Launch and Lead Practical resources for launching new churches and leading them well

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.