The start of a new year and a new school semester is a great time to evaluate and reflect on current practices. Many of us create personal and family resolutions in the new year, but this season also gives us a chance to think about how we are using our weekly Sunday School to minister to teenagers. These are a few strategies to consider when thinking about effectively reaching teens in the new year.
START SMALL
When we think about outreach and meeting the needs of teenagers it can become overwhelming thinking about ALL of the students we have the opportunity to serve. For most youth leaders, we start thinking of a huge evangelistic event with hundreds of teenagers coming to know Jesus. While that would be amazing, most youth groups I know are not resourced to produce such an event.
What if we started with 3-5 of the students we already know? If 3-5 sounds overwhelming, why not start with 1-2? The Sunday School/Small Group model is set up to handle this perfectly. It’s right there in the title: SMALL Group. If you lead a group of teenagers, you can start small. If you direct an entire Sunday School, you can encourage your teachers to start small.
Start small by investing in those few students and their spiritual development. Sunday School is one of the best times to start this process.
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
I fully understand, appreciate and value every area of ministry in the local church, but my passion and desire is to find other adults who have a calling to serve teenagers and their families. There is nothing more frustrating than serving in a ministry where God has not called you to serve. One of the key roles in reaching teenagers is to find adult leaders who are called to serve teenagers. Some of the greatest youth leaders didn’t start out as the greatest teachers. They became great through training and experience. The important value was their calling to minister to students. Adults who are recruiting others to teach youth based solely on great teaching credentials will not be successful at reaching teenagers. They must also look for adults who value building relationships. The small group experience each week gives teenagers consistency in who will be leading their group. Adults should always be mindful and careful when developing an above-reproach relationship with teenagers. There should be boundaries in place to make sure the teenager and adult is protected. These guidelines should be clearly outlined by church leadership.
USE EVENTS INTENTIONALLY
I am a big proponent of being creative and trying new ideas to teach students. However, I have sometimes relied a little too much on the gimmick and attraction events of youth ministry like these*:
– Ugly Christmas Sweater Contests
– Blacklight Dodgeball
– Christian Wrestling
– Costume Kickball
– Silent Disco
– American Ninja Warrior demonstration & testimony
– Setting a World Record
(*All of these are actual events I have done or seen at churches.)
All of these are valid, great ideas to get kids through the doors of your church. The question we need to ask ourselves is, “What are we going to do to keep them here?” The answer is always pointing them to Jesus. Don’t fall into the trap of being an event-driven youth ministry. Each event should have a specific plan or goal that supports the mission of connecting teenagers to your ministry.
Events and creative ideas should be used but that creativity shouldn’t stop at the event. My friend and discipleship team member at Texas Baptists, Jennifer Howington, wrote a post last month about “Five Ways to Engage Children in Sunday School” that I encourage you to check out. I believe applies to teaching teenagers as well.
THE FIRST PHONE CALL (OR TEXT)
As a youth leader reaching teenagers I challenge you to be the recipient of that first contact. Here’s an example of an adult youth leader being that first phone call. Several years ago there was a teenage girl in our youth ministry named Carrie and her Sunday School teacher was Donna. When Carrie’s mother was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor the first person Carrie wanted to talk about this was Donna.
This phone call didn’t happen simply because Donna was a great teacher and showed up consistently on Sundays.
This phone call and strong relationship developed over a series of months & years of Donna investing in the life of Carrie. Donna had NO idea when she met Carrie as a middle schooler that she would take on the role of surrogate mother during Carrie’s high school years.
Teenagers are going to go through trials and difficulties. They may not be as severe as a parent battling cancer. It could be a first heart break that you know will get better but they believe is the end of their world. It could be the death of a friend or family member. After that instance with Carrie and Donna, I challenged all of our adult leaders to be that First Phone Call (or Text) for the few teenagers they have built relationships with so that they would have the opportunity to minister to them in their time of need.
If we start small with the students who are already engaged in our ministry and build those relationships, we can leverage those relationships to create events and opportunities to bring other students to know Jesus. Youth ministries need to be the place where hurting teenagers come to be loved and cared for by adults leaders who will introduce them to a relationship with Jesus. The goal of reaching teenagers is that we point them to Jesus to make a difference in their lives for eternity.
Cory Liebrum is the Youth & Family Ministry Specialists for Texas Baptists. He can be reached at cory.liebrum@txb.org if you have any questions OR suggestions on how to reach teenagers.