Chuck Knows Church

A colleague of mine found this funny but informative video blog entitled "Chuck Knows Church." What I like about it is that it teaches some basic Christian Education in a fun way that young people can really relate to.

I hope you enjoy it!

www.chuckknowschurch.com

3 Practical Ways to Do Student Ministry Right

Youth ministry can be a challenging but rewarding experience. To make the most of this calling here are some practical ways you can do that ministry.

1) Talk through the calendar before you go public with it.
One of the biggest things I learned at my second church was making sure you clear your ministry calendar with your family calendar first. This will save you a ton of headaches as you navigate little league, board meetings, and  those  pesky things like birthdays and anniversaries. The 24 hours it takes to complete this step are critical to success in youth ministry life. Trust me.

2) Establish some (mostly) non-negotiable family boundaries.
What night is your date night? How many nights of the week are you out doing church stuff? When is the best time for the family to be all together? There has to be grace and flexibility on a regular basis, but outline what are the non-negotiables and create some boundaries for yourself in ministry. If you skip this step, you’re going to say “yes” to everything and “no” to your family. (my family used to call me "Mr.-meets-a-lot")

3) Build a team and empower them to help carry the load.
Youth ministry is bigger than one person—if it’s all about you, prepare for burnout. You can hang on for a while, but while you hang on, you’ll also bottle-neck growth in your ministry and other leaders. You are cheating others out of the opportunity to become leaders if you micromanage your ministry. Empower others to take significant parts of the ministry so that you don't have to.

Great Youth Ministry Websites

Here are just a few web sites for adult youth works / parents of youth to check out.

Youth Ministry Exchange
By youth workers and for youth workers, YMX is the place to discuss all things youth ministry, with thousands of threads on every imaginable subject. Some sections are free, but a $5 annual pass gets you access to the whole thing—and it’s totally worth it.

The Source for Youth Ministry
Jonathan McKee started this site (formerly Jonathan’s Resources) as a labor of love for youth workers. Chock full of free resources and ideas (the game section alone is amazing).

The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding
This website, from CPYU founder Walt Mueller, is really for parents, but youth workers find it extremely helpful. It’s loaded with blogs, articles, links to relevant stories, and more resources than you can imagine to help you learn about youth culture

YouthMinistry.Com
When Group Publishing partnered with Doug Fields’s Simply Youth Ministry, they resurrected this long-dormant domain to create a new site, distinct from their two other sites. They’re just beginning to move from a commerce-only site to a content-and-commerce site.

Youth Specialties  

Truly my favorite for all things concerning youth ministry, with thousands of pages of articles, ideas, and free stuff—plus the most comprehensive youth-ministry job bank anywhere (with over 700 listings at any time).

Division of Ministrywith Young People (DMYP)

This is the United Methodist General Church’s web site for youth and young adults. It features youth ministry that is happening globally and how your local church can get involved.

Building a Team of Veteran Volunteers

Every ministry has its fair share of transient leaders-those volunteers who serve for a year or 2 before moving on to another area of ministry. Older high school students who volunteer during their senior year before heading off to college and parents of junior highers who serve for a year or 2 while their child is in the ministry, are the two predominant transient leaders in many cultures.

While there’s certainly no “silver bullet” for creating a team of ministry veterans, there are some things that you can do to be successful at building a team of veteran volunteers.

Focus on relationships more than on formal training.

If relational ministry is the type of youth ministry we acknowledge is best, then it would make sense that a relational approach to building a leadership team would take the same approach.

Empower like crazy.

I believe in the power of giving ministry away. As long as it fits within your purpose/strategy/mission/vision…Go for it! If you are a leader of a ministry team working with youth and young adults view yourself more as coach and encourager instead of a ball-hogging quarterback.

Share life.

As your team grows this becomes harder to do, but I found that a good chunk of our veteran leaders have stuck around because of the friendships that we’ve formed outside the walls of the church and activities of the youth ministry.

You are a Professional

Quality leaders want to be a part of something they perceive as being somewhat professional. Doing background checks, having good training, having clear guidelines, having their backs, and having a clearly articulated and understandable mission and vision. These are the kinds of things that quality leaders look for and want to be a part of.

