What does a successful, healthy youth ministry look like?
I’ve been looking for the answer to this question for the last two years since starting a new youth ministry in the west of Melbourne in 2014. The truth is that both success and health are defined differently by different churches and different leaders. It makes it very difficult to have one marker or metric that points to the health of a youth ministry.
Through this personal searching and profiling, I came up with a series of 10 marks that I critique my youth ministry against to know whether we are healthy and growing. In some way, I hope that these marks are helpful for you and can start some discussions in your friendship circles and ministry teams.
Mark #1: The Gospel
When it comes down to it, the Gospel of Jesus is all that we have in our tool kit to transform lives. What is the Gospel specifically?
- That Jesus Christ died for our sins in accordance with Scripture.
- That He was buried
- That He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
- That Jesus is alive!
The message of Christianity is not a philosophy for living. It is a message about Jesus and the events surrounding him that happened in history in front of many eye witnesses, that happened in accordance with the scriptures that prophesied that he would come and be pierced for our transgressions (Isaiah 52:5) and that he would rise again, defeating sin and assuring our salvation. It’s the promise of a renewed relationship with the God of the universe.
Healthy Youth Ministries let this truth saturate every single thing they do, from the way they welcome new comers to the way that they teach and equip mature Christian leaders. They find every way they can to keep the gospel on repeat in their ministry.
Mark #2: Clear Vision, Mission and Goals
In the first two months of building a new youth ministry in Caroline Springs, we spent a long process of working out how the churches mission and vision could be lived out in the youth ministry, as well as some introductory goals. We spent time talking with God and waiting on him, looking through the bible, looking at our context and looking at our strengths and weaknesses to put together a strong step forward.
Many people felt that we spent too much time strategizing instead of getting our hands dirty with the work of ministry, but the preparation you do on mission, vision and goal-setting is crucial. It allows a space for God to show you what he is calling you into and gives you a razor-sharp focus to carry it out.
Healthy Youth Ministries and their teams can tell you exactly what they are doing, why they are doing it and the goals they are working towards accomplishing to bring that about. If they cannot, they are in very real danger of walking away from what God is calling them to and never even realizing it.
Mark #3: Friendship
Youth Ministry has always been about relationships and friendships. Teenagers who grow up will rarely remember the programs you run, the sermons you preach or the bible studies you lead but they will remember all the times you showed up in their life. They remember the football games, the family dinners, XBOX tournaments, dance recitals, school concerts and before-school coffees. I know that I did.
Healthy Youth Ministries are filled with leaders who open themselves up, walk into the messiness of teenage life and build deep and authentic relationship with young people.
Mark #4: Conversion
Much of the conversation in youth ministry in the last 5 years has centered on the pressing question of teenagers walking away from the church. Recent(ish) statistics in Australia point to almost 50,000 teens walking away from their faith every single year.
There is a very simple reason about why so many walk away: they are not converted. They might be good kids, they might be smart kids, they might be kids that we love and appreciate but they are not converted Christians and that is why they leave.
Healthy Youth Ministries preach, talk and ooze the gospel to their teenagers, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). Where the Gospel is preached faithfully, and God moves powerfully in the lives of teens to bring about full heart transformation, there will be no such thing as a nominal, cultural Christian.
Mark #5: Discipleship
Christian leaders have a very clear purpose in this world:
Make self-denying, cross-carrying, gospel-heralding, grace soaked in, sin-repenting followers of Jesus Christ, also known as disciples.
In Healthy Youth Ministries, discipleship is not a buzz word but a lifestyle. If we don’t do the work of equipping our teens to pray for their friends, share the gospel with them, disciple a new believer on their own and countless other actions that can make up following Jesus then we have not done the work that Jesus Christ himself left for us in the great commission.
You only have to look at the churches and youth ministries that do this work of discipleship well. They are filled with leaders who grew up in youth ministry, saved in their teens but had mature Christians walk along them and do the hard work of equipping them.
Mark #6: Equipped & Empowered Parents
The Bible is clear that the passing down of faith is a God-given responsibility to families. Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to: Love the lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind (Mark 12:30) but that commandment was originally given in the Old Testament, followed by a direct encouragement for families to share this truth with their children wherever they walked and wherever they went (Deuteronomy 6:5-9)
Statistically, no-one has more an influence on the faith development of a young person than their parents do. This is true regardless of culture, religion, family make up and social class. If this is the case, then we need to equip and empower parents to put into action what they believe.
