(Text in italics is from emails that I have received interacting with the model of youth ministry)
1. What do we do about sporadic attendance?
We have a plan to move youth from the uncommitted to the core. We have a quarterly outreach events for the unchurched, where I or someone else will share Christ. We also have church and Sunday School for the Crowd kids. We have Weekly fellowship events with a short devotional each week for the congregation level kids. We have Bible Study for the few committed kids. We have monthly service projects and we are developing leadership training for the core kids. Problem. Attendance for all of these are sporadic, at best. We did an overnight service project that was absolutely wonderful, but three youth came with three adults. It was good, but two of the three are not committed kids. They are Crowd kids. They were stretched beyond belief, as you can imagine. Now I would call them committed, but not core.
A while ago our class asked Duffy Robbins, via email, about the process of moving youth through the commitment levels. To let you see something of what is involved in moving youth from being uncommitted to the core, read his response to us: "Remember, the key to understanding any diagram or schematic like the funnel/pyramid is to understand that it is not more than what it is. In other words, real life is not as neat and clean as it is pictured in the funnel. For example: (1) There is overlap between the various levels of the funnel. When does a teenager actually move from Disciple to Develop Level? Is it when they begin thinking about making such a commitment, longing to make such a commitment, or are given the opportunity to flesh out that kind of commitment by being given tangible responsibility for other people's spiritual growth? (2) Second, genuine growth is usually static. In other words, most youth will not steadily move from one level to the next. The typical teenager will be moving back and forth from Grow to Disciple to Grow to Disciple until eventually they tend to be sending more time in Disciple than they spend in Grow, and then eventually one day, they surprise everybody by making one move in the direction of Develop, and then the dance of inconsistency and growth starts over again. Israel did not claim her promise with one steady movement into Canaan. It was typically two steps forward and one step back. That's pretty typical of the way we (and teenagers especially) respond to God."
Some of the practical things that I would do include: (1) Make sure that your events are clearly defined in terms of the commitment level that is being targeted and that this is communicated to young people. (2) Be relationship-driven and not programme-driven by ensuring that it is the relationships that you and the leadership team are developing that get youth to come, rather than relying on advertising or the programme itself to get them to come. (3) Train your leaders in the art of inviting and bringing people to appropriate events. If they help with the relationship building, your role as youth leader will be that much easier. (4) Provide quality handouts of all activities to work with the relationship emphasis. (5) Welcome youth who attend events, make them feel welcome during the evening, thank them for coming and show them your appreciation where they have contributed to the event and then encourage them to return to the next event.
For further discussion see: Targeting
2. How do we develop a committed leadership team?
I inherited a youth council that has youth on it that are congregation kids. They know very little about the Bible, but have lots of ideas of what they want from me. How can I fix the youth council so that only core kids, who are interested in ministry and service, are a part of it. They don't have a vision for ministry. They want youth group, not a ministry. That's what they had before I came on. Maybe I moved to quick for them. What should I do?
Somehow you need to get to a place where the council is one that you have chosen according to gifting. You need to be careful here that you do not fire them this weekend and are left running the whole thing on your own. I do not agree with letting teenagers nominate and appoint their own youth council - unless you had just committed and core youth involved in this process. I would begin to work towards changing the leadership team. We had this problem once and this is how we solved it - we created a Rave Committee. This committee was responsible for designing what we called Rave events - those fun activities aimed at uncommitted youth - or rather, just aimed at providing a social event for youth in general. By doing this, we then moved this group out of the whole leadership, onto a subcommittee, and we did not loose them because they were still involved. I remember that there was even non-Christians youth on this committee. This was not a problem as the committee was not responsible for spiritual development in the group or pray ministry or witnessing, etc. Maybe this is one way that you could work towards solving your problem. let me know what you think.
We have just got back from a weekend leadership retreat. It was an excellent time of training the members of the leadership team. We did team building activities, had spiritual input and we discussed ministry at each commitment level. We also clarified the roles of the leaders: general leadership roles, specific roles in each commitment level, portfolio roles, and practical programme roles. I found this weekend extremely helpful in developing a vision within these leaders for what we are trying to accomplish. There is a report back of this weekend at our youth group's webpage.