Healthy, veteran volunteer leadership teams don’t happen overnight. Be patient, intentional in your efforts, and don’t quit when the going gets tough. Building a team of veterans is hard work… But it might be the most important and most rewarding hard work you ever do!

Think Big

There is a tension most youth workers face in a smaller ministry setting: They want their group to be bigger! Ironically most youth workers in a large setting face a similar tension: They want to be (or at least feel) smaller!  So if you are leading a smaller ministry, here are a few “big thinking” ideas that will help you where you’re at, and help pave the way for where you’re heading:

Think About Infrastructure
As you grow, how many volunteers will you need? Start recruiting volunteers now, so you are ready when growth happens. How will your follow up strategy need to evolve? Start tweaking it now! Do you have room to grow or will you need to ask to move your ministry to a larger broom closet? What will growth demand of your budget? These are just a few areas of infrastructure worth thinking about in bigger ways while you’re still smaller.

Think About Scalability
Look at virtually every aspect of your ministry and ask yourself if it’s scalable…in other words, can it handle a growth spurt? Pretend 10 new students joined your small groups—could your current system handle it?  Thinking big means organizing in such a way that growth can be accommodated without completely upsetting the apple cart. 

Think About Communication
More students, more problems! And one of the biggest problems larger youth groups have is in the area of communication. As your group grows, gone will be the good old days of calling every student once a week, or taking each volunteer out to lunch on a regular basis. You won’t be able to stop each parent in the church foyer to touch base.

The good news is we minister in an era that has seemingly unlimited tools and technology to meet our communication needs. Start experimenting now, so you are ready when growth arrives.

Prepare now for the students that God will trust you with in the future. Get ready…because they're on their way!

(I got these ideas from a weekly e-mail that I get about youth and young adult ministry)

Social Media's Impact on Personal Relationships

There is a great post over on ChurchMag.  They highlight the amount of time spent on social media and ask the question, How much is too much?  Check out the infographic and let me know what you think.

Stretching Your Budget

The economy doesn’t seem to be recovering as fast as we would like and church budgets are tighter than ever. Here are 6 ideas to help get the most out of every buck your church entrusts to you (if you’re fortunate enough to even have a budget):

Break-even Events

When you plan an event, make out a realistic budget and set a goal for how many students will attend. Some simple division and boom - you have the price point. Now stick to your budget and you won’t have to spend a dime beyond everyone’s admission. Obviously you’ll want to make sure the event is priced fairly, so do your best to balance the “bang for the buck” factor and still break even.

Cut back on Programming

A great way to stretch your budget is simply to hack away at what eats up chunks of budget in the first place. What are you doing that is ineffective and is taking dollars away from what is working? Would now be the right time to kill the program and redirect those funds to the right place? Use budget choices as a great excuse to let a sacred cow die.

Think Free First

The internet has made so many things free at your fingertips. You can get free texting, free polls, free Bible software, and so much more, at the click of the mouse! Before you buy, see if you can get it somewhere else for free.

Develop a Resource Team

These are the people in your church who don’t necessarily have the time to serve at youth group or go to camp as a counselor but they do have access to the stuff you might need. Develop a short list of resourceful or inventive people you can call on when you’re looking for random items like coolers or snow chains.

Double Dip – If you do have to buy something, think long term about how you can use an item again down the road. Are there other ministries in the church who can split the cost with you? If you do “share” this item, be sure to offer to store it when it isn’t being used so you have easy and primary access when needed.

Never Pay Full Price – Planning ahead allows you to order online from the least expensive reputable retailer. You might be able to get that video camera even cheaper/slightly used on eBay or Craig’s List, a quick search and you’re all set with a deal far better than the retailer down the street. And if you prefer to buy from a physical store, be sure to comparison shop and take the best price you’ve found on an item to your favorite store….they will likely match the price.

(I got these ideas from a weekly e-mail that I get about youth and young adult ministry)

3 Practical Teaching Tips When Speaking to Students

One of the key roles of a youth worker is speaking to teenagers. For some this is a gift that comes naturally—lots of youth workers are gifted speakers, while others have had to learn how to communicate effectively to an audience. Regardless of your skill level, these tips will either affirm what you’re already doing or help you push forward in your skills to speaking/preaching/teaching.

