Honestly, Where have all the students gone?

What is it about youth ministers that cause them to be so concerned about the size of their groups? How's your group doing with numbers - is it in a season of growth? Or, is it going through a transitional season? Youth Ministry is no different than "Big Church". Youth groups go through regular periods of decline and growth.

Here are some important questions:

Why do you want a big youth group?

Why do you prefer a small youth group?

Have you ever felt jealousy towards another youth group or youth pastor? Why do you care?

If you have a ton of students, are you really discipling all of them?

If you have a small group, do you blame it on church budget, size, culture, etc?

I have some answers and thoughts, but I thought it would be cool to throw this out there and see if there is a response first.

Web based curriculum

Well, our Jr High online lesson review website has been up and running for about 5 weeks now and the experiment seems to be working. I've just put in a counter and I've had about 30 hits in the last few days. I know this is nothing radically new, but it is our first attempt to take our teaching to another venue to help kids and parents engage in what we're learning. Would love for you to visit and give advice/suggestions. Thanks so much!

The Missional Youth Ministry

Friend of Missional is a website that is very informative about the missional church discussion. I'm one who is very interested in the direction of this discussion and its impact on the American church in particular. Since youth ministry is my context, I'm interested in learning more about what "missional" would look like in youth ministry. I've taken this quote from the Friend of Missional site. Maybe it, and many of the other informative pieces available on the site, will help us make the transition from a predominantly attractional youth ministry model to a externally focused, missional ministry.

JR Woodward at Dream Awakener has a perspective on success that really helps my understanding of missional. His post A Working Definition of Success provides a working definition of what missional might look like. Here it is:

• Not simply how many people come to our church services, but how many people our church serves.
• Not simply how many people attend our ministry, but how many people have we equipped for ministry.
• Not simply how many people minister inside the church, but how many minister outside the church.
• Not simply helping people become more whole themselves, but helping people bring more wholeness to their world. (i.e. justice, healing, relief)
• Not simply how many ministries we start, but how many ministries we help.
• Not simply how many unbelievers we bring into the community of faith, but how many ‘believers' we help experience healthy community.
• Not simply working through our past hurts, but working alongside the Spirit toward wholeness.
• Not simply counting the resources that God gives us to steward, but counting how many good stewards are we developing for the sake of the world.
• Not simply how we are connecting with our culture but how we are engaging our culture.
• Not simply how much peace we bring to individuals, but how much peace we bring to our world.
• Not simply how effective we are with our mission, but how faithful we are to our God.
• Not simply how unified our local church is, but how unified is "the church" in our neighborhood, city and world?
• Not simply how much we immerse ourselves in the text, but how faithfully we live in the story of God.
• Not simply being concerned about how our country is doing, but being concern for the welfare of other countries.
• Not simply how many people we bring into the kingdom, but how much of the kingdom we bring to the earth.

Any thoughts?

The Death of Attractional Youth Ministry

I'm literally praying for the day when Youth Ministry as we know it today will end. I know, you're probably saying that this is all I talk about. You're right. It's in my heart and soul. I know not every youth ministry in the world has to go down this journey. But I do believe that a few well respected ministries should serve as a model for the rest and start to tear down the walls of attractional youth ministry.

We all do it! We all like the pats and cheers of pulling off an event where large numbers of kids show up. It certainly gives the perception that the ministry is doing the "right" things. Can we be effective at both nurturing the souls of our students and pulling off big time, attractional ministry gatherings? What are we accomplishing by piling in students by the drove? I'm not going down that road anymore.

So come with me down a different road. If you're doing things differently, and I mean really differently, then please respond. Let's get a dialogue going about what youth ministry can look like outside of cool lights, videos, and crazy relay games. If you're having great success with an attractional youth ministry, than bless you. I want to know what truly missional youth ministry looks like.