Building a Student Ministry that Raises Up Giants

During the holidays I look forward to sipping my pumpkin spice latte on a brisk autumn day. I look forward to the peppermint milkshake at Chick-fil-A. It is without question unmatched among milkshakes! I also look forward to going to the mall to face the hustle and bustle. I love the crazies on Black Friday. There is something special about throwing elbows as Christmas music plays in the background. I always make sure to hit the usual spots where you can get a deal! 

At our mall every holiday season there is this one kiosk that I make sure to walk past. This kiosk looks like the rest but instead of selling cheap cell-phone covers they sell bonsai trees. Bonsai trees have always fascinated me. Bonsai trees are adorable. Bonsai trees are cute, tiny, fragile and frail. They are good at resembling the mighty maple or giant oak, but if we are honest, they aren’t. It’s clear they aren’t. 

It was not until recently that I learned that the seed to a Bonsai tree is actually the same seed that would grow into a full size tree. I had always assumed it was some genetically mutated or altered seed. That got me thinking, “What actually makes a bonsai tree a bonsai?” I decided to set out on a quest to discover the answer. The secret of the Bonsai really comes down to two things. First, it is the pot it is placed in. When the seed is placed in a tiny pot, it constricts the root system which ultimately constricts the growth of the tree. Second, Bonsai trees are trimmed and pruned in a specific way. They are shaped to be small. 

Are we raising up Bonsai Christians? 

Is it possible that we have unintentionally given our students Bonsai sized pots for their faith to grow? This Bonsai pot will constrict their growth and ultimately result in Bonsai-type Jesus followers. Bonsai Jesus followers are cute, fragile, frail, and adorable. They are the students that will walk away from the faith when they graduate high school. They are students that will never understand how to integrate their faith with their God given passion, gifts and abilities. Bonsai students will never learn how to have hard conversations that seek resolution rooted in love. Bonsai students will never learn how to impact the people around them with the love of Christ. They are the ones that will leave the church because they don’t like the music. They rely on a thermostat set to 70 degrees year round. Ultimately they will not withstand the storms of life that are sure to come. They won’t be able to keep the faith during the loss of a loved one. They won’t be able to maintain hope in the midst of anxiety and depression. 

God’s vision for the world is anything but Bonsai

We need to find ways to root them in God’s vision. Deeply ingrained in the heart of a Gen Z student is a desire and a hunger to change the world. They are quick to action if given a purpose and a mission. Let’s leverage this! Let’s give them God’s vision for the world. Let’s inspire, equip and empower them to live out God’s vision and mission for this world. We can’t allow them to leave our Wednesday night youth group or our Sunday morning service with an understanding that following Jesus is simply about the program or about the rules. Instead let’s give them Jesus and help them understand how God has wired them for this CRAZY task.

Three things we need to be doing

• Teach your students to love the word of God 

As youth workers we have a limited time with our students. Some of us work in high school ministry, some of us work with middle schoolers, but at most we get seven years. Let’s teach them to feed themselves. If students have the word of God inside them, when the fire comes they can fall back to the Word of God. 

• Help them connect with seasoned Jesus followers

Some of the most influential people in my life were people that I would not have initially “chosen” to hangout with. They were people who at points in my life I would have classified as old and boring. These are also the people who poured into me. During hard times they were able to share stories of God’s faithfulness. They shared testimony of seasons where they questioned God’s goodness and even God’s existence and ultimately were able to witness God move. 

We all have students that fit the home-schooled/sheltered stereotype. It usually takes you about ten seconds to identify them. You know who I’m talking about! They know all the answers in Bible Trivia but have never been in a situation where they are put to the test. They need to have “safe” people that they can ask hard questions to whom they can ask hard questions. Students need the freedom to doubt. God is big enough for our doubt and is willing to walk with us through our questions. God used these people in my life to shape me into the man I am today. 

• Cast a GIANT vision for students

God has designed each of our students specifically and intentionally. Each of them are unique: some more than others! We need to help our students identify the things that God has placed within them. Let’s help each of them craft their abilities into tools they can leverage for the Kingdom. 

Billy McMahan is the student pastor at Rocky Mountain Christian Church in Niwot, CO. He has been working in student ministry for over a decade. He has experience in church ministry, para-church ministry and overseas missions work. Billy’s life is about making Jesus known. He is married to a woman far out of his league. Together, they have three crazy kids. Feel free to reach out to Billy @ [email protected].

