For the past couple Mondays the youth ministry leadership team at the church where I volunteer has been meeting to prepare for this next year of youth group. I’m one of the newer leaders to the table, so it’s been fun for me to listen to everyone’s observations of the past couple years of youth group and where we need to go this next year.

I thought I’d share with you guys what we’ve put together so far. It is definitely still a rough draft that will continue to be modified throughout our next meeting or two, but it’s at least a framework to share.

Defining a “win” for us: Students serving in ministry with humility out of passion for God.

Scope: 7th-12th graders (previously 6th graders were included, but not this year). The youth group meetings will span 34 weeks total this upcoming school year.

Strategy:

1. Wednesday night meetings: We will use this time to teach the fundamentals of Christianity and steer it toward serving in ministry (salvation, baptism, communion, prayer, scripture reading, fellowship, tithing, spiritual gifts, personality traits, missions, personal ministry, circle of influence, 30 core truths, etc.). Junior high and senior high combined.
2. Sunday morning meetings: The junior high and senior high are separate, but both go through the entire New Testament one year and the Old Testament the next year because we believe that Biblical literacy and knowing about God is key to knowing God and becoming passionate about Him.
3. One-on-one discipleship mentoring: Each adult youth leader is prayerfully selecting 2 or 3 students to invest into one-on-one throughout the next school year. We know this is where deep life-change happens the most, so we want to capitalize on this and help kids move toward serving in ministry on an individual basis.
4. Stretching and relationship-building events: Every event is done with the purpose of stretching teenagers out of their comfort zone (because that’s where the most spiritual growth takes place and where passion is formed) or for the purpose of deepening relationships that set the stage for deeper spiritual discussions later.

Evaluation:

1. Students will complete an anonymous written survey at the beginning and end of the school year, each accompanied by a lesson on the Parable of the Soils. The 4 categories of soil is what students will evaluate themselves against at the beginning and end of the school year. We hope to see a trajectory toward teens becoming good soil.
2. The youth leaders will meet regularly throughout the year to evaluate on a gut level what we’re observing and feeling using the same 4 categories of soil as a basis for evaluation.

What does your plan of action look like for this next school year of youth ministry?

Posted on August 4, 2011