Promoting and Sustaining Youth Ministry

“In I859, Scientific America called chess, ‘a mere amusement of a very inferior character, which robs the mind of valuable time.’” First of all... that’s hilarious. Secondly, it illustrates the point that culture changes and in 2018 it changes faster than ever. I think these 4 tips for promoting youth ministries are thought provoking and could help us reach a whole new group of young people.  

I especially like the idea of getting students to help with promoting our youth ministries. Usually they are much more in tune.  

How do you promote and sustain your youth ministry?  

https://blog.capterra.com/ideas-for-youth-ministry/ 

A Youth Leader’s Open Letter

This resource article is a letter of sorts to the broader church. Written by a youth leader, this resource is a plea for the church as a whole to engage.  He writes “Youth Ministry is a Church wide ministry, not a separate entity.”  

I hope you’ll check out this resource and ask how your youth ministry could engage with the broader church.  

 https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2018/2-february/features/features/church-and-youth-what-i-wish-the-church-knew-about-young-people

Reading Scripture with Immigrants

 “Keep Listening, Never Stop Listening”  This is point number 3 in this article that shares the story of reading scripture with a population possibility very different than your own. What a joy and a privilege it can be to open up the bread of life with persons different from ourselves! Perhaps we can use those opportunities to learn about how God is moving and breathing into that person’s life. 

Check out this article to hear more of the story.  

https://fulleryouthinstitute.org/blog/scripture-and-immigrant-youth 

Training New Volunteers and Keeping Connected to the Existing Ones

I’m not sure what this looks like for you, but I found it challenging to keep my volunteers all on the same page all the time.  Often times I would wonder if the system we had in place was really working at all. This article does a great job of expressing some of the difficulties involved in training and keeping ministry volunteers, while also offering some suggestions on the best practices.  

I hope it will help us keep healthy ministry teams around us, because doing it alone just isn’t a viable option long term.  

https://www.breezechms.com/blog/3-essentials-for-training-church-and-ministry-volunteers/ 

Youth Ministry Summer To-Do List

I don’t know about you, but it’s been my experience that ministry is very seasonal.  There’s always something going on and something to prepare for, but some stretches of time are just naturally more busy than others. With that understanding, there are things that we should be doing this season that help set us up for success for the season that is ahead.   

The writer of this article lays out some things that she does every summer to prepare for the next year’s youth ministry. While not all of these will apply in every context, hopefully her list will help you think ahead to what you need to do this summer to prepare for the next season. 

https://stuffyoucanuse.org/9-things-i-do-every-summer/