Find Your Own Preferred Style

Everyone has a preferred style of taking notes or jotting down reminders. Whatever your preferred style, go into a meeting with the student with some key points that you want to address with them. These could be questions, concerns, etc. If you must, you can out a manuscript so that you don’t miss anything, however, this seems less spontaneous and more like a lecture so be careful.

Practice It Once or Twice By Yourself

Prepare your lesson early enough to provide time to run over the talk out loud as if you were giving it live on stage. Work on your delivery, and add new thoughts and ideas to your outline as you progress through the run-through. So often great lines, dramatic pauses, or a fresh idea come through when you’re practicing. Too often what looks good on paper doesn’t work verbally, so get the kinks out before you’re in front of your students.

Debrief Your Talk

There’s nothing more valuable than being able to critique your self after a talk. Find someone that you trust and will in a loving but direct way share with you their thoughts about your talk. Debriefing your talk can help you improve how you give future talks, so this is very important. I find that my wife is a good person to do this with. She serves as a pastor and is a very good speaker herself. You may even want to get one of your youth leaders to help you with this process. However you debrief your talk… Do it! You’ll improve greatly if you open yourself up for honest feedback. The truth of the matter is this: People are critiquing you anyway; why not give them permission to share their observations!

(I got these ideas from a weekly e-mail that I get about youth and young adult ministry.)

Members of the Body Video

This is a skit that interprets the Scripture from 1 Corinthians 12, "One Body, Many Members." This could be used as a devotional concerning this Scripture or as an idea to incorporate youth into worship.

Special thanks to the Buffalo United Methodist Church Youth from Minnesota for coming up with this idea and using it as a devotion on their Mission Trip to Henderson Settlement, a United Methodist Outreach Program in the Redbird Missionary Conference in Kentucky.

Saying Thanks

Youth ministry programs can be very busy. This is especially so if you are a volunteer. It often feels as though you’re just moving from one activity to the next with hardly any time to catch your breath. With all this hustle and bustle of activity it is easy to forget  a simple “thank you” to the folks serving alongside you. My wife reminds me on a regular basis that it is always a good thing to say thank you and to apologize (but that’s another blog article for another time). Saying thank you to those that you work with can be a very powerful motivational tool that you cannot forget about, so here are a few tips on ways that you can thank people in special ways:

Say Thanks to Those Who Worked the Hardest.
In addition to a quick word of thanks, consider a hand-written note to those who gave their blood, sweat, and tears for this particular event. Keep the faithful happy and loved and they’ll serve you well for years to come. When you go the extra mile with the highly committed…they will likely go many more miles with your ministry!

Save Thanks to Those Who Usually Go Unnoticed.
The janitor who cleans the carpet after a 7th-grader spilled fruit punch. The church bus driver who has to navigate traffic while listening to your group sing One Direction songs at the top of their longs. The mom who slaved in the kitchen to bake goodies for your bake sale. When you remember the people so easily forgotten, it makes a huge impact. So think back over your event and think of people who are too often invisible and show them a little love.

Say Thanks for No Reason.
“No reason” thanks are the best. Say thanks as a surprise. Say thanks when it’s unexpected. Say “I noticed” when you see something that needs to be affirmed.

Make a list today of those you need to thank for this past school year. Keep a running list of the people who contribute this summer and make sure you say thanks to them, too.

I would end this article with a special thanks to you for your support by reading this blog.

THANK YOU!

Keep the Momentum Going All Year Long

As we begin another school year—for us it is easily the biggest time of the year. We've got momentum from school, the chaos of summer vacations is behind us, new friendships are forming, and faith is being shared regularly. Then come the Christmas slowdown and the spring, when seniors start setting adrift and checking out.

Is it possible to have fall-like energy throughout the year? How do we keep momentum going all year long?

NO, YOU CAN'T

Realize that the cycles of youth group are real—that there are seasons of ministry when you won't feel the momentum and when the attendance will dip. Honestly, there isn't much you can do about it, except strive for health and remain calm if you have a few more empty seats than normal. When attendance dips, take the time to build an infrastructure to better support growth in the big season ahead.

