I love my job as a Jr. High youth pastor. It is amazing to see how God can use me to minister to students. It is the norm for these kids to show up Sunday mornings, falling over in their chairs because they are so tired, and doing my best to disciple them and entertain them at the same time. The students seem to love their small groups, mainly because they get to hangout with their friends, but for the life of me, I can not get them excited and signed up for special events.
We have a great event, or so I thought, coming up and thought the students would love it but I cant get them to sign up (especially the guys.)
What do I need to do? Do I need to spice up the announcements? I do have wonderful memories of singing the announcements to the tune of breakaway by Kelly Clarkson. Videos?
I would say all churches have this problem but I know that's not the case. I have worked at other churches. It seemed to not be an issue.
All right, if you are one of the 3 youth pastors who reads this blog, help a brother out.
Even if you have never worked in ministry and have no idea what I'm talking about, I would still love your ideas. Thanks!
5 comments:
I'd say this is an issue in most churches, especially nowadays. I've discovered the same thing here and I've thought maybe it's a high school student thing (as opposed to jr. high). But maybe not.
Anyways, three thoughts:
1. Students don't sign up individually; they sign up in groups. Implication: personally go after key students and it will have a ripple effect.
2. Make sure students have some type of ownership in the event. If it's their idea or they have a role to play, they're more likely to be involved.
3. Experiment. If one thing doesn't work, try something else next time
onI agree with #2....
Almost every successful event were the ones the kids voted on doing...sometimes we think we know what they like but we dont think like 12 year olds anymore!
Get the girls, the guys will come. In fact, the girls will come to anything already. Quit announcing the event, just give the headcount of the girls that are attending.
Seriously? I think it has more to do with messaging:
1) Is there another way I can communicate to make the point?
2) Am I announcing everything and diluting what are the REALLY important announcements?
3) The parents are the gatekeepers of the kids, maybe less to students and more to parents.
Thoughts?
JG
blog
email
SMS (text messages)
physical mail
personal contact
word of mouth
easy to navigate website
tattoos
tag their house
scrolling PPT announcements
rap videos
interpretive dance announcements
randomly inserted in worship
print it on a frisbee
parent newsletter
bleed it
JG
I say don't take yourself too seriously. There is no where in the Bible that says kids have to go to youth group. Your job is to offer opportunities for kids who are ready to take them.
If kids don't want to go, it's kind of there perogative. Granted it is fun when a big group attends an event, but if just a few go, there are some greater opportunties to go deep with them.
I think it's time youth ministers stopped taking on the responsible for getting kids to attend events and stopped feeling guilty when kids don't show up. Once you've clearly communicated the invitation to sign up to the event, it's out of your hands.
Besides, maybe they have something better going on during that time, maybe they need rest, maybe they're committed to a sports team. I repeat, there is nowhere in the Bible a commandment to be committed to a youth group. Dare I say kids can even be faithful members of a church without being a part of the youth ministry.
So I say relax, have fun, be faithful, and work with the kids who are ready and want to be discipled.
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