Student Ministry

Many youth leaders have a “lone ranger ” type of mentality when it comes to their student ministry. They think they can do it all by themselves. This type of thinking will frustrate you (and your family) and will cause you to be ineffective.

Last week, we had the privilege of hosting several hundred teens for the annual Higher Call Youth Conference. I’m always mindful during this conference of the incredible potential of teenagers to make a difference in their generation.

Nurture speaks of tutoring, educating, and training. This kind of instruction includes mild rebukes and correction but does not respond in a fleshly manner.

The longer I serve in ministry, the more I recognize the value of working with young people. In fact, the longer I serve, the more I believe we should pour more of ourselves into serving our youth.

Contrary to what most parents think, teens really do want boundaries. When a teenager isn’t given clear guidelines, he does what seems right in his own eyes.

Just as there are loadbearing walls in a house, there are load-bearing pillars in effective student ministry. If you remove any one of these five pillars, it’s detrimental to your entire student ministry.

It’s a conversation I’ve had many times: High Schooler: I don’t know what I should do when I finish high school. Maybe I should go to trade school or university. Me: Have you considered attending a year of Bible college?

When it comes to responding to authority, everyone makes a choice. There is no middle ground. You will either submit to God and the authority He has established in your life, or you will rebel.

When I was a young boy in Northern California, the only time I wanted to go inside was dinnertime. All other hours, I wanted to be outside playing. Playtime for today’s young people, however, has transformed into screen time. The nature of community for twenty-first century children and teens has been radically changed.

I love rollercoasters! I love the high climbs and the fast descents. I love the feeling of the speed of the track as well as that feeling of nearly coming out of the seat! I could go over and over again. I love the loops and the corkscrews. The more wild the ride, the better! However, I have never enjoyed the “roller coaster” of youth ministry.

Seth Godin did a study about marketing to Generation Y—today’s teens. The study showed this generation is very selective about who they listen to and that they want to know why before they obey.

Have you ever experienced the frustration of wanting someone to change his spiritual direction more than the individual himself desired to change? Maybe it’s a junior higher in your youth group who just doesn’t know when to be serious, a senior high girl who craves all the wrong attention, or maybe it’s a teen who is just plain apathetic toward biblical truth.

I recently read a news article about former NFL player, Tom Holloway, who had his house vandalized while he was out of town. It’s hard to comprehend how the consciences of over 300 high school students would allow them to break in, get drunk, steal memorabilia, and graffiti the walls, but that’s exactly what occurred in Tom Holloway’s home. It was one big, bad, out of control party…nice kids, huh?

It could certainly be said that the year after high school graduation marks the first part of one’s adult life. In fact, it is commonly stated at graduations that high school commencement is a threshold one crosses into adulthood. Based on the biblical principle of first things, it would certainly seem wise to dedicate at least this first year as a time for spiritual growth and grounding.

Not too long ago, I was in Phoenix to watch the Suns play the Lakers. Of course, I wore a Lakers jersey. They are my team, and I came to enjoy the game and show my support. A lot of other fans were wearing jerseys to the game, but hardly any of them were the purple and gold of the Lakers. I stood out, I was in enemy territory, but I was not about to hide my identity as a Lakers fan.

If repetition is the key to learning, then, when it comes to working with young people, keeping a big picture focus is the key to sanity. It’s so easy to get into a rut in which we tire of the repetition necessary to develop students.

Some of the finest members of our church are young people who grew up in our church, attended our Christian school, and are serving as laymen and women in our ministry. They are in the will of God, doing the work of God, and will have a great reward from God when they get to Heaven.

We live in a day of much challenge and opportunity. The need for well-equipped, Spirit-filled servants of the Lord is great. The Apostle Paul trained the young pastor Timothy and instilled in him:

Teen culture manufactures plenty of excitement and hype. Every new show or event is marketed as the greatest, coolest, most epic of its kind, ever. But what our pop culture lacks is anything that is genuine or meaningful.