One of the things I have been chatting with the Sandals Youth team is how important the atmosphere feels from the moment students step foot on campus, to what they feel in the service and after service. The atmosphere is (in my definition) would be” the way your space looks and feels for students to feel like this is the place to be during the week”.

Without being intentional about it, your space can drift into a boring feeling, non-exciting atmosphere that could be working against you. Something I have been doing with each campus is walking through a “street to seat” assessment. What do students experience from the moment they get out of the car for the pre-service to what they experience while sitting in the service? Is it exciting? High energy? Low energy?

The question is… how you thought about this?

I believe how you set up your pre-service and in-service atmosphere will determine how well your students experience your service that night. Can God still move even when you don’t think about it? Of course. My thought is I want our midweek services THE PLACE to be during the week. I want it to feel exciting and “lit” as the kids say these days and how we set up the pre-service is a huge part of that.

One of the biggest parts of setting up that type of atmosphere is music. Music is so powerful is any experience. Think about worship. It can set a tone and atmosphere for God to move. I believe thinking about our music choices based on the atmosphere we want to set for our students is that important as well.

I want to help.

Here is a play for pre/post service that you can use or use to build your own. The pre/post service on the patio, foyer, in the youth room atmosphere can set your service up for success and give it the high energy feeling you are trying to shoot for.

HERE IS THE SPOTIFY LINK TO THE PRE/POST SERVICE PLAYLIST

Here is a playlist for inside the service when someone is on stage. One of the most important parts of programming during service is the background music. I find it interesting how many people don’t have any sort of music behind them while someone is on stage. It could suck out the energy in the room really quick. And usually, if they do have music, it has lyrics. That’s not all that bad, but being intentional with high energy music with no lyrics will create a kind of movie soundtrack that will enhance your announcements, game time and welcome like a film score does in a movie. It adds to the atmosphere, and you don’t focus on lyrics.

HERE IS THE SPOTIFY LINK TO A HOST/GAMES PLAYLIST

Adding something like this will enhance your services and give it the electrifying atmosphere you are looking for. Hopefully. And have fun, make your own playlists (pro-tip: always look up lyrics, I have had some surprises in the past). Explore and make your pre/post services better.

Justin Knowles

“Is it worth being invited to?”

That question is a tough one to hear answered… especially if the answer is “no”.

This is a question I asked our youth leads from all of our campuses as we are gearing up for what we call “1st Wednesday” which is a night that is intended for our core students to invite friends who don’t normally come to church.

Is your event, service, small group (insert whatever thing) worth being invited to? Whether or not you think this is a fair question, it is a question that most of our students are asking. The truth is, if whatever you are planning, even if it’s awesome to us, does not pass that question… our students won’t invite.

Let me tell you what this does not mean. It DOES NOT mean:

• You need to have all the lights and smoke and lasers.
• You need to blow out your budget.
• You need to pull out all the stops for this one thing.
• You need to have more than 100+ students to get energy high enough to be good.

What this question DOES force us to answer:

• Is the event something my students feel comfortable to bring their friend who doesn’t come to church?
• Is this something a little different than what I normally do that would give my student the confidence to make a bold ask of a friend?
• Do the small groups we have make our students feel like they HAVE to invite their friends to come be a part of it because it’s like no other community they have?

If you notice, the focus is not on the friends but on what you have going on right now already in your ministry. Most of the time we try to do some sort of outreach but your students don’t invite and you get discouraged. Why don’t they?

Because they are checking it out. They are seeing if you can provide an atmosphere that is worth being invited to. Why would they risk social equity on something they don’t feel good about inviting a friend to? Most of the time when we are trying some sort of outreach, it not for the new students who could come. It’s for your core students who are watching to see if it’s worth inviting a friend too. After a few looks and we prove ourselves that something will be worth it, we will start to see our students feel confident enough to make the bold ask of their friends.

How do I know this? I asked students. The great thing about them is they will tell you the truth. I had students tell me that what we planned was not something they feel good about. That our small groups were not a safe place to bring in friends. So we worked on changing it. We brought students in on the planning. We looked at the leaders who’s groups were growing because their students were inviting friends and we trained our leaders to do that.

