We need Young Adults, What do we do?

In almost every church that I work with, people say, "We want to have a young adult ministry but we don't have any young adults in our church, what should we do?"Often the motivation behind the question is a survival-mode mentality. It is easy for leaders to be consumed with keeping the church doors open, that they believe if they can just get younger folks in the door that will solve their problem. However, this is the wrong motivation.

Young adult ministry is one of the most challenging ministries that a church can undertake.  Because of this challenge, not every church will be successful at launching and maintaining a young adult ministry. That being said, it does not mean that local churches can not be engaged in ministry with young adults in other creative ways.

The first thing that a local church needs to do is to figure out if there are young adults who live in their immediate area to which they can minister. There are many ways to find this information out from the very basic, knocking on doors and doing a door-to-door survey, to the high-tech of tracking U.S. Census data and statistics through free and/or subscription-based websites. Regardless of which way you go, you need to know what is going on in your community so that you can make the best ministry decisions for your church. If you find out that there are very few if any young adults in your area, trying to develop a young adult ministry in your church could find you frustrated and disappointed.

For churches who find that there are not young adults in there immediately area, you can still be engaged in ministry with young adults. Try connecting with other churches that do have young adults in their immediate area and help them with a collaborative ministry. Connect with a campus ministry at a nearby college or tech school and collaborate in ministry with them. A lot of campus ministry programs struggle financially so if there is some sort of financial help that you can provide them, in some small way you are being in ministry with young adults.

One of the biggest assets of the United Methodist Church is our connection. It allows many local churches to be in ministry in significant ways with a wide variety of people. To be the most effective in reaching young adults today, we need to seize on this asset. Just because “my” local church doesn't have young adults in it, doesn't mean that we can’t be an equal partner in ministry to young adults throughout the denomination.

Mentoring Youth

One of the most important programs that you can offer in your youth ministry is a solid mentoring program. Because youth crave relationships there is no better way to help satisfy that craving than with well developed long-lasting relationships with youth 

I would like to highlight the difference between mentors/counselors and chaperones. Regardless of how you refer to them, there are two types of adults who work with youth. Chaperones are adults who show up once in a while to help transport youth to events or act as extra eyes and ears during events. Typically chaperones don't develop long-lasting relationships with youth and usually only come to one or two programs a year. Whereas mentors/counselors invest time and energy in getting to know the youth in a particular youth program. They are heavily involved in the youth program and participate fully in the life of the youth ministry program. Both of these adult helpers are needed to develop a strong well-balanced youth ministry, however for the purposes of this article I'm going to be focusing in on mentors/counselors.

There are lots of biblical examples of mentors They include but are not limited to Moses and Aaron, Paul and Timothy, and Jesus and the Disciples. The main reason for having a mentoring program in the youth ministry is to provide youth another adult that they can approach when they need to reach out about a problem or situation that they may be going through.When thinking of the youth mentoring program there are a few basic things that you should keep in mind. This certainly is not a complete list. 

1. Picking the Right People- Unlike chaperones, mentors need to be picked with specific skills in mind. They need to have a love of youth ministry and be willing to develop relationships with youth. They should be of the highest moral fiber that you can fine within your local church and they themselves should be able to articulate their faith in a cohesive and meaningful way. Don't just pick warm bodies!!!

2. Basic Training - Before starting a mentoring program, do some basic training with your mentors. That training should include a basic course on keeping children safe. A very good program the United Methodist Church uses is "Safe Sanctuaries" by Joy Thornburg Melton. A program like this is going to help mentors who have never done it before know the ins and outs of what they should and should not do with you. Other programs have similar trainings that you could look into using as well.

3. Develop Meaningful Relationships - The whole point of the mentoring program is to develop solid relationships with youth within your local congregation. Having children understand that there is at least one other adult in the congregation who loves them and cares for them other than their parents goes along way in satisfying the need to connect and develop lasting relationships. As I think back on my youth experience, I still keep in contact with several youth directors that I had and youth mentors who helped me develop a sense of myself.

Youth mentoring is not for everyone. Picking the right people to mentor the youth in your youth program is going to be critical and should be done with care and prayer.

Resource Review: Credo Confirmation Program

As a United Methodist pastor, I am constantly looking for creative and innovative programs to use for my confirmation classes. Now more than ever, churches and church leaders need relevant tools to help reach the youth of today and make it exciting for them to want to be a part of the Christian church.

There is a new confirmation curriculum that has recently hit the market entitled "Credo." This program is structured around three core principles: knowing your story, confirming your faith and living your commitment. Within each of these core principles there are six sessions (lessons) making a total of 18 sessions. The kit includes a director’s notebook, participant journal and a guide for parents, mentors and adult leaders.

This program includes several exciting parts, including the three core principles. Several other options on how to present the material in the solid mentoring program places his confirmation material miles above others that have been used before However, the proof is in the pudding. For each session it outlines exactly what supplies you will need, what the overall lesson will include, an emphasis on worship and a way for the kids to take what they've learned and put it into active service. The lessons are straightforward and easy for anyone to lead.

Overall I would rate this program pretty high. Compared with the other options that are available, this program has great potential. If there is a negative that I could find, it would be that it is a bit expensive. But if you look at it being a resource that you will enjoy for many years to come, the price is worth it. 

Creative Programming: Interview with an Atheist

As most youth leaders know, trying to come up with creative discussion programs is very challenging. You will be able to get youth out to fun activities and possibly even service projects, but getting them engaged in a good discussion-style program is very challenging. The trick is picking a program and "marketing it" in a way that gets the youth and their parents talking.

Several years ago, I was serving a local church that had a pretty active program. I had no problem getting youth out to do fun activities that we planned, but it was like pulling teeth to get them out to Bible studies or discussion programs. One of the challenges was that most of the youth had difficulty sharing their faith with others. Now I could have developed a program, called it "Faith Sharing 101" and lead a very good program on how to witness to others. But I knew that would've gone over like a lead balloon.

Instead, I discovered an intriguing idea from the Youth Specialties Ideas Library. One of the program discussion ideas was to have an "Interview with an Atheist." The basic idea was to get someone to play the role as an atheist. You would invite them to come to one of your programs and be interviewed like one of those late-night talk shows.You could ask them questions like "Why are you an atheist?", "What do atheists believe?", "How long have you been an atheist?", etc. Then after you spend some time "interviewing" you would get the individual to share their own faith story.I was shocked at how popular this program was. I had parents who wanted to come and hear what the atheists had to say, and I had kids who got upset when the atheists shared why he believed what he believed. They were by default defending their faith without realizing it.

Needless to say, it was the most well-attended discussion program I had during my whole time at the church.To make it more believable I invited a my father-in-law, who they had never met, to play the role as the "atheist"(it also helped that he had an acting background). So if you like me had difficulty getting youth to come out for discussion programs, try doing something creative like this to hit home the values you want them to learn. The sky is the limit.

Word of Caution: Be sure to clear any creative program like this with the senior pastor of your church or the youth advisory board that you use to help with your planning. It will save you a lot of headaches in the future.