back to the basics

Tuesday we met as a Student Ministry Team to discuss what we should be about if we are about nothing else. Basically, we challenged ourselves to draw out what is most important while doing youth ministry – what things should constantly be priority, and what things are free to fall by the wayside. After a great discussion here is where we landed – thought I would share


Prayer – we can’t do anything without constantly going to God for HIS direction, instruction, and intervention. To leave this out is to get ahead of God himself. The question we asked ourselves here was: Have you spend time alone with God in prayer today?

Training/Leadership – realizing we can only effectively reach and connect with so many students by ourselves before our ministry bottlenecks it’s so basic that we train or “equip” others to do the work of the ministry as well. Training a core of solid leaders who can extend the ministry beyond our reach is key! The question we asked ourselves here was: Who have you invested in for ministry today?

Discipleship – this is what it is all about; handing off the baton of following Christ to the next generation. We challenged everyone on our team to have 5 students that are “yours”, 3 you know very well, and 1 that is your “Timothy.” The question we asked ourselves here was: Who have you intentionally built a relationship with this week?

Connecting with students – if we are all about programs and preaching but don’t relationally connect students to our ministry and to ourselves we are missing the big idea. Whether it’s in small groups, outside church, texting, on facebook, or at school campuses we have to be “there” in ministry and connect with students on their level. The question we asked ourselves here was: Who have you connected with this week?

Evangelism – sharing our faith should be something we model for our students and intentionally challenge them to do in everything we do. This is at the core of what Christ called us to do – to be His ambassadors, his witnesses. When our students see us lead someone to Christ or boldly proclaim the gospel evangelism is then caught instead of just taught! The question we asked ourselves here was: who have you shared Christ with this week?

Are these things you are keeping at the forefront of your ministry?

Are there other things you think belong here, I’d love to hear your comments!

Brian