Creating Balanced Student Ministries

I recently posted an article about being a disruptive leader in your student ministries. (You can read more here.) One of my youth coaches mentioned he loved the idea of being disruptive as a leader, but his concern was how do you balance the art of having fun with students while still wanting to get in serious discussions with them. In fact his words were, “I don’t envy youth ministers!” Such a light-weight!

Student ministries many times are like pendulums. On one side, many ministries are all about games and fun and spend little  time or focus on serious teaching. While other ministries are into serious teaching times and have little focus on having fun.  A healthy student ministry has to find the balance between the extremes.

Here are four tips that I have found to keep in mind when trying to balance having fun and having serious teaching moments in your small groups or ministries.

Make Time for Fun

It is ok to have fun in small groups. Last week I made a fool of myself during our small group time and the students loved it. We laughed a lot and other groups did too. Sometimes I think youth ministers and youth coaches forget that it is ok to have fun in small groups. Having fun with students helps make youth workers relatable. It earns trust and opens the door to speak into their lives.

Take a few minutes when you first meet and discuss that past week and laugh about anything funny that might have happened. Or try building into your small group a fun activity just to get the students to bond and build trust. Maybe you don’t make time for fun during your official small group time, but you create fun moments elsewhere by bowling, or going to the movies, or inviting them to your house for dinner. Be deliberate and intentional in creating those moments. However you choose to make time for fun will encourage students to open up and talk with you and their group because a safe environment has been established to do so.

Eliminate Distractions

Distractions in your environment are huge! Ever wonder why students and sometimes youth coaches don’t pay attention? Ever see their eyes diverted to something else, or their hands fidget with something they found laying on the ground? Distractions limit your student’s focus and can make teaching them frustrating. So what do you do? Get rid of any distractions that you can.

Obviously the space you meet in sometimes is out side of your control, but take time and eliminate any distractions that are in your control. Sometimes what you eliminate varies with age of each group. The older student will less likely will want to touch and be distracted by every small thing, while younger students need everything taken away and out of reach or they will play. We meet in a auditorium so we have chairs, staging, pens and papers everywhere. You name it, I probably have to deal with it. Some groups do a better job than others at eliminating distractions. But most take their environment and make it work. They create or find a space that works for them. You will find when you get rid of distractions, your conversations become deeper and you have your student’s attention longer!

Engage Students In Good Questions

One of my pet peeves as a small group leader and student pastor is listening to small group questions that just are not good. Questions that don’t keep the kids thinking or engaging them in real life change. Making time for fun, and eliminating distractions will only take you so far. Imagine if you are able to create great questions. Questions that get the students to talk and think critically, and have those aha moments!

It is easy to create simply yes and no answers and sometimes these are good, but open ended questions–questions without one correct answer–are even better! Open ended questions engage students with their answers. The better the questions at getting them to think and respond, the better your discussions will be and more of their attention you will have!

Make the Lesson Relevant and Applicable

Teaching students is a great honor and responsibility, plus it is a lot of fun! Teaching students about what God wants for their life is the best job ever; however, at times it is a challenge. What I have learned is to make every effort in your study to create lessons that are relevant to student’s lives with tangible application. There will always be a place for strong Bible teaching and historical Bible study, but sometimes this doesn’t meet to happen in your large group settings. Who cares about the geography of Mt. Sinai or the history of the Babylonians, unless there is some connection to my life today!

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, for that the man of God may be throughly equipped for every good word.” Every scripture is important, and should be taught. But find ways to always bring it back to Jesus and the impact that text should have in the lives of your students. A simple idea to make sure you are doing this is to ask these questions withe every lesson you prepare:

• What do I want my students to know and why?
• Why do I want my students to know this?
• What do I want them to do with this lesson?
• Why do I want them to do this??

