Dec/091
Reaching Students, Part 2
Yesterday we talked about creating a church where students feel at home. At Oak Leaf Church ,we’re not trying to create a student sub-culture, where students have a youth room but never attend church. We’re not trying to entertain students in their own laser-light show driven service. Our strategy for reaching students is intentionally similar to our strategy for reaching adults.
So, we have adult leaders who lead student small groups, just like we have adults who lead adult small groups. We invite students to volunteer on the weekends, just like we ask volunteers to serve on the weekend. We invite students to serve the community through Second Saturday, just like we encourage adults to serve at Second Saturday.
I believe that teenagers should be volunteering with production, parking and with kids. Teenagers who love Jesus should be challenging elementary children to love Jesus. In fact, nearly every volunteer team in our church is open to students. We don’t just want to have a successful youth group; we want to connect students to Jesus and to the church.
Dec/090
Reaching Students
I had a great conversation with a local pastor in Starbucks the other day. He actually visited our church once because he wanted to see what we were doing to reach so many teachers. So he asked me how we went about reaching young people.
One of the things I’ve been committed to since day one was creating a church service where teenagers would actually want to attend. I think this is HANDS DOWN the most effective thing your church can do to reach students.
For years, I worked in youth ministries that were solid, but that felt WAY DIFFERENT from the adult service. In fact, the adult service was often called “big church.” Students loved the youth group, but not so much when it came to the church. So when we started Oak Leaf Church, we decided not to have a student service, but to create a service that was appropriate for students.
Of course the music is one of those things. But there are are also subtle things that we try to do. I’ll talk to students during the message, use student culture as examples in teaching, and reference songs that I know only students listen to. Every sermon example can’t be about work or adult-related issues. We want teenagers to know that our weekend services are appropriate for them.
Trust me…it’s FAR MORE HEALTHY for a teenager to attend “big church” than to attend special, segregated services that won’t be there when they turn 19. One of the reasons that teenagers leave the church after graduation is because they were never committed to the church in the first place…they were committed to a youth group but not a church.
We found that a lot of parents ended up coming to Oak Leaf Church because this is the only church that they could get their teenager to attend. And over time…they started enjoying it too.
So we don’t do a lot of lock-ins, youth camps and car washes. We try to have the kind of church service where teenagers want to attend, will bring their friends, and can connect to God.
There’s a second key to this, and I’ll talk about this tomorrow.
Mar/090
Student Ministry Leadership Philosophy
Traditional thinking tells me that we should have hired a full time student pastor about a year ago. But every Wednesday night, we gather about 130 students together for a student ministry service, and we still don’t have a youth pastor on our staff. I’m not saying we never will…but what we’re doing now works, so why change it.
I was a student pastor for 12 years, so I know the mind of a youth pastor. I think most up and coming student pastors have in their minds that the most important thing they will do is teach students. And it’s still true that most youth pastors want to be “real” pastors one day.
But the #1 job of a youth pastor, especially for us, is not teaching. I have 5 or 6 people on our staff, plus several people in our church that are more than capable of teaching students. So why hire a youth pastor, 90% of whom want to just teach, to do that?
Instead of a traditional youth pastor, we have a student ministry team. I call them the super team.
- There’s a worship leader, who leads worship at the student ministry service.
- There’s a very organized person who administrates, communicates and makes sure details are handled.
- There’s a student ministry intern college student who does the hosting and relationships and hangs out with students.
- And there’s a young married guy who leads a group of student leaders…discipleship kind of stuff.
- I take care of the teaching…either teaching myself (60%) or arranging for other speakers (40%)
Instead of getting a youth pastor, who may be good at one or two of these things, we have four people who are in their sweet spot. Organizationally, they all report to our Family Pastor.
I’m not saying you should organize your student ministry this way, but it works well for us. I’m not saying we’ll leave it this way, but it works great now. The key is to create a system that works for you, not just hire someone because you ought to.
Jan/070
Church Planter Discount for Sidekick Summer
As a church planter, I know church planting budgets are tight. And as
a youth pastor for 12 years, I also know the value of involving your
teenagers in quality events. For this reason, Sidekick Students is
offering a big church-planter discount on our upcoming Sidekick Summer
event in Washington, DC. We are offering churches that are less
than three years old a $40 discount…this brings the cost of the trip
down to our real and raw cost. We’re doing this because we have a heart for church planters and new churches, and we want to help any way that we can.
With this discount, Sidekick Summer costs just $209. This includes hotel lodging in a great hotel just blocks from the US Capitol and Union Station. Morning and Evening worship will be led by Tenth Avenue North. John Evans
will speak in the morning sessions and I will speak in the evening
sessions. We provide a dozen small group lessons that are designed to
be done on location around the city during the afternoons as your
schedule permits. Imagine coming up to the WWII Memorial which reads
"here we mark the price of freedom" and stopping for a (seeminly)
impromptu discussion on the price that Jesus paid for your salvation.
Our heart in this is to support church plants. So many others have
supported Oak Leaf Church and helped us get off the ground. Our prayer
is that this event might be a catalyst to help jump start a student
ministry or strengthen your church.
Attached is a PDF PDF document with more information. You can get more information about Sidekick Students (where I serve on the Board of Directors) here.
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