I've been working with teens at Lancaster Baptist Church for about 18 years now, and God's been really good to us. Right now we're seeing some incredible momentum—close to 300 teens between English and Spanish at our last Bible study. But it hasn't always been that way. Youth ministry has its ebb and flow. Sometimes there's a class that struggles, and then sometimes right behind that there'll be some momentum.

The key isn't chasing the next big thing. It's about being faithful with what God gives you and building on biblical priorities that actually work.

We Don't Need Special Categories

Here's something I'm convinced of: we don't always have to carve out special categories for teens. If there's a great passage in Scripture that speaks to discipleship for believers and Christians, we don't have to go looking for another one that deals specifically with teens. This is applicable.

I get questions a lot about discipleship material. We use our church's continued discipleship material, and I always tell the teens going through it, "This is a challenge. I know this is written for adults. I think you can do this as well." We can raise the bar and challenge them. Don't water things down.

Four Biblical Priorities from Colossians 2

Let me share four priorities from Colossians 2 that have shaped how we approach youth ministry. Paul's writing to believers he's never met, yet his heart is fully engaged. That's the model we need.

Priority 1: Bear the Responsibility

Paul says in Colossians 2:1 that he has "great conflict" for people he's never even seen face-to-face. He's not fighting with them—he's willing to fight for them. From a distance, he's close in spirit. He bears the responsibility.

Youth ministry is a tremendous responsibility. We need to feel the weight of that responsibility. It's a sacred responsibility to be able to invest in the lives of teenagers.

Here's how we bear it:

Demonstrate a genuine passion for the Lord. I love this quote from an old Scottish preacher: "The best way to overcome the world is not with morality or self-discipline. Christians overcome the world by seeing the beauty and excellence of Christ. They overcome the world by seeing something more attractive than the world."

Teens spot something inauthentic from a mile away. Unless it's in their own life—then they can't see it at all. But in others? Oh man. We have to show them something real and more attractive than what the world is offering.

I say this in every youth lesson I teach: God does not bless who you pretend to be. What gets sacrificed in the busyness of ministry is not our to-do list, but our hearts. We'll get those calendar items done, but sometimes what goes unchecked is our hearts and our time with the Lord.

You've experienced both sides of this. You've walked into a Bible class just glancing through your notes like, "God, give me something last minute. Please be good." But you've also experienced when you've found something in Scripture that excites you and invigorates your soul—then going and letting that be an outpouring into the lives you're reaching. God can make a real impact with that.

Partner with parents. The responsibility of raising the next generation, if you read Scripture in Deuteronomy, squarely falls on the shoulders of parents. Youth ministry is relatively a new deal. Modern youth ministry as we know it was really birthed out of the evangelistic personality—Billy Graham came along, young, leading Youth for Christ, and churches said we need someone like Billy Graham.

There's a lot of good things from that, but one blind spot is that parents can come check their kids at the door and expect youth leaders to do the work they should be doing. We want to partner with parents, not replace them.

I have three to four teen parent meetings a year. If you've never done one, I highly encourage it. My first few years, they scared me to death. I thought all the parents were suspicious of me and hated me. I had no kids at all. I went and talked to my dad, and he said, "Teach the simple truths we see in Scripture. Dads need to love their families. They need to lead their families."

So I put together one of the most simple lessons. Man, I had a line out the door wanting to talk to me afterwards—guys that were great guys in our church just saying that was very impactful. The truth impacts.

Parents need three things from us:

• Information - We send a monthly newsletter. We communicate through text, email, social media, handouts, phone calls—all channels. Yes, it's always in the moment. "Where are you meeting again? This costs money?" Yeah, we've been saying it for four months. But we make sure they can access it.
• Instruction - Don't leave out parents when you're thinking about discipleship. Teach them from God's word. If you're younger, do it humbly and maybe partner with someone with experience.
• Involvement - Just a couple days ago, a dad called: "I'm sensing my son is struggling with this. I've tried to talk to him. I've hit a brick wall. Could you talk to him?" So we set up a meeting. Parents need our help.

Show up consistently. This is where most campus ministries fail. We do this in church world—put our best foot forward at Easter and Christmas, but between those big events, things fall apart.

John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach at UCLA who won 10 NCAA championships in 12 years, was famous for teaching something seemingly small: how to put socks on. First day of practice—here's how you put your socks on. Sounds ridiculous for college athletes on scholarships, but Wooden believed what was done consistently could build championship results. Properly worn socks prevented blisters. Blisters meant missed practices. Missed practices meant less conditioning. Less conditioning meant less teamwork and poor execution. A tiny thing like that could cost a championship.

John Maxwell said the most powerful force in the universe is compound consistency. Take something, do it well, and do it again and again and again.

