continue to challenge the youth back at home. By all means, you want them to be exposed to spiritual growth in their personal walk with Christ while at camp. No adult sponsor is just “the bus driver.” That adult has devoted a week of his/her life to a spiritual endeavor. The adults may come home physically tired, but you better hope they also come back spiritually rejuvenated.

IS THERE A PURPOSE THAT IS ABOUT WAY MORE THAN JUST CAMP?

The point of camp—and of life—is to bring honor and glory to Jesus. When you start promoting camp, your youth will want to know whether the camp facility has an Olympic size pool, horseback riding, alpine tower with zip line, you know—fun stuff. And it may be that those things will persuade your youth (and their friends) to attend camp. But when they return home, do you really want them to only remember the “blob” or would you rather they come home talking about Jesus? If the T-shirt is their most lasting “take-away” from camp, it wasn’t worth it. Don’t waste your valuable time providing “fun” for fun’s sake; make fun events work for you to help you lead your youth to Jesus. If the spiritual impression made at camp doesn’t even last the bus ride home, you have just wasted one of the most important weeks of your calendar year. That one week at camp should translate into impetus for spiritual growth into the next several months, even years.

So how do you find a camp where the elements mentioned above for a meaningful camp are in place? First, seek the Lord in prayer. I’m not kidding; who cares more about the youth in your group than He does? Second, talk to the camp leadership; ask the hard questions that will help you determine what they think is important at camp. Third, ask fellow youth leaders who have attended the camp previously for their impressions. Finally, be willing to experiment with camps . . . until you find one that meets the criterion above. Then, settle in and be prepared to stay with that camp program for the long haul. You will be able to develop camp “traditions” and camp memories that will define your youth group for years to come!

Happy Camp Hunting.

Roger Glidewell is the Founder and Executive Director of Global Youth Ministry, an organization dedicated to developing leaders to reach and disciple teenagers around the world. For more information about Roger or Global Youth Ministry visit www.globalyouthministry.org.

Imagine your church was suddenly transported to Bangladesh during one of your worship services. You closed the door, sang a few songs, listened to an inspiring message, and opened the church doors to discover you were in a village on the other side of the world. One of your deacons would probably pull the door closed and hope Scotty would beam you back to your own neighborhood. But, when you opened the door again, you would still be in this completely different land with a completely different culture. The women’s group might decide to organize a pot-luck in the fellowship hall. After all, no one would be going home to the cafeteria today. Where would they go to buy food? What would they find to buy? And how would they pay for it?

Of course, someone who was a little more spiritually minded than the rest of you would eventually suggest that if you have been placed in this new place with these people, God must intend for you to share Jesus with them. But, how would you talk to them? I don’t really know what language they speak in Bangladesh, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t English. How would you share with them in a way they could understand?

The situation might not be as far-fetched as all that. I mean, I doubt any of our church buildings are going to grow wings and start flying around the world. But, in a sense, this has already happened to us. While most of us weren’t looking, we were transported into a culture that is very different from the one we grew up in. Our communities are more multi-cultural, less churched, more skeptical, and less connected than they have ever been before. We may use the same words as those who live outside our church buildings, we don’t really speak the same language. We don’t look at the world in the same way as those around us. And we have had to learn to adapt just to fit into this new culture. And while this is true for us as adults, it is even more true for those of us who are seeking to reach teenagers for Christ.

Walt Mueller has said that there are two things we need to understand about youth culture: “1) Its rate of change is speeding up, not slowing down–and if we hesitate, stand still, don’t stay on top of the rapid changes, we’ll be left in the dust; 2) Not only are there more voices taking up space in youth culture all the time, but they’re also getting louder, more attractive, and more convincing.” According to Mueller, when we do youth ministry today we are involved in a missionary expedition. Our churches have been dropped into an alien culture and are seeking to reach people speaking a language we often don’t speak living in a culture we seldom fully understand.

So, what do we do? One option would be to give up. We can teach the kids whose parents bring them into our youth group, who have learned to live in our culture and be satisfied that we get to make a difference in their lives. Or, we can engage them within their culture. How do you do that? I believe it requires three disciplines: Listen. Watch. Understand.

