During my first few years as a youth minister, I was just happy that teens were showing up. In fact as long as they showed up, I considered my ministry a success. After all they had a lot of other choices, so if they were coming, I must have been doing something right.
If you had asked me during that time how my ministry was going, there’s no doubt that I would have responded the same way every time:
“It’s good.”
And it was. We had a good amount of teens coming. The Life Nights were good. The teachings were good. The small groups were good, and the outreach was . . . well . . . good.
And that was the problem.
We were complacent. We were settling. Our ministry was a victim of “good.”
In my work at Life Teen, I begin every morning by calling two youth ministers to see how things are going with their ministry. And, the overwhelming majority of time, I hear the same response:
“It’s good.”
But “good” is a problem.
Good is safe.
Good is boring.
Nobody gets excited about good.
And it’s time, as youth ministers to stop settling for good and start striving for excellence.
People flock to excellence. They pay big money for excellence. They’ll stand in line for hours and hours just to have a chance to get a glimpse of excellence.
It’s why so many love Apple products, U2 concerts, or any of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies.
People want excellence, and yet so often in ministry, we settle for good.
Our teens deserve more.
So take some time this week and every week to pray about your ministry. How would you describe it? How would your Core Team describe it? How would your teens describe it?
Our world needs ministries committed to excellence, and while you may not be ready to sell out Madison Square Garden, perhaps the first step, is asking the question.
Question: What’s one thing you can do this week to put your ministry on the path to excellence? (Share below.)
Well, to begin with, I feel often my prayer life is the same way… good. The first thing I need to do to really improve things is by getting my preyer life to excellent
Amen! That’s definitely a great start.
I don’t think its something you can do in one week that will change the program all of a sudden. it’s a gradual change. but it’s all the little things that teens notice. examples: instead of pestering a teen “when are you coming to lifeteen, when are you coming?” asking them how are you? how are things going in life? get interested in THEM! As well as the parents, b/c ultimately they make the decisions.
Also get the core team fired up and prayed up. Pray together and check in on them during the week if we don’t meet together. ask how things are going. It takes effort, but effor worth while.
Jen, I couldn’t agree with you more. You definitely can’t do it all in a week. It’s like you said. It takes dedication to doing the little things on a consistent basis. Keep up the great work!
I am in school for lay ministry, so what can someone like me do or think about in order to really want to take on and plant seeds and bring the flood of the Holy Spirit onto young people?
Ben, Thanks for your comment. While that’s a really tough question to answer in a comment, I can definitely give you some tips.
First, it’s imperative that you continue to grow in your own prayer life and frequent the Sacraments. You have to make sure that you take care of yourself first, and this obviously starts with prayer.
The next tip I’ll offer is to grow in leadership skills. Learn how to vision, set goals, and achieve those goals. Youth ministry typically needs someone who is a self-starter, and learning these things will help your ministry to grow. I would recommend reading books from John Maxwell, Dave Ramsey, Patrick Lencioni, or other leadership experts. They are very practical and have helped me quite a bit.
Finally, I would recommend taking some classes on Communication. Youth ministers need to communicate with a variety of different people: teens, parents, other adults, staff members, etc. Good communication is so key to having a successful ministry.
If you have more questions, please feel free to email me at eporteous@lifeteen.com or give me a call at 480-820-7001. May God continue to bless you with His love and grace.
Eric: i have had the privilege of serving in youth, middle and elementary, ministry for 30+ years, most recently at Holy Family Cathedral, in Orange County. My first promo from LifeTeen was on paper, then VHS tape, so keep up the great work!
It’s beautiful to see many of my former youth now having their kids faithful in the Church. Great point. We can’t just be satisfied with good. Excellence has always to be our goal. Setting daily objectives; building up team, challenging our teens and young adults to do great things, spreading the Gospel in real ways. But, it takes discipline and understanding ministry is more than program nights.
We get a sugar high from great events, but the one on one, face to face can change lives as well. Bite size pieces: if you have 200 teens in the “program”, try setting them up on evangelization teams in the Year of the Faith. We called it “Praying it forward” and went door to door as small teams, leaving simple flyers at the door for the unanswered. But those that opened were greeted by three or four smiling Catholic faces asking “What can we pray for, for you and your family?” No sell job, no demands, just being Catholic teens energized by life and love of their Faith. That simple sentence opened eyes, doors and conversations, new relationships. Neighborhood evangelization will build parishes, welcome back fallen away Catholics (the second largest denomination in the US), teach humble boldness to our teens to confront the Culture of Death with the Truth about Life. Think outside the box AND the parish grounds. Jesus went to the people, then they gathered to Him. We need to challenge our culture, get out there. Car washes are nice, but just as there will be no Windex in heaven, no cars. Just souls. 200 kids in 50 teams can cover a parish doing a couple hours on Saturdays in a couple months. Bring the prayer requests back and keep the pastoral team informed. Follow up with the people appropriately. Watch people return. Teens are the greatest instruments in the “orchestra” of the Church, if challenged and we adults get out of the way.
for details, email me…a few other parishes are using this idea and love it…it’s inexpensive and the rewards are…eternal.
Len Beckman
father of 11
714 267 1413
Len,
Thank you so much for your comment. These are all great points and great ideas. Just like many things in life, it’s all about the daily choice and discipline as a youth minister to do the little things well. I pray that our Church, ministries, and young people can grow to do these better and better everyday.
God bless you, and thank you for all you do for the Kingdom.
This seems to be a consistent problem for a lot of youth ministers. We don’t push it to the limits, we settle for what will get us through instead of trying to make it the BEST life night ever. One thing that some of the YM’s do up here in NE Ohio is communicate constantly, collaborate, challenge one another, and bounce ideas around. It seems to help and it is nice to know that there are many around you that support you. Prayer is the most important thing, but that is only the beginning. Just like in Luke 9:28-43, Christ is tanrsfigured before Peter, James and John and while they wanted to stay there, Christ reminded them that they couldn’t. And what was the first thing they did after prayer? Cured a boy of a demon. BOOM. Let us pray to take time to pray AND to do works.
Chris,
I totally agree! It’s amazing what a difference community makes especially amongst youth minister. God bless you, and thank you for all the ways you serve young people.