YES, YOU CAN

So once you've got a firm grip on reality, know that there are a few things you can do to at least help the situation in the future

1) Plan big events at key times

We only do a few events a year, and they are totally supplemental to our ongoing programs (youth group and small groups). But when we have them, they are at crucial times when we need a boost. In late October we have Pumpkinfest to help carry momentum through the slow holiday season.

2) Plan a key series at a typically low time

In our high school ministry we planned a series called You Own the Weekend that is built around student involvement and friendship that takes attendance way up in a time that is usually painfully low. Think creatively about a teenager's specific felt-need when you don't naturally have momentum.

So is it possible to keep momentum going in your youth ministry?

Attitude Video

Below is a video that I shot while teaching Youth Leadership Camp for the Susquehanna Conference Camping Program concerning attitude. I hope you enjoy.

10 Back To School Kick Off Ideas Youth Ministry

1. Barbarian Hyped Up Capture The Flag – this is a fun crazy spin-off of capture the flag sure to get the blood pumping. It takes a little prep work, but it’s definitely a fun one.
2. Before School Phone Blast – Blast an encouraging txt message to your students before they go to school to encourage them to live for Jesus! If your group is a little big or if you want to send group text messages – then read my post about Youth Ministry Text Messaging Service where you can txt your group all at once. Another idea along the same lines is to record a voice message every morning and encourage them to call in and listen to encourage them. I would try to keep it to 5min.
3. Do a Lock-In After See You At The Pole – I’m enouraged that lots of students and youth ministries still participate at SYATP – but why stop there? Since SYATP is still early in the fall – you can do a lock-in that Friday – the same week as SYATP. This year besides Survivorz Lock-in (which is a blast) you may opt-in for something more outreach oriented like Supernatural Event. SYATP is a cool public display and also a cool platform to have the students in your community hand out flyers or txt their friends about Supernatural Event. I want to emphasize that Supernatural Event is for the non-church student so there needs to be a well explained plan to your leadership and Christian teens on what it is about and the purpose of how it can reach out to students in your community – could be very powerful and start off your year winning souls to Jesus!
4. Bigger or Better – This is a fun activity where you break your group into smaller groups so that they can fit in cars and then each team starts with 1 penny and is set out to go knock on doors and introduce themselves to let the people know that they need something bigger or better then the penny (or whatever they currently have after the penny). Give them a time limit and award a prize for the team that has come up with the biggest thing and the team that has come up with the better thing. Sometimes the big is also better so just use your best judgement on how you want to handle that.
5. Church Sponsors – take a photo of each student and have them fill out a card – try to keep things in order to make it easier to match the pic with the card (some churches have software programs to plug people in along with info). Then assign each student with an adult sponsor in the church. The adult sponsor is responsible for praying for the student throughout the school year and you can take it a step further where they meet the student for lunch once a month or twice a school year. Stick to your church policies about background checks and such because you just never know. This can be a great way though for the adults in the church to get know and pray for the student ministry.
6. Progressive Dinner To Meet All The Youth Sponsors – A cool way for you to introduce your sponsors for the year would be to set up a progressive dinner where the students start at one place with say dessert and then move on to the next place main dish and each place they visit is also a youth sponsor (when I say youth sponsor – I’m meaning a youth leader volunteer for your youth ministry). The youth can then connect better with who the sponsors are so that when they head into their small groups – they feel like they at least know them a little more. Relationship builder and dinner = 2 for 1 SUPER AWESOMENESS!
7. Fastest Text In The West – Or east or south or middle or north lol. To make this work a little better – divide into 2 – 5 teams and select one person as the texter for the whole group. The group that texts you the quickest with the right answer wins points or a prize or candy. You can go at it for say 10 questions or two rounds. You can also style it by making it like your favorite game show such as jeopardy or family feud.
8. Messy Olympics – Since we just came off an Olympic summer – this may be something they are in the mood for – plus its messy – so definitely take some pictures – it will be fun to have those posted for the school year.
9. Facebook Status Outreach Challenge – This activity is a challenge – guys vs gals to see who can by Facebook status update bring the most friends in within 1 hour. Structure what they need to say for there status update like: “Hey we are doing a girls vs guys challenge to see who can bring in more friends to [ such and such place] and the winning side gets free ice cream. The challenge ends in 1 hour from this post. please help us girls/guys win.” Or something similar. Have each group cheer when a new girl/guy comes through the door. You may just be surprised that you need to pay for 1000 ice cream cones, but you also will have made some new connections with students you may haven’t known before.
10. Year Long Group Art Project – This is a cool idea that helps build and promote community in your youth ministry. Start your year by starting some type of art project that the students can build either 15min every week or a whole youth ministry evening once a month or somewhere in-between. Maybe it’s building something like the last supper (life size) out of news paper, or Jesus on the cross using play-dough. Come up with some type of project that will take your group a school year to complete – you will be glad you did.