Listen. When I was in the Philippines, my biggest problem was that I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I was teaching a group of Philippine youth leaders how to teach youth, but I wasn’t even sure what it was like to sit in a Philippine Bible class for teenagers. So, I raised principles and asked, How would that work in your culture? And I listened. Ask students what influences drive the decisions that are made by teenagers today. Ask them how teenagers respond to our pre-packaged approaches to evangelism. Ask teenagers what their friends spend time talking about, thinking about, doing. And listen.

Watch. What TV shows are your students watching? What movies are they going to? At camp last year, the preacher asked students who were the biggest heroes they saw at the movies. The girls in the group yelled out, Edward . . . the vampire from Twilight. But, not really the Edward from the movies. The one from the books. What? Teenagers don’t read. We all know that. Apparently we don’t know the things we know. And have you read the book that most of the girls in your youth group are reading?

Understand. Understanding their culture is not the same as endorsing it. However, we should be very careful about ridiculing the culture our teenagers live in. The culture has marked them deeply. They may have to reject parts of their culture to truly follow Christ, but the journey begins when we truly understand the influences that drive their view of the world.

We have opened our church doors and we are in the middle of a different culture. I suppose God must have wanted us to reach this culture with his love and his forgiveness or he wouldn’t have dropped us in this culture. So, let’s get to work. Let’s figure out how we can speak eternal truth into this culture so that youth can be reconciled to God.

God is doing something amazing around the world. He is stirring up men and women who love him and love teenagers to do the hard work of building disciples in youth ministry. Like the United States, most youth ministries around the world are small ministries made up of a youth leader (seldom paid very much if anything at all) and a small group of young people. In a recent study, 102 youth leaders from 27 different countries on six different continents agreed that there are seven things that are essential to youth ministry.

Over the next few weeks, I will share the essential youth ministry objectives identified in the study. These objectives are not in the order in which they were rated, but are presented in the order they make the most sense to me. The youth leaders included in the study were all evangelical Christians.

Essential One: Lead youth to repent and turn to faith in Christ for their salvation.

In small youth groups, we know the kids. We know their parents–even those who don’t have parents in the church. In many cases, we know their grandparents, their aunts and uncles, and their cousins. Many of our kids have siblings who are also in the youth group. Because of our familiarity with our students, we may assume they have a personal relationship with Christ. The Bible is clear. For students to experience salvation, they must turn from their sins and embrace Christ in faith. Our Bible study needs to include a call to a personal faith in Christ. It is just not enough for young people to show up at church every week. It is not enough for them to have a vague positive regard of God. They need to come face to face with the sin that has caused them to be separated from Christ, repent of their sin, and find forgiveness and grace through the full payment of Christ on the cross in the arms of their loving Father. That has to affect the way we teach. It probably needs to affect the fun activities we provide.

Challenging the students who come to our youth ministries to come to faith is not enough. We live among a generation of teenagers who will spend eternity separated from God in hell unless they come to experience the grace of God by faith. I was deeply affected by a prayer I heard Richard Ross (Youth Ministry Professor at Southwestern Seminary) offer up a few years ago. He prayed, “God, we deeply desire for you to bring sweeping revival across our land and to see teenagers by the thousands come to know your grace and your salvation. As we wait for you to bring revival, we commit ourselves to slipping teenagers one by one out of the hands of the enemy and into your kingdom as you give us the wisdom and the ability.”

Amen.

In his recent book, Youth Ministry 3.0, Mark Oestreicher calls for a dramatic shift in youth ministry. He says youth leaders have emphasized events and activities–our youth ministry program–in a hope to reach youth for Christ. However, that just doesn’t seem to be working any more (if it really ever did). Marko suggests we need to adjust our approach to youth ministry to be more personal. He suggests we may need to do less activity so that we can invest more in relational ministry with students.

I couldn’t agree more. And, for the small church, this emphasis is not just a good adjustment to our culture. It is really at the core of what a small church is . . . family.

In most youth ministry conference over the last ten years or so, conference leaders have asked youth leaders to invest more and more energy in planning and implementing lots of programs. Believe me, I have led many of those well-intentioned conferences. However, I have come to believe that your students need less planned activity . . . and more of you.

Being a youth leader is not really about planning activities. Being a youth leader is about discipling youth. I don’t mean to imply that there is something wrong with developing a youth ministry program. Youth need opportunities to dig into Scripture. They need opportunities to invest in the lives of other people . . . to have ministry demonstrated and to practice it. They need opportunities to build relationships with each other. However, if your investment in your youth ministry program means you don’t have time to spend time with students–to see how their Algebra test went or find out how they are working through a problem they shared with you or invite them to talk about their new commitment to prayer–you are planning too much.

