I want to focus on the practical things I learned at Unleash today. Everything I learned was practical, but  I want to focus on the systems I can implement into our ministry. Hope this adds value to you and your ministry. I went to two sessions 1.)  Triple Threat Youth Ministry with Brad Cooper (This was awesome!) and 2.) Hiring, Firing, and Creating a Staff Culture with Jason Wilson (their Executive Pastor).  Here we go:

Services:

• Run Through an Entire Service during mock service as if you were having service
• Worship – Use Planning Center Online - Record Tracks early in the week – send them to team
• Countdown’s with the Series Graphic on it
• If it doesn’t point people to service, don’t do  it!
  • They Worship, Preach the Word, and do Small Groups – Period. No events except Summer Camp
• 2 Invitations: Salvation and Prayer – Leaders take students who raise their hands for both and either lead them to the Lord or pray with them then follow-up with them

Weekly Schedule (Youth):

• Sunday – All staff goes  to all 4 services
• Monday – Critique of Sunday (Brutally honest) / Focus on Area of Specialty
• Tuesday – Plan Services 4 1/2 weeks out / Afternoon off
  
• Wednesday -  A.m. Off /  Set-up tear down/ Relationships / Youth Service
• Thursday – Critique of Service
• Friday – Off until 5 p.m. – then Youth Service
• Saturday – Off

Follow-UP

• They use Fellowship One
  
• Small Group Leaders do the Follow-Up
• They TextSignal.com to follow-up with Text Messages

1st Time Guests

• Have Adult Leaders Escort all 1st time Guests around all night and follow up with that student
• They have a first time guest party – the Jump off – Every 1st timer gets a wrist band that gets them in there
• They get a letter at the 1st time guest party

Volunteer Process

• To be a member – you have to serve
• Observation Night
• Interview
• Application

Staff

• They have staff getaways just to pursue God together
• Evaluations every 6 months – great conversation times, feedback,  rating employees

This is just a touch of what I learned and look to implement into our ministry. I definitely recommend following Newspring and seeing what they’re doing. They’ve helped me out several times – they’re more than willing to pour into others and share anything they can that will add value to people and ministries.

¹²Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.                                                                                         I Tim. 4:12

Practical Success

Yesterday we covered some success principles . . . today I want to focus on things the I believe are critical to a successful youth ministry.

Small Groups - They empower your leaders to be “youth pastors” over the students in their group. They are a catalyst for building authentic relationships. As you grow bigger, you must become smaller (still be able to connect with everybody) and the only way to effectively do this is through small groups.

Discipleship – You have to have some kind of process in which students can grow up spiritually. Every youth group will be different – maybe you have classes on a consistent basis, a discipleship program, or some other avenue.

The Right People in the Right Place - You have to have great leaders in coordinator positions – let them own and dream for their areas. Let them schedule, train, and grow their areas!

Student Leadership - If you don’t have some way for students to lead as they get older, you’ll never keep your Jr.’s and Sr.’s… too often we offer the same thing for everyone for their 5 years in youth group and expect them to love it . . .they won’t. We need to empower them, train them, and expect big things from them.

Opportunities to Serve – I think it’s critical for your youth ministry to serve your community. Start an outreach team and have monthly or quarterly outreaches. It allows students to forget about themselves and be a part of something much bigger than themselves.

Follow – Up - You have to have a way to follow-up with students who comes to your youth group on a weekly basis, follow-up with first time guests, and follow up on salvations.

What practical factors do you believe are necessary for a successful youth ministry?