We might not like the question, “Is your service/event/group worth being invited to?” but if we are not asking it I think we could be missing something big.

Think it over. Bring your leaders into that question. Bring your students into that question. It might just change on how you approach things.

@justinknowles3

The great part of having a great volunteer process is that it will help get the best leaders into your ministry. But with that, it means there will be some people who either decide that youth ministry is not for them… OR… You will need to decide if youth ministry is not for them.

It could be a tough thing to navigate but it will be a necessary thing that needs to happen for the betterment of your ministry. Here is a quick guide on what to do if a leader is not a good fit for your ministry:

Don’t beat around the bush: It is best on the last sit down just to let them know where you are at. Come into the meeting with a list of items/concerns of why it is not the best time for them to join the team. We don’t want to be mean but we do want to be direct.

Offer grace and truth: While we will let them know why they will not be joining our team, we want to be able to share it in a way they give them grace and a challenge to grow. It could be hard to hear for them and we want to be able to challenge them to grow. So delivery matters. So grace and be loving in tone.

Help them get connected to a ministry that better fits their gifting/passion: Instead of just saying, “Ok, bye now” offer to work with them and get them plugged into another ministry at the church and help them determine where that could be (depending on skill set and compatibility) and then either walk them over to meet with that department or email them and CC them so they can take it from there.

**If the potential leader is a red flag across the board, make the connection but then connect privately with that department to give them the heads up.

Give them some follow up steps and have them reapply: If they really want to be a youth leader but they are not mature enough, spiritually ready to lead etc, give them steps to see if they really are committed to leading in the ministry.

Example:

• Let’s have you join a small group for 6 months and then let’s talk again. I’ll keep your application on file and let’s touch base then.
• Let’s get you in the new believers class first and then let’s talk about you surviving after you complete that class to help better set you up to lead.

Don’t feel bad: If the process is doing what it’s designed to do, you will get better leaders serving in your ministry. It’s supposed to weed out people who might not be able to do what you need leaders to do. Don’t feel bad for having a good process to determine the best leaders in your ministry.

If you want to get my latest resource on a great volunteer process, check it out HERE.

@justinknowles3

We all want to lead well in the face of extreme struggle and crisis. If you are honest, you don’t want to just lead through this, you want to win and beat the obstacles in front of you. The hard part is that our obstacles have never been faced before and they are continuing to move on us. It doesn’t change the fact that we all want to win, right? Our heart’s desire is to lead ourselves and our people to victory. No leader wants to fail; we all want to win.  

I get emails and phone calls from people who are hurting, weary, frustrated, and ready for this to be over. We cannot turn on the news or open Facebook without seeing toxic images and headlines. Some in our congregation don’t understand why we are not open yet and some are frustrated that we are open. We didn’t get to do camps, mission trips or even regular VBS this summer.  

It doesn’t feel like we are winning.  

In his book, Dichotomy of Leadership, Jocko Willink writes, “So what does it take to win? Yes, you have to be determined. Yes, you have to be driven. Yes, you must have the unconquerable will to win. But to really win, to truly win at all cost, requires more flexibility, more creativity, more adaptability, more compromise, and more humility than most people ever realize. That is what it takes to win.” 

This book is incredible, but this quote gives us a blueprint to work through some of our leadership struggles personally and as a team. Here are five areas for us to process as we continue to lead and win in uncertain times.   

1. Flexibility  

Have you been asked to do something recently that is not in your job description? Did you push back or did you get it done? For some, flexibility is hard because we have been set in our ways for so long that we don’t like being stretched.   

Question to Ask: What areas of ministry do I need more flexibility?  

2. Creativity  

Go ahead and throw out the phrase, “That’s how we’ve always done it.” We are past that and we have to get creative with how ministry works in the future. Lean into creativity and see what happens. Have the mindset “Let’s try it” instead of “It is not going to work.” If you are not a creative person, who on your team or at your church is creative? They may need to use some flexibility to help you out.  

Question to Ask: What is your current creative process? Do you need to make one? 

3. Adaptability 

Your gifting and strengths may need to be used in other areas. You may be asked to even change roles. Adapting means that you adjust to the new normal. Healthy adaptability takes speed and managing expectations. Ministry looks different now, and it’s going to be different for a while.  

Question to Ask: In what ways have I refused to adapt?  