How to Communicate with Students

Here are some ways to communicate with students—ways that are Hot or Not. 

HOT: Facebook
This is where our money is at right now—the highlight of the tools we’re using to communicate with students. The only downside is that a youth ministry page requires constant updates and management to really be effective. And there’s a desire to spend time on our OWN pages instead of building up the church site. Facebook is where it’s at, so get on board to get it mastered just in time for your students to move on to something else.

NOTE: Our junior high ministry uses Facebook, but not as strategically as high school. We walk a fine line due to the reality that Facebook has age restrictions, but most junior highers are still there.

NOT: Email
When you’re communicating to parents, email is as hot as can be. The older people get the more possessive/stagnant they become with technology. Students on the other hand are quick to jump on what is next, usually before adults have even heard of it. If you are emailing students and it is working, realize that it is a miracle of God and won’t last very long. Email is out.

HOT: Texting
Probably right up there with Facebook is texting—it comes in two flavors: individual and mass, and both work incredibly well. Use a service like Simply Text or Duffled to build a list of everyone, and don’t discount the power of a personal text from their small group leader or youth pastor. Texting is where it is at right now for sure. 

NOT: Paper
You’ve gotten very good at Publisher 2003. I get it. You like clip art and flyers made on the church photocopier. We do too, but those days have past. Sorry to be the one to break it to you.

HOT: Facebook event pages
Different from your main Facebook page are the event pages you create for service projects, mission trips, or special events. These are usually syncing with many students’ phones now, so you get calendar reminders as well as triggers built into to social media. A classic win-win-win situation.

HOT: Calendars
Calendars, if they make it home, have a tremendous return. Put a magnet on the back and you might get on the refrigerator for 2-3 months!

NOT: mass postcards in the mail
The shelf life is just too short for a postcard for a series and the cost is typically prohibitive, too. I love these and am sad to see them already fading out, but unless you’ve got cash to spare or a cheap printer to crank them out this one is dropping quickly.

HOT: individualized postcards from small group leaders
This one will never go out of style. Try it out this week: Pick up some postage-paid postcards and scribble out a few handwritten notes this week and see if it works. Or just trust us…no technology will ever replace the power of a handwritten note!

(I got these ideas from a weekly e-mail that I get about youth and young adult ministry)

Great Resources for Students

Here are some great resources to get in the hands of your students.

1-Minute Bible by Doug Fields
You've committed yourself to more Bible reading plans than you care to admit, and you're 187 chapters behind in your latest attempt. If this sounds familiar, then the One Minute Bible for Students is what you need to get back and stay on track. Do the math. There are 1400 minutes in a day. It will take you One Minute to read a passage of Scripture.

Student Leaders Start Here by Leader Treks
Student Leaders Start Here is a practical, interactive workbook, to help students grow in leadership. It focuses on three topics that are crucial for developing as a leader, and gives students a personal leadership profile for their strengths and growth areas in each topic. Give this book to the individual student who is growing in leadership, or use it in your student leadership team and small groups when you follow the bonus pages for small group facilitators. 

Stripped Clean by Jeff Storm
Give your teenagers a guilt-free, up-close look at materialism—one that strips away the overwhelming messages of a consumer society. You'll see authentic changes in readers as they tear out pages to use in Jesus-centered activities 

Case for Christ Student Edition by Lee Strobel
Who Was Jesus? A good man? A lunatic? God? There's little question that he actually lived. But miracles? Rising from the dead? Some of the stories you hear about him sound like just that—stories. A reasonable person would never believe them, let alone the claim that he's the only way to God! But a reasonable person would also make sure that he or she understood the facts before jumping to conclusions. That's why Lee Strobel—an award-winning legal journalist with a knack for asking tough questions—decided to investigate Jesus for himself.