Finding Balance

I have seen these simple principles work in creating environments of balance. It does take some work on the youth leader’s part and the small group leader’s to incorporate these principles into a ministry.  But doing it will be so worth it! You will be able to have fun moments with students and teach them at the same time. Are you willing to try some of these principles? You may never know the life change that will happen if you do!

Vision, Volunteers and Communication

Last week, I was approached by a couple who serves in our student ministry. Through our conversation I was reminded of some very important leadership lessons.

I have been serving in a new ministry for two months. The man I followed had been serving and leading the ministry for 10 years and I had large shoes to fill–both good and bad ones. When I arrived there had been no one leading the student ministry for about six months. The parents, students and youth coaches were ready for a leader to come and lead. I held a leader meeting and had a few potential youth coaches show up. I explained my vision and what I expected of a youth coach.

I explained that rebuilding a ministry takes time, patience and willingness to make adjustments. We would focus on getting the ministry back to where it should and get the students excited again about coming and inviting their friends. We canceled small groups because there was no organized plan in place and no one could tell me who the group leaders were. So I canceled small groups. Gasp. I know a youth ministry without small groups what was I thinking? I promised they would be resurrected after we had volunteers in place and the purpose defined.

In the meantime the decision was made to keep things big. We have big teams for competition, big groups for application/discussion groups, big group games. Keeping things big creates excitement and energy, something the ministry needed. And this set the tone for my conversation with two key youth coaches.

They approached me with some concerns. They were concerned that everything was big and they missed the relational, smallness of what the youth group used be like. Instantly, I told myself not to get defensive and take this personally. I tried to encourage them to hang in there, and told them that I understand their concerns and agree with them that we are weak in the area of relationships. This was not new news to me but let them know that there is be a plan for start bringing the relational component back.

Here is what I relearned from this conversation:

Crystal Clear Vision

In any organization, vision is the driving force. It is behind every decision, every change, every action that takes place. Without a clear vision people don’t know what the organization stands for. They don’t know they “why” behind the “what.” Vision is everything. Some leaders know their vision and can see what they want their organization to be but haven’t articulated it clearly. Or they think they have, but the people they are leading are only vaguely aware of the vision.

Leaders--Let God guide your vision and determine what the vision is for your church or organization. Make sure you understand and have a firm grasp on your vision before you try to share it with others.

You Can Never Communicate Too Much

Communication is what takes your vision to the next level. Vision by itself isn’t going to do anything, it must be communicated. Once you have your vision and it is clear start telling everyone–your volunteers, staff, parents. Get everyone on the same page. People want to follow someone who is able to communicate where they are going and why. But many downfalls come when leaders don’t communicate their vision frequently enough. People need to be inspired and reminded often why they are doing what they are doing.

Leaders–Never be afraid to communicate your vision too much. People want to to follow a vision so communicate it. It doesn’t always have to be along vision talk or meeting. Let the vision communicate naturally out of your conversations, meetings and appointments.

Make Yourself Available

Availability is key to leadership, but there is always a balance. Some leaders guard their time and schedules so tightly that very people on their team are able to have face-to-face contact with that person. While other leaders are so free with their schedules that anyone can come and talk to them that the leader’s attention is quickly averted to putting out small fires rather than leading with the vision that God gave them. Both sides of the pendulum have pros and cons, and both types of leaders are valued and have a place in leadership circles, but I was reminded that I need communicate with my team that I am available to talk to them. I was not intentionally make myself unavailable but I also wasn’t intentionally make myself available. Teams need to know they can approach their leader and that the leader will keep open lines of communication.

Leaders–Guard your vision but don’t lose sight of those around you. Communicate with your team and allow them to communicate back to you. When it comes to the answering the “how” in your organization, your team most likely has some great insight and suggestions. You know the “why,” but at times as leaders we don’t know always how to carry that out. Listen to them and if they are not going to work for your organization, that’s ok. The will still feel empowered, and after all, true leaders are in the business of empowering others to lead!

Have you learned any important leadership lessons this week?