Philosophy of Student Ministry
Students are a part of today’s church not just tomorrow’s church. Students need to be encouraged and equipped, with proper leadership, to not just “do” church but to “be” the church. Student Ministry is not there to baby sit students, but to minister to them in ways that are effective in nurturing them to become Christ Centered Adults.
I believe a Student Ministry should be purpose driven with a mission. Student Ministry should equip students to live out the 5 biblical purposes as outlined by the Bible in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), the Greatest Commandment and the 2 nd Greatest Commandment (Matthew22:37-40). Those purposes are Worship, Discipleship, Fellowship, Evangelism and Ministry. Their programs should be designed around reaching target student audiences and teaching them to partake in and live out these biblical purposes.
- Worship: We were created to please God (Revelations 4:11). Student Ministry needs not only to communicate this to students but also to effectively demonstrate this action lived out in our lives. We need to create an atmosphere that encourages students to offer their life as an act of worship to God and connects them with God in authentic ways.
- Discipleship: God wants us to be like Jesus (Romans 8:29). Students have to be encouraged and equipped to change their actions, words and lives into reflecting the image of Christ. Our Student Ministry programs must cultivate this biblical purpose in student’s lives.
- Fellowship: God intends us to do life together (Ephesians 2:19-22 and John 13:34-35). Student’s need to understand that we were never intended to do life alone. A Student Ministry should help to join the family of God together by creating programs that encourage Fellowship.
- Evangelism: It is our responsibility to share the Gospel of Jesus with the lost world around us (Matthew 28:18-20). . Student ministry should not just tell students the truth about Jesus Christ and the Gospel but also equip them to do something with the Gospel; to live a changed life because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to reach out to the world around them to share the life changing news of the Gospel as well.
- Ministry: God created us to serve him by serving others (Ephesians 2:10). Every aspect of this Student Ministry will have opportunities for adults AND students to serve God by serving others. We will do this by helping them to realize their SHAPE (Acronym for Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality and Experiences) in ministry.
Student Ministry must also realize that it doesn’t just minister to students; it ministers to the parents of students. Parents can be and should be the greatest influence on their student’s life. Student Ministry must learn to take advantage of that by including parents in Ministry. We must keep parents up to date on what Student Ministry is doing and try to involve parents whenever possible.
What Does This Look Like?
In order to ensure its success we would need to make sure the Student Ministry programs and Leadership Structure are both founded on the biblical purposes. I am not a fan of “Youth Ministry in a Box”, however, this is a general idea of how I would go about taking this Philosophy and making it into an effective and successful Student Ministry.
Programs
The goal behind each program should be to move Students forward in their Faith and take next steps to a deeper relationship with God. Students today need to know that church can be fun; that it’s not just “a boring place where boring people go to be bored.” Students need a church environment that is so exciting to be in that they feel encouraged and excited to bring their family and friends.
- Youth Meeting-
- Biblical Purposes: Worship and Evangelism.
- Synopsis: Fun experiences, relevant teachings and worship that encourages believers to connect to God in a real way while showing non-believers what it means to love a real God.
- Schedule: Weekly- 15 Minutes hang out time, 15 minutes Game Time, 15 Minutes worship, 20 Minute Message, 5 Minute Reaction to message.
- Ministry Involvement: (Youth Pastor, Evangelism and Worship Leaders.) Tech teams, worship teams, video/drama teams, worship leader, teaching teams, adult prayer partners, etc.
- Community Group Program-
- Biblical Purposes: Fellowship and Discipleship.
- Synopsis: Meet in homes that are broken down by Grade and Gender (i.e. a 7 th and 8 th grade girl’s house). Fun games to break the ice, small teaching time on the night’s topic, small group time to go deeper in the topic and a prayer time.
- Schedule: Every week or twice a month. 10 minutes hang out time, 10 minute “Ice Breaker” (relevant to the teaching topic), 10 minute teaching time, 30 minutes small group time, 10 minutes of prayer/challenge time.
- Ministry Involvement: (Youth Pastor, Discipleship and Fellowship Leader) Host Home, House Coach and Small Group Leaders
- Discipleship/Bible Studies-
- Biblical Purpose: Discipleship.
- Synopsis: This differs from a small group because its sole purpose is going deeper in God’s word to discover and apply biblical truths to our lives. The studies would be chosen by the Youth Pastor with the Lead team and would cater to a more mature Christian audience than the other programs.
- Schedule: Every week. 45 minutes to an hour each. 5 minutes to hang out, 5 minutes prayer time, 35-50 minutes bible study.
- Ministry Involvement: (Youth Pastor and Discipleship Leader) Bible Study Teachers.
- “E”VENTS-
- Biblical Purpose: Evangelism.