Perhaps the most important skill a youth leader can learn is how to be present with teenagers. Jesus was an amazing teacher. He did great things. But, I somehow believe the greatest impact he had on the lives of his disciples was his presence.

Summer Camp can make a big difference for students. However, for a volunteer or part-time youth leader in a small church, planning a week at youth camp can be a big headache. So, how do you put the pieces together? Where do you go? How do you know what the right experience is for your students?

Let’s address the headaches one at a time:

1. Do I choose a youth camp that someone else is putting on or do I arrange something for our kids myself? For most small church youth leader, this is an easy choice. The myriad of details involved in planning a youth camp experience for your students can wear out full-time youth leaders. While you will have to work on some issues (like rooming lists, permission forms, and transportation), a camp offered by LifeWay, Student Life, Big Stuff, or Inlighted Ministries will take care of most of the details of the actual running of camp. Your students will generally get to participate in youth-targeted praise and worship music and be taught by exellent youth communicators at any of these camps. On the other hand, there is an intimacy in your students getting away with each other. If you have a few adults willing to invest the time in planning a camp experience for your kids, it might be worth the extra effort.

2. How do you find the right camp? Some camps are more geered to sharing the message of Christ with kids. Some are more targeted at discipleship. Some camps, such as M-Fuge (LifeWay), World Changers (North American Mission Board of the SBC), or Work Camps (Group), focus on getting kids involved in ministry. Other camps such as Jay Strack’s Student Leadership University or Super Summer are targeted at developing kids for leadership. Think about where your students are and what challenge they most need. If your church has a tradition of going to the same camp every year, don’t be too quick to change that. Sometimes those traditions can be important glue for youth ministry and can really make a big difference in kids’ lives.

3. How do I find the time to plan? Even if you feel like the Lone-Ranger, get yourself a Tonto. Find someone who will take care of the plans for camp. If you decide to do camp on your own rather than attending someone else’s camp, you may need a whole group of Tontos. Sometimes a mom who would never show up and lead in youth ministry will be happy to do all the organizational work for you. Give her the job and get out of the way.

4. How do I get students to sign up? Start early. Talk to parents. If you can get a fun video of the camp, play it for the students. Talk to parents and students about what difference you think the camp experience will make for students. If you have kids who have gone before, get them on-stage talking about what they got out of camp during worship time. Set a deadline. Have a phone blitz the week before the deadline and call every student that has any connection with the youth ministry.

5. How do we pay for camp? This can be tricky in a small church. Here’s what I usually have tried to do, but you may need to vary this for your context. Budget for the cost of transportation and to pay the way of adult leaders. Schedule a couple of fun-raisers to reduce the amount each student will have to pay. Talk to adults that I know can help with scholarships for students who can’t afford the trip and let parents know that scholarships are available and how to get one.

6. How do I get adults to go? This can be a problem in the small church as well. You need to take at least one adult of the same sex for every one to five students. In other words, if you have ten students, six boys and four girls, you need at least two men and one woman. Don’t be afraid of taking too many adults, especially if you have adults that are willing to work and play alongside the teenagers. Parents are usually your best option for adults. Sometimes the church pastor may be willing to spend the week with students. That can be a great experience for the pastor and the students. College students? That depends. The camp you are going to may want adults that are 25 or older. Also, your church insurance policy may mean you need adults over 25 to drive your students. You certainly want to make sure that college students are spiritually and socially mature if you use them as counselors. Make sure your adults know exactly what you want them to do as sponsors.

7. How do I find the time to take a week and go to camp? Working in a week of camp when you already have work and family responsibilities can be tough. It is possible you may not be able to go. While it is best if the youth leader is at camp, consider asking one or two adults with more flexible schedule to take the kids. You can even send your students to camp with another church, although it would be best to send an adult with your students who can take responsibility for them. If you can go for part of the week, that would be better than not being there at all. Check with ministries that provide camps; some ministries, such as Student Life, offer some camps that straddle a weekend. For example, they start on Friday and end of Tuesday. Sometimes getting off three work-days instead of five can be a big plus.

