You've Started - Now What?
1. First Things First – Pray for Holy Spirit creativity
In Scripture, the Holy Spirit has a creative power. A growing and vibrant Young Adult ministry has to be infused with this creative work of the Holy Spirit. A Young Adult Ministry without creativity is like a latte without espresso. Dedicate parts of your week and meetings to prayer for direction, guidance and wisdom – don’t do it without God’s help! Ask God to help you think in new ways. Ask God to lead you to new resources and other groups and leaders who can inspire you.
Make Prayer an important part of all that you are doing.
2. Give It Away – Lead a team, not just a ministry
Most ministry visions start with a leader. An individual who believes that Young Adults can and should be reached. The best way to achieve that vision or mission is with a team. Jesus need 12 disciples – you probably need some help too! Build and invest in a core group of several people who can do this ministry with you. This core team can replicate and grow faster than you can individually. A great resource for team building is the book 17 Qualities of a Team by John Maxwell. Spend time with these followers, teaching them, mentoring them, releasing them to help with the ministry. You can’t do it alone!
3. Do It Right – If it’s worth doing, do it with excellence
One of the great strengths of Young Adult ministry is its organic, relaxed feel. Earl Creps, a leading A/G church planter in the emergent stream, describes most of the young adult groups he’s seen as a mixture of Starbucks, Ikea and Best Buy, only not as good. If we aren’t careful we become an eclectic mishmash of knockoff cultural trends around us. That is one of our strengths. We can’t, however, allow our need for spontaneity and reality to create an inferior ministry. It takes planning and excellence to really attract and keep young adults. Have a plan, work ahead of time. From sermon preparation to leading events – do what it takes and do it with excellence. I’m not talking about the fake kind of showmanship popular with Christian television, but the basics of leadership and ministry. Be early at events, have things ready and prepared. Do it with excellence and quality.
4. Go to Them – Be where young adults are
You have to lose the idea, “If I build it, they will come.” Most ministries just don’t work that way. It takes a concentrated, strategic effort to reach young adults where they are. I’ve talked with some of the fastest growing and largest Young Adult group leaders, every one of them had a plan and a strategy to impact Young Adults. The growth was the result of intentional effort. You have to decide where you want to find young adults.
Three quick options you can “C”:
-- YAs in your Church
There are already some young adults in your church. Odds are this is why you started your ministry. Go after them first. Didn’t Jesus say you’ll be my witnesses first in Jerusalem, then Judea….the uttermost parts of the earth? Start local and build from there. Build a strong relationship with your youth ministry, every year they graduate high school seniors. Find out where the last 2 or 3 classes of students have gone. Start there.
-- YAs in your Community
In our town, it’s the Riverwalk area. In your community it’s somewhere else. It’s the place lost young adults get together. It’s in that place you need to reach out. A word of caution – typically you’ll find 2 things wherever you have large groups of young adults – loud music and alcohol. But from what I understand it’s very similar environment to where Jesus had dinner with tax collectors – minus the Black Eyed Peas music. Figure out the way you can make a difference here and attract people to your ministry.
-- YAs on Campus
Around your church you’ll probably find a college or university. If you have one or two, target them. Find ways to reach out on campus, find students who are there who are going to your church. Go to ballgames, activities, events. Sponsor events on campus. Work with the college leadership. Host bible studies on campus. Check out the resources at campus ministries like Chi Alpha to partner with and learn from.
6. Multiply Yourself – The more in ministry the merrier
You already have a leadership team – now expand. Allow young adults to “do” the ministry. The more young adults involved in your ministry and outreach, the more likely you are to see it grow. We hit a plateau of growth several years ago; we were stuck on about 40 or 50 young adults consistently attending our services and events. Our team goal shifted from increasing attendance to adding people in ministry. Our goal was that in 2 months we had 40 people in ministry. We did. Six months later attendance was 80.
When your young adults feel like they have ownership, when they feel like they are really a part of it, they will attend more often and with greater consistency and will typically bring more of their friends to be a part of it. Make up jobs for them to be involved with so that everyone has a part. If you have to choose between 2 people doing a job more effectively and faster and 4 people doing the same job longer but just as effective – choose 4 people. More people involved is always better.
7. Do it Better – Be a learner not a loner
Nobody knows everything. Learn from everyone. I regularly read business magazines, ministry books, marketing research on young adults and just about anything else I can find on people who are working with and ministering to young adults. I email leaders of groups. I meet people on Facebook and chat with them. I try to learn as much as possible. I listen to other leaders sermons and podcasts. Last year, I visited other groups and their services. We all need help, don’t be afraid to ask. Find Young Adults in your community you can learn from. Interview them and let them be your resource.
9. Do ALL the right things – Create balance in your ministry
So often groups get pegged into one kind of ministry. They are heavy on discipleship, but weak on events or vice versa. The most common group you see is the young adult group that eats out together, goes on ski trips together, plays paintball together but rarely prays together. You need balance. Young Adults need to have fun together, provide opportunities for that to happen. Young adults need to grow in their faith walk with God – provide opportunities for that to happen. Young Adults need to be involved in missions and helping others – provide opportunities for that to happen. Create a healthy balance.