- Synopsis: These are special events that the Student Ministry would put on as an all out evangelism event; if you’re not bringing lost friends, don’t come! We would hold these events in parks, or go to concerts, or hold concerts, football games, ice skating, theme parks, sleepovers, or whatever is effective at reaching the lost students in your community. At each of these events we would share the Gospel in a dynamic, powerful and unique way to reach the lost souls that our Students bring.
- Schedule: Once a Quarter. There are a various number of things we would be doing, so it’s hard to set a minute by minute schedule for these things.
- Ministry Involvement: (Youth Pastor and Evangelism Leader). Again with each one being different it’s hard to tell how many and which adult leaders we would need for these events. However, each of these events would be coordinated by a Special Events Team that works with the Evangelism Pastor to be purposeful and accurate in its targeting.
Leadership Structure- Student Ministry must do a good job of placing Christ Centered adults in the lives of students to model “Faith Lived Out” to them. This is just a basic structure of involving those adults and students in this ministry. (All but the Youth Pastor position would be volunteer positions with the knowledge that God will grow us to financially support some of these positions in the future.)
Here is an Explanation of each Position:
- Youth Pastor – This would be me. This role would be in charge of communicating the vision for the Student Ministry and keeping the student ministry on track with that vision. Other duties are, but not limited to, Planning purposeful programs and events with the lead team, recruiting and training a volunteer staff, Teaching, Keeping parents informed and involved in the ministry, interacting with students on a regular basis, etc. (I understand that some churches don’t have the size to accommodate the volunteers for these different things and that most of this would fall on my shoulders until the church has grown to support this.)
- Administrative Assistant- An adult that is gifted in being detail oriented. This person would be in charge of any mailings, mass e-mails, appointments, room reservations, data collection, etc…
- Worship Leader – This would be an adult that is gifted with leading others in worship through an instrument or voice. He/she would also be in charge of scheduling the worship teams, technical teams and selecting worship music.
- Worship team – These are students that are gifted with the talent of music and want to use that gift to lead others in worship.
- Tech Team- Adults and students that are technically gifted and want to use that gift to serve God by running sound boards, lights, speaker wires, computers, etc…
- Drama/ Video Teams- Teams of adults and students that are gifted in video editing, acting and script writing that want to use those talents to effectively communicate biblical messages.
- Discipleship and Fellowship Leader- A lot of churches do their discipleship in small groups only, so combining these two things just seems smart. This would be an adult leader that is strongly gifted in fellowship and the discipleship of others. With the youth pastor, this person would pick different studies that would encourage and equip students to take their faith deeper through Tithing, Reading the Bible, Prayer Life and other spiritual disciplines. He/She would also work with the Youth Pastor to implement a Community Group program that connects students to Christ centered Adults and other Students as well as provide a curriculum that encourages their group to go deeper in their walk with Christ.
- Discipleship Study Leaders- These Adult leaders would be in charge of leading and distributing the discipleship studies chosen by the Discipleship Leader.
- Community Group House Coach- This is an Adult that would be in charge of facilitating the community group program within a certain house; keeping the program on schedule, making sure their house has the materials it needs, addressing any conflicts, etc..)
- Community Group Leaders- Adults that feel God encouraging them to connect to lives of students. The hope is to have an Adult leader per five students and that group would be the same group all through out a student’s life in Jr. High and High School. These adults would call the students in their group when they didn’t show up for an event or program, they would be the one that went to the hospital if the student gets sick; in essence this adult would be a Pastor to the students in their group.
- Evangelism and Ministry Leader- I see Evangelism as being the key that ties all the ministries together. In some form or fashion all of our Adult leaders and Student leaders would need to model Evangelism in their lives. Therefore, putting these two purposes under one person seems the smart thing to do. This would be an Adult that is strongly gifted in Evangelism and passionate about plugging people into a Ministry that fits their SHAPE (Acronym that stands for Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality and Experiences). He/She would be able to teach others how to share their faith with Bold but non-abrasive ways. This person would meet with the Youth Pastor to discuss putting on special events that are geared specifically toward reaching out to the Lost in the community. He would also work with the Discipleship Leader to maintain a curriculum that teaches interested students how to share their faith.
- Special Event Planning Teams- Teams of adults and students that want to coordinate special events that reaches out to the lost in the community. They would work with the Evangelism Leader to plan every aspect of these events.
So there it is. Like I said, this is just a general idea of achieving a successful Youth Ministry. Now your church might be wired completely different in its discipleship process and this can be adjusted or completely changed to fit your churches process for making disciples.
The thing that I don’t want to see happen is for your Student Ministry to be an entity separate from the church. Student Ministries have done a bad job in the past of reflecting and being a part of the church that it grows from. We must work together as one unit to create a WHOLE church that isn’t separated by ministries but brought together by them. If you have any more questions, please feel free to contact me. You can find that here in the Contact section of my website.
Thanks and God Bless,
Josh Greenwood |