8. When do I start planning summer camp? The truth is, in a small church, you can put camp together in a few months. However, you may find that families have already made plans and schedules are set. Also, the dates you would like to go to camp may be full. If you are planning for this summer, don’t give up; you can make it work. But next year, I’d recommend something like this: Choose a camp the August before and get it on the calendar. In January, start talking up summer camp. Set a deadline in March or April for registration (though I always tried to keep a few places open so we could invite other kids to go later) and require a deposit. Require all money to be in by May 1. If you are doing your own camp and have some flexibility in lodging and transportation, you can continue to enlist students as late as you would like. However, most of you will need some time to plan for the number of kids you are taking.

9. What if I only have two or three kids who want to go? Go! It may be tough to justify the time and money for one or two kids, but you may impact their lives in ways you never could at home. I remember doing a mission trip once with three students and four adults. The kids were surprised when I didn’t cancel, but it turned out to be an amazing experience for all of us. The investment in those few students paid big dividends. They became the biggest cheerleaders in our church for future mission endeavors.

10. What do I do while the kids are at camp? Build relationships. Avoid weighing yourself down with too many responsibilities. Laugh with them. Listen to them. Pray with them. Be with them.

Here are some links to ministries that offer summer youth camps. These are only a few of the hundreds of options you will find through your denomination or through other ministries online.

Big Stuff Camps

Centifuge Camps

Group Work Camps

Student Leadership University

Student Life Camps

World Changers Mission Camps

In Merton Strommen’s book, Passing on the Faith, he calls for youth leaders to establish a Christian youth subculture. Strommen says, “When the culture of the nation no longer supports the Christian faith, a Christian youth subculture becomes a safe place for youth to discuss their questions and concerns about faith, to develop Christian leadership skills, and to form relationships with other youth and caring adults” (Strommen, 187). But, how can you do that in a small church?

Most of the things Strommen suggests are do-able with a few teenagers. In fact, some of them are easier. Here’s what Strommen recommends:

1. Discuss youth issues. Teenagers face tough problems: families that fall apart around them, friends trying drugs, sexual thoughts and feelings, and a lot more. They need to be able to talk about how those things are addressed in a life of faith.
2. Faith-sharing experiences. It makes a huge difference in the faith experience of teenagers when they are able to make Christ’s love known to other people. This can be as simple as saying, “I just wanted to share the love of Jesus with you today,” after they wash the car windshield of a stranger in a parking lot.
3. Fun and Fellowship activities. Teenagers love time to be together. Events like bowling, laser tag, or eating pizza are easy to organize when you have a small group.
4. Service and peer ministry. At church, teach teenagers to be encourager. On Monday at school, it’s game day.
5. Involvement in music. A lot of kids would balk at being in a youth choir. Few dislike attending a praise concert when the music is targeted to them.
6. Informal friendship groups. Small youth groups ought to be places where friends are welcome and everyone is a friend. Don’t force it, but tell kids that is the goal.
7. Adults counseling youth. Not “counseling” in the clinical sense. More offering counsel as a grandfather or older brother would.
8. Congregational leadership. Teenagers need the opportunity to try out leadership roles in the church. It creates a sense of connection to each other and to the body of Christ. This is much easier to accomplish in a small church.

Youth ministry is not the only way teenagers will develop spiritually, but it is huge in its influence on kids.

Strommen, Merton P. and Richard A. Hardel. Passing on the Faith: A Radical New Model for Youth and Family Ministry (Winona, MN: Saint Mary’s Press, 2000).

This week I was speaking with my friend, Roger Glidewell. Roger made a comment about youth ministry that I haven’t been able to get off my mind. He said, “Youth ministry shouldn’t be ministry for youth as much as ministry by youth.”

Teenagers have some unique needs. Because adolescents is such an important time in life, having ministry that addresses those life issues seems essential. I suppose a ministry that is for youth teaches them the Bible, entertains them with fun activities, and gives them a place to connect with each other. None of that is bad.

But is that enough? I think the Bible has bigger things to say about youth ministry. Paul told Timothy not to let anyone look down on him because of his youth, but to be an example in life and ministry. What if that was true for our students? What if youth ministry was something they did more than something they received?

