How are your Core Members doing? Take a moment and think about everything you’ve done in ministry this year and then look at what you have planned. Does your Core know that they are loved and appreciated? Do you know how they are doing spiritually? Before you read anymore, take a moment to pray for a member of your Core Team. This blog can wait.

Now that you’ve prayed, take the next step and tell them. Go ahead; send them a text, or an email, or even better call them. Again, this blog can and will wait.

Pretty recently one of my Core Members lovingly called me to be a greater youth minister. After a great Life Night, our Core decided to have dinner and spend some community building time. Having already promised a few teens that I would visit them at their job, which happened to be my favorite ice cream shop, I told the Core I would to join them a little late. Before I knew it, 30 minutes had passed with the teens and I had completely forgotten about the Core Team who had just worked so hard. Then, my ministry buddy (the Core Member I was doing relational ministry with) pulled me aside and said something I needed to hear. “The Core Team is waiting for us, they need love too!” In that moment, I was faced with something I knew but somehow had forgotten and certainly wasn’t practicing. To have great youth ministry, you need great Core Members who are loved and served by a humble youth minister.

If we loved and served our Core Members the way we do our teens, how much greater would our ministry be? Imagine a Core that pours themselves into ministry and actively seeks to love teens. Imagine the souls that your ministry would reach. That reality is what happens when we purposefully love our Core.

If you are anything like me you need a reminder once in a while. Pray through some of these ideas and create some ideas of your own. Then write a few in your calendar to help make ministry to the Core Team a priority.

• Phone calls – Don’t be afraid to give the Core a call once in a while. Set alarms on your phone so you don’t forget.
• Lunch visits – We’ve all heard about visiting teens at the schools. What about having lunch with a Core Member, or a group of them all at once? Share a meal and talk about what is going on in their lives.
• Small gifts – We all love gifts. Think of simple, inexpensive things that you can buy for the Core and do it. I often get my core things like Life Teen pens, journals or a 20oz coke from the store.
• Highs and lows – A friend of mine used to ask her Core for the best part of their week (the high) and what she can pray for (the low).
• Core events – Do something you would normally plan for teens and have some fun. Go to an arcade, watch a movie, or play board games – anything that fosters pure fun and community.
• Retreat – We all need a retreat once in a while. When was the last time your Core got one?
• Training – People like learning how to do ministry more effectively. Life Teen happens to have over 25 training events per year that will not only train your Core Team but will feed them spiritually as well. Your diocese can also be a great resource for Core training.

Make sure you are spending some time with your Core this month and ask them how they are doing. If you really want to be dangerous, ask them how you are doing! Please know that I am praying for you, your Core and your teens!