For further discussion see: Leadership
3. How often should we run evangelistic meetings?
We have a quarterly outreach events for the unchurched, where I or someone else will share Christ.
In terms of your quarterly outreach, why not consider doing a regular event that reaches out to youth. You have probably read about our "Rave" strategy where over four weeks we build relationships with youth and evangelise them. It is working extremely well. We have used the evening that is traditionally focused at Christian youth to do this, ie. Friday night, which has shown the Christian kids how serious we are about reaching out to lost youth. I prefer a regular evangelistic programme to a monthly or quarterly approach.
For further discussion see: Evangelism
4. How can we get youth involved in service-orientated events?
We have monthly service projects...we did an overnight service project that absolutely wonderful, but three youth came with three adults. It was good, but two of the three are not committed kids. They are crowd kids. They were stretched beyond belief, as you can imagine.
It is important to ask how many youth are at this level of commitment. If there are only a handful, we should not be surprised that only a few attend. It might be better to begin the service ministry with a few short term service projects that do not require too much time or commitment - and then build up to a more intensive and demanding ministry. It is also important to target youth at this level and personally invite and encourage them to attend the event. It is not surprising to note that in the example mentioned above the event benefited the youth who came, even though they were not at the correct level. Youth who serve do receive a sense of significance and for that reason sometimes it is wise to include uncommitted youth in the service events. Obviously these should be less intensive service projects and not long-term commitment ministries.
For further discussion see: Service
5. Are youth at the grow level converted?
Do you think that there are youth at the Grow level who are already converted? In your definition of a Grow Level youth as one who "submits" to spiritual growth, surely this would indicate that they have not yet made a commitment to follow Christ, although they could possibly have slipped back (ie. become calloused or are Christianised by not actually converted). Would it be generally true to conclude that new converts who are being followed up are at the Disciple Level - where they are taking the initiative for growing as Christians? Mark Tittley.
I would not assume that just because Grow Level kids "submit" to study of the Word, that they are not Christians. New-born babies have been thoroughly born, but they need to be trained to eat solid foods. We begin by giving them milk, and then wean them from baby food when they develop a taste for solid food. So it is with the newborn Christians at the Grow Level. When they have developed a taste, yeah a hunger for the solid food, they are at the Disciple Level. Duffy Robbins.
6. What is the size of our youth group?
Over the past year our group has averaged at around 25-35 youth, yet we have probably made contact with around 60-70 youth from the community. This is why we are working hard to close the back door to the group. The size of a group will relate to the size of the church - we have between 60-90 people attending our Sunday morning service (church services have been going for two years).
7. How is our youth ministry structured?
We use a commitment level model of youth ministry, where we offer ministries at different levels of commitment. We have (1) events in the community to reach unchurched youth on their turf, (2) relationship building and evangelistic programmes at the community center where we seek to assimilate youth into the group through a conversion experience, (3) a follow up ministry to establish new converts in the faith, (4) weekly cell groups where Christian youth can study the Bible and fellowship together, (5) service-orientated events where youth can reach out and impact their community for Christ, and (6) leadership training events to develop student leaders. Two other important dimensions are (a) Care Ministry where group members are divided up among the leaders for personal contact and follow-up; and (b) Church Ministry here we seek to integrate youth into the life of the fellowship, particulary through the Sunday services: a morning family worship service, and an evening seeker-orientated coffee-bar service.
Read an Insider's Perspective on the ministry structure at Windsor.
8. Do we use paid or volunteer workers?
All those involved in the group do so in a voluntary capacity, and all have jobs outside the church. The Fellowship is not in a position where it can employ a full-time worker. A full-time senior pastor may become a possibility in about two years time. There after, a youth pastor could be considered.
9. How do we deal with the different age levels (Jr, Sr. High, College)
In South Africa we have one High School for teenagers aged 13-18. They are not divided into junior and senior high. So most of our youth groups tend to be targeted at the whole teenage age-group. We then have a young adult ministry, which also runs according to commitment level ministry. We work hard at trying to ensure that the transitions between the groups are watched closely and that we do not lose kids as they make the move.
