Evaluating Your Ministry

Half of the school-year is through and we are going into 2013 in a hurry. This is a great time to regroup and evaluate how things are going in your youth or young adult ministry.

Here are some things/questions that you can think through during this time:

Volunteer Leaders – How are you doing with keeping them informed of what is going on? What is your communication like with them? Do you volunteers feel equipped? Are they getting what they need from you in order to effectively do their job? Do your volunteers feel that they are appreciated?

Your Students – Are the activities you are doing with the  your students geared towards their age? Are they balanced? (discussion opportunities, fun activities, mission opportunities, etc.) Do your students feel loved and cared for and know that the environment is a safe place to be? Are they inviting their friends?

Events – How would you rate your events based through the eyes of your  students? It’s important to think through their eyes, because us adults, especially the older we get, do see things differently. Ask your students after each event to either rate it or give some feedback of good and bad.

Programming – Is your programming age-based? Does it have a good flow from outsider towards insider? Does the programming you have accomplish the purpose that you have set out to have in your youth ministry? Is there any programs that need to be added or killed off? Do you have adequate staffing that is needed to make the programming work?

Parents  (especially for youth ministry) – Do the parents feel good about the youth ministry? What types of communication is happening with the parents? Do they only hear about the youth ministry from their teen’s perspective or do you also make communication with them? Do the parents participate in the youth ministry in any way? What can be done to help parents become even more involved? Should their be parent meetings or not?

Communication – What types of communication do you use? Be careful not to only just use one form of communication such as Facebook. Are you utilizing all the communication methods to cover all basis? Are your fellow co-workers informed of the stuff that is happening in your youth ministry? Does the senior pastor feel good about knowing what is happening? What are some ways to strengthen your communication to: parents, co-staff, volunteer staff, and students?

Spiritual Condition – What is your spiritual condition? Do you and your volunteers need to take a mini retreat somewhere? Are there leaders that you need to give a break to? How are your leaders doing spiritually? What needs to be done to become more spiritually in tune with Christ?

Physical Condition – Are you caring for yourself physically? Do you get enough exercise? Do you get enough sleep? Are you overly stressed? It is important to realize that you cannot care for others if you do not first care for yourself.  MAKE IT A PRIORITY!

If you have some other ideas and questions to think about – please leave a comment below and have some discussion about these things.

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)