Starting Over: "Strategery"

This is post #2 in my series attempting to address the question, "What would I do if I were starting a youth ministry from scratch- today?"  To read the introduction to this series simply click here.


Youth Ministry is not a simple thing.  There is no straight path guaranteed to produce the desired results in the students you work with.  The trail is filled with twists, turns, hills and roadblocks.  Our message- the message of Jesus - should never change.  But the way we deliver that message, the students, their families, their schools, their friends and their culture are constantly changing.  So if I begin a new ministry without a plan of action, without a method to my madness, then my chances of success are very low.  It is difficult to get where you re going if you have no idea where you hope to end up.  You've got have goals and a strategy.  Or as someone famously said, "Strategery."




There were really two concepts that formed my "strategery" for student ministry over the years, and the combination of those 2 would still be at the core of any ministry I was starting now. First of all, the ministry would be WHOLISTIC.  This made-up word simply means that we would attempt to set up the ministry in recognition that following Jesus involves your whole life.  This concept comes from the scripture found in 1 Thessalonians 2:8- "We love you so much that are delighted to share with you not only the Gopsel, but our very lives as well, because you have become so dear to us."  Our goal is to have students follow Jesus, not be religious.  When youth ministries focus entirely on "church stuff" they too often unwittingly teach the students they serve to put God in a box that only opens on Sundays.  We need to to teach them scripture and basic theology; we need to worship; we need to serve others.  But we also need to play together, to socialize together and to teach our students life and relationship skills, recognizing that "all good things come from God."  My new ministry would be no different.  We would be wholistic.

We would also be PURPOSE DRIVEN.  Not in the whole Saddleback model kind of way, but in the sense that we would put forth a vision that would establish goals and guide our programming.  By running every idea through our vision statement (like the one here from 2006 at TUMC-Waycross) before putting it in to practice, we know WHY we are doing what we do.  We would include the 5 essential purposes of the church- Fellowship (Connect), Evangelism (Refect), Service (Offer), Discipleship (Grow) and Worship (Praise).  We would begin to establish a lead program for each area.  This will insure that we remain wholistic while never ceasing to focus on Jesus.  


And finally (for today) I would need to recruit a team of volunteers to help carry out our vision.  In the case of a new start up like the one we are imagining, I would seek out some young adults I know (such as former youth) or students from a local college with a ministry program.  Over the years I found non-parent volunteers to be preferable to most parents- although some of my best team members were parents. Parents of teenagers often come with some baggage.  But whoever it winds up being, you need a team.  That's one huge difference from when I started 30 years ago.  Not only were you encouraged to be a "Lone Ranger" youth pastor, it was expected.  They were paying you to do it- why would you need help?  Now a team is mandatory.  And finding good help is a key to getting this new ministry up and running.


So we've got a "strategery" and we've got a Youth Ministry Team.  Next Friday we'll take a look at how I would put programs into place and get the word out that there's a new youth ministry in town.  I hope you'll join us!


Because of Jesus,