10. What is the 'chain of command'?
We have a youth leader couple (husband and wife), a second couple who work alongside them in a support role, a ministry consultant (a role that I fulfill), and a leadership team of six (a mixture of teenagers and young adults).
11. How are parents and adults involved in our ministry?
Parents have little direct involvement at present. They fetch and carry their children, some are involved in the Fellowship, and we make contact with them during visitation in the homes. The group is run by young adults and could in future look to involve older adults in some way.
12. What are the nature of our events/activities?
All the events are targeted at different levels. The are purpose driven in that the commitment level that we are aiming at determines their content of the event. We do not try to do evangelism, discipleship and missions in the same event. We have regular meetings at each level.
13. What are our goals and how we achieve them?
Our goal as a group is to reach and disciple young people in Christ so that, through the local church, they will have an impact on their community. At present we are specifically focusing on (a) developing significant ministries at each commitment level and (b) developing meaningful relationship with youth.
14. Do we use more of a person/program directed model, a youth leadership/participatory model or a combination?
Our model is lay-young-adult-leader-led with strong student leader participation. We have moved away from an overly program-orientated model, by emphasizing relationship building and purposeful ministry in and through all events. The group is definitely not centered around one individual. I would call it team ministry.
15. What are the weaknesses and strengths of our model?
The strengths include: (1) ministry among youth at every level of spiritual commitment; (2) attracting and assimilating unchurched youth into the group, and (3) involving youth in meaningful service at a children's home. The weaknesses include: (1) ministering to parents or families of youth; (2) getting youth to attend the growth group, and (3) visiting youth - the service of a full-time youth pastor would help here.
16. Do we use fun events or service opportunities to attract youth?
Until now, "fun things" used to gather kids from the pool of humanity. However, with millennials...things are quite different--at least they are in the USA. Now...it's the "service-oriented" activities that gather the bigger crowds. Kids in our youth group will help feed the homeless in LARGER NUMBERS than attending a typical "fun event." Now service = fun. The challenge, of course, is to help them understand WHY we serve as Christians. This shift in the "funnel concept" is something that we've discussed in seminary classes here. For us, it constitutes a major shift in how we organize for youth ministry.
I think your observations are accurate concerning youth and service. We too have found many fringe youth who are willing to take part in our service orientated activities. However, we do find that service is primarily aimed at Christian youth who need an outlet for their faith. We noticed a drop off in non-Christian youth during a long term service project, namely ministry in a children's home. It was fine for a while but then it seems that they did not have the spiritual commitment needed for the long haul. We concluded that when the novelty of service dropped off they were left with nothing to sustain their desire to serve. I do not think that we should necessarily think of fun as the activity aimed at the Come level youth in the funnel. In fact, it could be music, sport, learning, service, etc. that is used as a vehicle through which these youth are attracted and provide an opportunity to develop meaningful relationships that will lead to opportunities to share Christ. It is up to the youth worker to find the most culturally and contextually appropriate methods of reaching and keeping young people. I trust that this comes across in the website - it is not meant to be prescriptive as far as the actual programmes go.
Actually, our experiences have been quite different. Youth, regardless of their spiritual status, have been some of the most faithful participants in our service-oriented short- and long-term projects. The so-called "fun events" to which I refer are those activities that typically gain larger non-Christian (as well as Christian) audiences, that is, up until now. We also refer to the "fun events" as those programs designed for non-threatening "social interaction"--teens enjoying each others company in a relaxed setting (whether it's music, sports, or whatever). Previously, we would have never thought of using service projects to attract the pool of humanity. However, now we're having to rethink that presupposition.
A youth group should use whatever means at it’s disposal to draw unchurched youth into the youth group. In order for these events to be effective it is essential that youth leaders find out what will draw young people in their community. It is no good is they use activities that work in a different context but not in their own context. Research should be conducted to determine what will help to gather a crowd. Whether it is fun or service projects is not as important as whether youth are being drawn into relationships that will lead them to Jesus Christ - this after all is the goal!
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