Live Large. Be Different. Shine Bright. By Josh Griffin and Doug Fields
In Live Large. Be Different. Shine Bright., Doug Fields and Joshua Griffin share about some important character qualities that will help teenagers live large, be different, and shine bright. A lot of what Doug and Joshua write about doesn't seem to get much sermon time, but these topics are definitely worthy of consideration and experimentation—topics like competition, laughter, cliques, encouragement and several others will help teenagers in the process of being a more vibrant follower of Jesus. 

More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell
With almost 10 million copies in print, More Than a Carpenter continues to be the most powerful evangelism tool worldwide. Josh McDowell's timeless examination of the true nature of Christ and his impact on our lives is one of the best-selling Christian books ever. Written by a former skeptic of Christianity, it is a hard-hitting book for those who doubt Jesus' deity and his purpose. 

Your Own Jesus by Mark Hall
A true storyteller and a teacher with a heart for ministry, Mark Hall traces the downward spiral caused by spiritual compromise with the world, and then charts the upward road to wholeness and restoration that comes when we claim our very own Jesus. When that happens, believers experience authentic fellowship with the one living God. Through fascinating personal stories, scriptural insights, and discussion questions for practical interactive study, Your Own Jesus: Student Edition will set readers free to live without compromise with the Jesus they come to know intimately and love fully.

Middle School Survival Series by Kurt Johnston, Mark Oestreicher, and Scott Rubin
There are six books in this series: My Faith, My Family, My Friends, My School, My Changes and My Future.  Each book consists of 72 easy-to-read mini chapters written specifically for young teens.

4 Ways to Be More Relational in Your Young People's Ministry

1)  Add a “welcome time” to youth group each week.
We’ve all seen this before, the “shake hands with 15 people around you” but when used sparingly it can be really effective. As your group grows, it’s surprisingly easy for the “basics” like a warm greeting to slip through the cracks! Our students have come to love this time—we’ve expanded it to several minutes so that people can actually have a short conversation rather then just a cursory greeting. This is a great chance for introductions to be made, too! We have a volunteer every week who works hard to get to know someone new and makes it a point to introduce them to us specifically each week.

2) Have everyone in place before and after the service.
If you are still running around finalizing details of your program when everyone is coming in, it’s gonna be tough to be relational! Work hard to do program-related stuff before students arrive; if you’re still dialing things in as they’re walking in, it’s simply too late. And tell everyone on your volunteer team they are “dead to each other” once youth group starts.

3) Build down time to hang at every event.
If you’re at a youth conference, camp, or other big event, the planners have been paid to fill up every waking moment with something. In many cases, youth leaders choose a late-night option or yet another training session when what the group might need is some discussion time. Maybe a break is in order, and you need to ditch a session and go get some frozen yogurt and just talk over what they’ve already learned. Relational ministry fights the go, go, go approach.

 4) Train your leaders in the art of asking good questions.
Help your leaders ask good questions—open-ended questions that require thoughts instead of a simple yes or no. Help them have an instantly ready queue of questions to ask someone they are meeting for the first time. Give them the tools to help them fight the awkward silences of first getting to meet someone.

(I got these ideas from a weekly e-mail that I get about youth and young adult ministry)

How to Start a Parent Ministry

Every good youth program needs to take into consideration how they will minister to the parents of their students. If you don't minister to the parent as well as your student, you are missing some great opportunities to reinforce the values you want to teach. Here are a few just on how to create a ministry to parents.

First…focus on the obvious. 
Before you accomplish some grand vision of partnership with parents, think about the obvious places parents are looking for help: The transition from elementary school to junior high, from junior high to high school, and from high school to college are all massive for parents.

What do they need? 
Talk to parents and see what they would like or need. The last thing you want is to create an event or program they feel they don't need. Trust us, we've done that several times and it's humiliating. Talk to some core parents, and some on the fringe, and ask them to give you a perspective of what would be beneficial to their family. 