In Family Ministry Field Guide, Timothy Paul Jones writes that there are two reasons why parents don’t disciple their children:
- Lack of Time
- Lack of Training
Healthy Youth Ministries don’t just partner with parents, they equip them to be their first line of disciple makers.
Mark #7: Intergenerational Community
This line from Kenda Dean inspires me:
Only in the church do young people begin to see themselves through the eyes of people who try to see them as God sees them: beloved, blessed called.
Healthy Youth Ministries allow this crucial identity and spiritual formation to happen by having one church community, rather than several splintered ones. In an interview on Carey Nieuwhof’s leadership podcast, Kara Powell defines what intergenerational community is beautifully:
What has often happened is that we put children in one part of the church, youth in another section and adults in the main room of the church. As a result, high schoolers graduate from the youth ministry and don’t know the church, they’ve never experienced the church. (from 9:30 in the podcast)
It’s not even about getting kids in the same room as adults, it’s about the relationships that are built. We learnt in our Sticky Faith research that there is a difference between multigenerational ministry and intergenerational ministry. In multigenerational ministry, we have everyone in the same room but what happens is that all the senior adults sit together, all the middle-aged adults sit together and the teens sit together but they never talk to each other.
It’s a placebo for what we ultimately want which is intergenerational community, where people of all ages know each other, pray for each other, know each others names and are connected (from 13:44)
Intergenerational community fosters and builds up relationships between people of all ages and stages, where the oldest member in your congregation is praying for your youngest one and the business leader invests in finding out how the rowdy teen with messed up hair is going with his trouble at school.
There is a place for being and learning in age-appropriate contexts, but when that becomes the main context for worship and community for youth then the entire church misses out on fellowship.
Mark #8: Leadership
Leadership in any ministry is vital, because leadership ultimately comes down to character. In their excellent book Credibility, James Kouzes and Barry Posner argue that people follow leaders because they see a quality of character and a credibility worth trusting in. It is this quality of character that people respond to.
If this is the case, leadership in healthy youth ministries is less about what you do and more about who you are. It means that Christian leaders are not called to a place, a role, or a ministry. Instead, they are called to live their lives in such a way that it points people to God, wherever they find themselves.
Healthy Youth Ministries have a strong focus on character in leadership, holding each other accountable for who they are and how they are living their lives. They also build and encourage these character traits in their leaders and those desiring responsibility.
Mark #9: Personal Faith
Healthy Youth Ministries are filled with leaders passionate about Jesus and committed to cultivating a relationship with God. That relationship is the single most important aspect of being a youth pastor or leader.
Jesus himself said:
“Abide in me and I will abide in you, as the branch can not produce fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4)
Healthy Youth Ministry starts with you and God, waiting on him, praying to him and being led by him. God does not need us, he wants and desires us and that is a huge difference. Outside of his influence and power, there is nothing that we can do in the lives of teenagers or in fact anyone.
Teens need role models to look up to and follow even as they follow Jesus himself. Just as Paul said “follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1), teens need to see what it looks like to pray, what it looks like to read your bible, what it looks like to love the community around you, what it looks like to share the gospel and what it looks like to follow Jesus even when you feel disheartened.
One of the most discouraging things for a teenager is for them to have their eyes and hearts opened by God about what it means to follow Jesus, only to find that no-one is walking ahead of them as a guide. In many occasions, they will either fall in line, or run from the hypocrisy. Neither is healthy.
Mark #10: Longevity
The average youth pastor in America will last three years and it would not be surprising to hear that in Australia the statistics are similar. Growing up, I had 6 different youth pastors or teams that led the youth ministry in my 8 years as a youth and as a youth leader.
One of the best things about the bible is that it is brutally honest, it pulls no punches and leaves no rock for people to hide in. In Jude, we find one of the most honest descriptions of leaders who do not last.
They are like wandering stars, for whom the blackest darkness has already been reserved (Jude 1:13).
Leaders like this are shooting stars, streaking onto the scene with excitement but just as quickly fading and disappearing for good. They show short-term gains but the long-term health of the ministry becomes compromised quickly.
Healthy Youth Ministries know that strong relationships build over long periods of time and they stay the distance. They don’t talk about being there for a couple of years, but for an entire generation. They encourage their leaders to have friendships with teens as long as they can, leaving legacies instead of train wrecks.
These are my 10 marks of what makes a successful, healthy youth ministry. What would make your list? What have I left out?
Thanks to Jimmy Young from The Radical Change for this article.