10. Leverage Life - Never eat alone
As leaders you can’t do everything, you can’t be everywhere. One of the great tools I’ve used is to leverage life events for relationship. This week I have 3 lunch appointments. I have to eat lunch – so do they, so why not eat together? Our group eats out together all the time. Holidays are also great times to get together. Believe it or not, one of our biggest events of the year is Thanksgiving night! A lot of college students have nowhere to go, nothing to do the next night and want to be together. It’s a perfect night. (Plus there are dozens – me included – whose families drive them nuts so they have a reason to eat Aunt Matilda’s fruit cake and leave)
Leverage life for ministry.
11. Integrate – My ministry or His church
Young Adult leaders can’t miss the forest for the trees. Jesus said build my church – not my young adult group. It’s very important that figure out your role in your church. Long term, young adult groups who connect people with the local church are most successful at building lifelong followers of Jesus Christ. With the wide range of ages and styles that exist in most churches, integrating young adults within the mainstream of church life can seem like an impossible task. Yet this mission is possible, and necessary for the long term success of any young adult ministry.
The benefits of integrated young adult ministry are numerous, including…
· Increased support by church leadership
· Increased opportunities to lead and serve
· Increased influence in the church at large, infusing energy and passion
· Increased doorways into the young adult ministry
Young adult ministry that’s integrated into the larger church receives increased support by church leadership. That’s because the results of the ministry become more visible when this age ceases to be a church within a church. A strong young adult ministry can produce many capable workers for the church, especially in the areas of children, youth, music, and media. And this excites leadership, especially the senior pastor! Ask your pastor how young adults can serve other ministries, and invite him to join with others for dinner or coffee after service. Sometimes young adults assume that older leadership can’t understand them, and that the leadership is simply out of touch. But building relationships between the pastor and the group can help bring mutual understanding and friendship.
If you feel like the church isn’t supporting you, perhaps you should ask if you are supporting the church. Are you promoting and serving in the ministries that are vital to the church? Are you well represented at major events and outreaches? Do you know what your church’s leadership is passionate about? Do you know their vision, and how young adults fit into that vision? It’s pretty hard to support the goals of the church if you’re planning camping trips for the young adults every other weekend, and difficult to serve other ministries if your burgeoning event calendar leaves no margin for involvement in other areas of the church. So make sure your young adult ministry is not an end to itself, but rather see the important role it can play in strengthening your church. Your ministry will reap the benefits of a Godly covering by leadership.
Another facet of integration of young adult ministry should be connection with your church’s youth. It is a well-documented fact that many leave the church at the age of 18, and increasing numbers of them will not return later in life. Additionally, many young adult ministries have short life spans because the group grows old, and there are insufficient numbers of younger people coming in to replace them. Strong relationships with the youth can turn this endemic problem into a wonderful opportunity.
Start building bridges with the youth, (as well as others), in practical ways. Recognize and talk to them when you see them! Occasionally grab dinner with them after church. Engage them in some friendly athletic competition. Conduct a joint service where responsibilities are shared, and then kill the youth in laser tag afterwards! When these relationships are built, youth will no longer dread the transition to adulthood, but eagerly anticipate it.
Here are some steps to integration you might want to consider:
Decide your purpose:
- Are you a standalone ministry, auxiliary minister, feeder to main church or ____?
Support your church:
- Money – personally and as a group. Support initiatives and encourage tithing.
- Contribute – get involved in ministry in other areas of the church. Don’t be territorial.
- Attend. Bill Hybels, “It’s Sunday Stupid.” The main thing is the main thing. Don’t schedule retreats that conflict with Sunday service. As a leader, attend church. It sends a message.
Affirm your leadership:
- Pastors - If you support your pastor and church then you'll watch your pastor and church support you. Take the youth pastor to lunch. Be his friend not his competitor.
- Lay Leaders – The key leaders in your church need to be on your team in ministry or on your team in spirit. Regularly tell stories of what God is doing in the lives of young adults.
Integrate your people:
- Other Ministry areas
- Events – Leverage big church events to promote to young adults
Schedule your events:
- Work around schedules of other ministry groups. It isn’t worth fighting the children’s pastor over the use of a bus or a room. Be flexible.
Develop your team:
- Find the key leaders in the church and learn
- Pull from key assets
Sacrifice your ego:
- Your ministry isn’t the only ministry. Every ministry is valid. Nothing is so sacred that everything else drops by the wayside.
Resist your competitiveness:
- Your goal is not to look better than the youth pastor no matter how much you enjoy beating him or her at Halo.
Bonus: Become Invaluable – Meet a need:
- If there is a need in your church that no one is meeting, volunteer the young adults to do it. Make a statement – make an impact.
12. Embrace Change – Go back to the drawing board
Every 4 years colleges see a complete turnover. There is a good chance you’ll have the same thing. It will take a new set of ideas and approaches to reach this new generation. Constantly reinvent. Constantly change for the better. Reset your agenda but keep your focus – reaching young adults.