What happens when we don't do things consistently? Credibility erodes. You say you're sending out an exciting newsletter, and by month three it's not out—parents are like, "Eh." Hypocrisy creeps in. Frustration grows. God's glory is diminished.

Start small. Small things done consistently are better than great things occasionally. Maybe you're a lone ranger—just you and your spouse with a few kids. Don't spread yourself too thin. Take the small things that really matter and do those consistently. Build them into the culture. Then when the Lord brings someone else along, that culture is already established.

Priority 2: Believe with Joy

Colossians 2:5 says, "For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ."

Paul is at a great distance from these people, yet he's optimistic for them. He's believing. He's joyful for them. He's beholding their order and steadfastness. He's saying, "I'm writing you this letter. You haven't seen my face. I don't really know who you are personally. But I'm believing that God is going to do something great in your life."

Some spiritual optimism will go a long way in our youth groups. Sometimes the perspective from teens is, "They're just out to get me. They only recognize the terrible things I do." But Paul knows not every believer is batting a thousand, yet his heart is believing the best.

Here's how:

Celebrate the wins. What gets praised gets repeated. It's easy to see things to be critical of—someone slipped up, did something you need to address. But when someone shows a little effort, listens well, make a big deal about that.

This past year at camp, Phil Raven brought a great message about standing together. He coached our youth groups how to pray together. The week after camp, for the first time ever, our youth group—a group of guys—just spontaneously got together and started praying. What's cool is it hasn't stopped. It's only grown. Last Bible study, that group had grown to about 30.

You know what we did? We praised it. I told them, "I'm not going to hijack this. This is your moment. I just want to say I'm proud of you"—and I said it real loud so everyone in the youth group heard. I would love for all of them to be praying, but rather than condemn those who aren't, I praised what was happening. That circle has grown.

Correct with love. Believing with joy doesn't mean we're just happy-go-lucky. Sometimes there are things you need to correct, and that's just as loving. Paul did this often—he'd take something false and correct it and guide.

Guard against cynicism. I'm not talking about cynicism in your youth group. I'm talking about cynicism in us. "I don't know about this kid. I'm gonna write this one off."

I tell our youth staff: don't write off kids in our youth group. We're going to give them a chance.

There was one girl who came into our office struggling with her sexual identity. Actually, I say struggle—she didn't think she was struggling. She was just blatant about it. Her parents were sitting there. She wasn't being mean or rude, just, "This is the way I am. This is what I'm going to embrace."

I thought, there's potential in her. Let's pray for her. Fast forward a decade—she's gone to Bible college. She loves the Lord. I shook her hand in church just recently.

It would have been easy to say, "Well, this person identifies as that. They're gone. Bye-bye." But God had different plans. You never know.

Priority 3: Build Faith with Intention

Colossians 2:6-7: "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving."

Paul mixes metaphors here—building and agriculture. You're not supposed to do that, but he does it anyway because it makes perfect sense. That's what discipleship is: deep roots and strong standing, an outward life of action and faith.

Five ways to build and disciple teens:

1. Preaching and teaching of God's word. Paul says "as you have been taught." Make a priority of those moments. All of us can look back and trace important life lessons to when we were at a teen camp or youth conference. Get your kids around preaching.

Sometimes we'll cancel Bible studies so we can be in with the main adults because we want them to hear the preaching of God's word. Our kids need both teaching and preaching—to herald with authority.

If kids aren't listening, move someone causing disruptions. I tell our youth workers: sit with the teens. Why? Because the preaching and teaching really matters. That's what God uses. You won't disciple kids unless they're getting under the preaching and teaching of God's word.

2. Relationships. Relational investments reap spiritual influence. The most important thing we can do is not just plan activities. Activities are not a means to an end. The most important thing is spending time with the teens God has entrusted to us.

Big mistake people make: they want the influence. "Hey, look over here. Sit up here. Why don't you respect me?" Well, because they don't even know you.

Go systematically through your roster and make sure you're touching every kid. There's always the corner kids. There's always the ones who come up and love your lesson—you're their best friend, the greatest person. You can pat their back and feel good about youth ministry. But then there's the others off to the corner that maybe aren't getting attention.

Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Apart from me you can do nothing." Discipleship is the trellis that holds it up along the way. Those relationships are the trellis that help us see Christ formed in others.

3. Private disciplines. When they can take truths they're learning from the pulpit and relationally, and make an impact in their private life. Simple things like learning to pray, learning to spend time in devotion.

Your faith will stunt if it's only preaching and relationships. If you're never taking it home and developing personally, your growth will stunt.