Communicate 
You could probably start a text message list quickly and cheaply and take a huge leap forward. Maybe start a blog that shares what you taught at youth group last week—maybe with a few discussion questions for parents to follow-up with during the week. As you come across great resources for parents, consider posting a list in the church bulletin board (virtually or the one in the hallway). Start with a couple easy things to begin partnering with parents. 

When their child starts taking sports seriously, starts working for the first time, or has his/her first serious relationship. If a family is going through a divorce, death or other traumatic event, there are lots of obvious, and very natural, places for you to begin ministering to parents without the formalities of meetings and newsletters!

10 Ideas for Creating Cross-Generational Youth Ministry

Cross-generational or intergenerational ministry is more than just different age groups inhabiting the same space (as happens often in our worship experiences). Rather, its providing opportunities for Christians of all generations to engage each other in experiences that build relationships and a deeper sense of the Church as one body in Christ. Below are 10 ideas for engaging in cross-generational youth ministry.  Not all may work for your setting as each context is different. But perhaps these will inspire you to seek new opportunities to provide a deeper sense of oneness as a church.

Talk About It - Before initiating any grand scheme to develop cross-generational ministry, it can be helpful to find opportunities to speak with staff members, church leaders, and groups within your congregation about the rationale for moving away from segregated youth programming.

Ease into It - As the cross-generational approach may be a new idea for many, it might be best to resist the urge to jump in with both feet, tossing out your old approach entirely. Start with a fellowship event or perhaps a short-term joint study opportunity for mixed ages.  Let others experiences what this new approach can be and they will hopefully become advocates for the cause.

Adopt-a-grandparent - Call upon your youth to adopt an elder member of your congregation and invite them to show that person special care. This could include sitting with them in worship, inviting them to come to a youth gathering, or sending them a card on their birthday or when they are ill.

Adopt-a-youth - The reverse idea works as well. Invite adults in your congregation to adopt youth and be part of a ministry of nurture to your teens. I'd suggest that these persons not be the same adults who already serve in your youth ministry program.  The more adults who are connected in meaningful ways with your teens, the better.

Art Experiences - Like the guys I mentioned at the top of this post, engaging people of all ages in experiences of art-making is a great way to break down barriers.  Group art projects allow everyone to play a part while providing time for conversation and community-building.

Joint Mission Trips - I'm a big proponent for ending the "youth mission trips" that have been such a standard component of youth programming for a long time now and moving toward mission opportunities that invite all ages in the church to participate.  Nothing builds community faster between the ages than travelling together and working side-by-side to help those in need.

Cross Generational Camps/Retreats - In the St. Louis area, the Disciples of Christ congregations are planning our second annual cross-generational church camp experience. Last summer we gathered at retreat center for a week of camp for all ages. We had everybody from babies to senior citizens. We ate together, played together, and worshipped together while still providing opportunities for children, teens, and adults to spend time in their separate age groupings. The evaluation of the event was unanimously positive from all ages and for this summer we are developing even more opportunities to help make the event truly cross-generational.

Youth Leadership - One of the best ways for older teens to begin to learn what the real work of the Church is all about is to invite them to be part of your church leadership teams and ministries.  Rather than having them sit on the sidelines waiting to same day take part in work of the church, invite youth right now to lend their ideas and voices to your outreach ministry, your worship planning, your church board.  In our congregation, one of our oldest senior high youth is co-chair of the Christian education ministry team.

Music Experiences - A great way to cross the generational divide is through music. Create opportunities, perhaps even an old-fashioned hymn sing, in which older generations can share hymns of the past and younger generations can introduce adults to more contemporary Christian songs.  In fact, if teens share music they learned at church camp they may be surprised to find that many adults learned those very same songs at camp, too!

Small Groups - Many of our congregations have small groups meeting on and off the church site all the time. Why not create a few groups which are intentionally cross-generational and purposefully recruit both adolescent and adult group participants? Provide opportunities for them to study the Bible, work on a mission project or read together a book that will challenge all ages while inviting lots of conversation and meaningful fellowship.

What are your ideas?


(this is a reprint of an article that I read from rethinkingyouthministry.com)