4. Compromise  

Compromising doesn’t make you weak; it makes you a team player. Compromise means that you are willing to take a back seat for the greater good of the whole church or ministry. You may be passionate and driven in your area, but it may not be a good use of time in the moment. Instead of being upset that you are not getting things your way, ask how you can help and support.  

Question to Ask: What areas in my ministry can I NOT compromise? Hold on to those and evaluate the rest.  

5. Humility  

You might not have all the great ideas. You might not be the center of attention. We need leaders who are inventive and inspired for the future. To be innovative you must understand that most great ideas for the future may not come from you but from others around you. Great leaders can leverage the art of listening, and it starts with a humble heart. Humble leaders give away credit for success and take ownership for failure. 

Question to Ask: Are you listening?  

Please give yourself grace. No one has ever had to lead any ministry though a pandemic and national crisis that we are in the middle of. If you are like me, you are the hardest on yourself. Stop it! Use these questions as a tool to refocus and reevaluate yourself as a leader.   

Lastly, “Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.” Galatians 6:9  

Bobby is a Discipleship Pastor in Katy, TX. He loves pouring into the next generation and their parents to build lifelong followers of Jesus.

He loves his wife and three blue eyed kids, great BBQ and the outdoors.

“I love being a part of DYM and helping youth workers win!” – BC

Check out Bobby’s latest game: Face, Booty, Awesome Summer Edition.

Check out the rest of his resources on DYM by clicking here!

AGILITY!!

It’s a text I have been texting our team as a response lately. This word is something our leadership has instilled in us to embrace. I always knew this word was a important but I understand it even more in this season. Effective leadership requires agility because if you are not agile you can miss out on great decisions and opportunities to take new ground. Doesn’t mean be hasty and make dumb choices but it doesn’t mean take your time and be left behind. Lack of agility allows us to fall into the trap of “Well we have always done it this way”. Effective leadership needs agility because it allows you to shift directions on dime without skipping a beat.

Ministry as it was is no more. I keep hearing people saying, “I can’t wait until we get back to normal.” We need to stop saying and thinking that. If we were to do ministry exactly the same way as before COVID then I think we are being a tad irresponsible.

How can we keep thinking the same thing after we have experienced 3-4 months on strictly online ministry (at least most, if not all, of us)? After what we have had to pivot to and adjust our ministry strategies to in person to online in the blink of an eye? My hope is that we have learned some things and have had our eyes opened to how we have either done really well with engaging students online or how our ministry is not set up at all to do so.

We can’t go back.

It doesn’t mean our services need to change necessarily, but I do think we need to think through different areas of ministry. I will say, we don’t have it figured out. It’s all new territory but we are thinking differently in how we approach youth ministry internally with some awesome insight from our leadership here. My hope is as I share 3 sectors of ministry we will be focusing on in this next season will maybe help others start thinking that they too can’t go back to normal.

In-person: This is what was before. The typical youth group that meets in person like we all did before COVID. It’s not bad, but it’s irresponsible to stay here knowing what we know now.

Online only: This is new territory. We are hiring an online youth pastor to work through students who cannot physically meet at our campuses but they or their families call our church home and want to get involved with our youth program. We will keep producing what we have been doing online (hopefully getting better) to use in our in-person meetings (we were already doing video teaching across all campuses) but catering, recruiting, training leaders and connecting students into groups online. What does this look like exactly? Still working on it. We are flying the plane as we are building it in this area.

Hybrid: This is having in-person groups but allowing digital meetings and call in happen for those who can’t be there physically. This is thing that will change the in-person meetings. Over COVID we have many students whose first experience with us was solely online and they jumped into groups. Think about how easy now a student can invite a friend to check out church by having them watch the service online and then jumping into a group to check it all out, meet some people from their homes if they are not comfortable coming to church yet. Or what about those who can now join a live group they normally attend but would have to miss because they are with their other parent that week, football practice went late or for whatever reason couldn’t be there? That excuse is gone and we have seen students show up week after week digitally.

Now people will say, “Won’t they just be lazy and stay online if we only offer that?” And my response would be…. “So? They are still engaged.” We will, on all forms, push for face to face interaction. But why not expand the entry on ramp of our ministries and use what we have learned through this season of online ministry as a benefit to get more and more student connected?

I think it’s our responsibility to assess and readjust.

Thoughts?

@justinknowles3