We do summer surge during the summer—a summer accountability program with reading, books, chores, tasks. About 50 completed it with an incentive. Every Sunday we have teen connect—tables around our auditorium where kids hang out with us. They fill out fuel gauge cards: Did you read verses? Did you invite someone? Wednesday we read those cards, pray through requests, give them candy. Simple, but we're keeping those spiritual disciplines in front of them.

4. Personal ministry. If you're having devotions and listening to preaching but never get out and serve, you're not fully following Christ as you could and should be.

We just started a preaching academy with Dr. Shetler. Whether a guy's going into ministry or not, I think it's great for them to learn to stand up and preach.

My neighbor Ethan graduated, studied to become a doctor, going to UCLA. He learned how to preach. I'm not a big fan of public education—there's a lot of indoctrination. I prayed with Ethan and his parents about it. I was scared for him. But Sunday he brought his roommate who got saved. He's probably brought 20 kids from UCLA. A couple times he's said, "Larry, I need a van this week." Why? Because he learned how to preach. He's going to be a doctor who knows how to preach.

Getting teens involved in ministry is sometimes work. Sometimes it's messy. Sometimes they goof around when they should be passing stuff out or break stuff when they should be praying. But get them involved.

Two reasons kids leave church after graduation: One, they don't know what they believe. That goes back to preaching and teaching. Two, they aren't serving. They don't have a job to do. Give them a job. Let them know that job is there when they get back from college.

5. Circumstances. Sometimes God just works through special circumstances. There's one kid, Emilio, in our youth group. God was working in his heart at Joshua Camps. First game back—loves football, lives for football—he made it through three quarters and got injured. Broke his femur on the field.

That night at the hospital, by the time we got to him it was midnight or one in the morning. He's laying there, still has his shoulder pads on. Before I said anything, he grabbed my hand: "Pray for me." We prayed with him.

Sunday night after church I went to visit. He told me that late that night after we left, he was alone. "I had my pads on and didn't want to take them off because all I lived for was football. To take his pads off was a moment of surrender."

He said, "Finally, I said, 'God, thank you for the time I got. I'm gonna serve you. I'm gonna live for you.' And I took my pads off." He told me, "It normally takes two people to take my pads off. I don't know how I laid there on a bed with a broken femur and took my own pads off."

He came to our high school revival a couple days later on crutches and gave a testimony. God's working in his life. God works through circumstances. We want to be there in those moments—even the dark moments, the peaks and valleys.

Priority 4: Be Aware of the Dangers

Colossians 2:4, 8: "And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words... Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit."

When Paul says "spoil you," he's speaking of kidnapping you. One thing that stuck out at Charlie Kirk's funeral—Erika said Charlie had a heart for the lost boys. The lost boys of culture. Those who've been taken captive, who've been spoiled. We should have a heart for them too.

What are these dangers?

Enticing words - Arguments that sound reasonable. Fine-sounding arguments. Our culture is persuasive. On top of that, there's linguistic theft—words are taken that used to have certain meaning and now new meanings apply.

Words being hijacked today: Marriage has a biblical definition. Culture is redefining it. Love, hate, equality, justice—biblical concepts now defined against Scripture. Male, female, tolerance, bigotry, oppression.

We need to use our words well. Guard that kids in our youth group aren't being taken captive by something that just sounds good.

Empty philosophy - Something hollow. Paul is contrasting: "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (v.9). There's a fullness of Christ. We don't want them so full of the world that their hearts won't take hold of truth.

Man-made traditions and world systems - The world always has a way to explain God apart from Christ. Social media, world economy—these are all devices and outlets the world uses to channel empty, hollow philosophy.

The whole point? "Not after Christ." The purpose of discipling kids, partnering with parents, being watchful, making sure there's preaching and relationships, capitalizing on circumstances—it's all so we see "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

What Momentum Really Looks Like

I want to close with this. God has given us some great momentum even these last few months. We see it in 300 teens showing up. We see it in 30 guys staying after to pray. We see it in kids like Emilio surrendering on a hospital bed.

But momentum isn't manufactured. It's the fruit of faithfulness to biblical priorities done consistently over time.

Whether you're launching campus ministry or trying to revitalize one that's struggling, go back to these four priorities:

1. Bear the responsibility with passion, partnership, and consistency
2. Believe with joy—celebrate wins, correct with love, guard against cynicism
3. Build faith intentionally through preaching, relationships, disciplines, ministry, and circumstances
4. Be aware of the dangers that would kidnap this generation

Start small. Do the small things that matter consistently. Build them into your culture. Be faithful with what God gives you.

And watch Him make teens who are rooted and built up in Christ.

This article was adapted from the session “When the Unexpected Hits: Biblical Principles for Financial Resilience in Ministry,” originally recorded at the Spiritual Leadership Conference 2025 in Lancaster, California. To listen to the full session or download the session notes, click here to access the complete recording and resources