Youth Ministry that is “by youth” might look like this:

• Instead of listening to adults share the Bible, our students would be leading Bible study. Students might lead part of the Bible study at church each week. They might meet together at school to study the Bible on their own.
• Students would be on mission together. We need to help students to discover their gifts and then put those gifts to work. What if our students began implementing ministry without us? Would that be scary or exciting?
• Students would be encouraging their peers. Friendships are important to students. But no one knows better than a student how much loneliness hurts. What if our students made it their mission to be friends with the lonely people around them?
• Students would be sharing their faith. It is not the youth leader’s job to make Christ known at the middle school. That is a job that God has called middle school students to. What would it look like if they took that calling seriously?

I think Roger is right. We need to begin to give up our role as ministers to youth and become ministers with youth. We need to allow them to have leadership in their youth ministry. Our youth ministries need to be ministries developed and implemented by youth, not just ministries provided for youth.

For many of us, the time comes when God calls us to leave a ministry . . . to move to a different town, a different state, or a different church. At those times, I believe how we leave is incredibly important to the spiritual growth of the students we lead.

This is a very personal issue to me right now. As I write, I am preparing for my final Sunday as the volunteer youth minister at my church. Following God’s leadership in my life, I am moving to Texas next week. My heart aches at leaving these people . . . and especially these teenagers . . . that I love so much. But I can only do what I believe God has called me to do.

Some people say that, when you leave a church, it is best to do it fast . . . like ripping a bandaid from a wound. I could not disagree more. In some ways, the last weeks of your ministry in a youth group may be the most important. After four years, I believe I owe my students more than that . . . and I want them to continue to grow in their faith. I have made many mistakes at our church, and my last weeks are no exception, but let me share with you what I have tried to do.

• I have tried to assure our students of how much I love them. I want them to know that departing is not an easy thing for me, that I will miss them.
• I have tried to help the teenagers understand that I am responding to my best understanding of God’s call on my life. When God calls me to follow him in some new way, I have no choice but to follow. I hope they will follow God with abandon when he calls them.
• I have tried to prepare them for new leadership. In our case, the new volunteer youth minister will be one of our current youth leaders. I have assured them he will be there to love them, to take the youth group in new directions. And I have asked them to follow his leadership. Sometimes students feel like they are not being loyal to the old leader if they follow the new one. I want them to feel like the best thing they can do to honor their relationship with me is to continue to invest in the youth ministry when I am gone.
• I have tried to say things I want them to remember. A couple of weeks ago, I took a Bible study hour to meet with the guys in the group. I told them I wanted them to invest themselves in being men of God. I spent an hour telling them what that means–in their devotional lives, their families, the church, their investment in personal ministry, their friendships, and the expression of their sexuality. I doubt if they heard me say anything they had not heard me say before. Still, I think making this my last challenge to them may add meaning to it. That is my hope.

Acts 20 tells of Paul’s final meeting with the leaders of the Ephesian church. The leaders tried to convince Paul not to go to Jerusalem. They were afraid for him. However, Paul told them that he believed God was leading him. Even though he knew his path would be full of hardship, he had no choice but to go. He told them honestly that he did not think he would ever see them again. The parting was drowned in tears, but I think the elders were strengthened in their faith and their resolve because of their final time with Paul. That is my hope for the students I love–that they will find greater resolve in their own walk with Christ because of their time with me . . . that they will not lose heart because I am leaving, but that they will have one more reason to obediently cling to the Lord.

When I served a small church in Texas, I asked a youth pastor from a large church in Tennessee to speak at our church. I planned a youth rally…and no one came. Of course I was embarrassed. My friend was gracious and even expressed a bit of envy at the possibilities that existed with a small neighborhood church. He made some suggestions for a new approach to youth ministry . . . one that fit the church I was serving.

What did we do?

• I began to include students in everyday things I would do like going to the store or grabbing a hamburger. Because I only had a few students, I could get two or three to do something with me and, in a few weeks, had spent a little time with all of them. The students loved hanging out with me and I was able to model what faith looks like in daily life for them. Try that with a youth group of 1,000.
• A widow in her 80s named Elaine hosted a lock-in for us. She knew where the light switch was located at the city park and we played tennis at 2 A.M. We played games in her living room. At sun-up she cooked pancakes for us and kept everyone awake by playing ragtime on the piano. My students (who are now adults) say the night with Elaine is a favorite memory of their youth years. (I named my daughter after Elaine.)
• We did simple things, like going to a restaurant or someone’s home on Sunday after church. It didn’t take much planning. If I could grab one or two parents to go with us, we were set with transportation and supervision.