New to Youth Ministry - Now What?
1. Put together a team. Who in your community is interested in this ministry also? Look for two parents, two youth, and two non-parents to start. Meet together, pray, and ask the question, “What should we do and why should we do it?”
2. Advertise and hold a kickoff meeting for parents. Let the parents meet your youth team so they know there is a plan for the school year that is going to be great and that parents and their youth will want to be involved with this. Give them your answer to the question above–What should we do and why?–as well as a list of dates for the full year.
3. Meet with youth regularly. Youth group meetings should be at least one hour and occur regularly, monthly or weekly, in the same location. For each meeting, make sure you have both some intentional fun and formation planned.
Here is a possible schedule of a typical 1 hour night
10 minutes- Welcome and check in with something active going on
20 minutes- A game
20 minutes- Discussion, lesson, or educational activity centered around Jesus whether it is news article, world topic, or straight out of the bible
10 minutes- Close with prayer or Compline
Make sure the youth have the opportunity to lead compline and offer up their own prayer requests. (Your group may want to meet longer or include a meal. If so adjust accordingly.)
In addition to these regular meeting nights, regularly schedule a night devoted to fun or a night devoted to service into your calendar. Be sure these take place at your regular meeting times so that visitors see the youth ministry at its usual time and place.
4. Find programming and content for your meetings. Virginia Theological Seminary and the Center for the Ministry of Teaching has made the Episcopal Curriculum for Youth freely available here.. Each unit is filled with great lessons that can be adapted to any situation. This also gives you a great theme to follow for a month of great youth programming. More ideas and resources are available on our website here.
5. Find a network of youth ministers to share ideas with. Are there youth ministers close to you who would like to meet for coffee? You may also want to join an organization like Forma - there you can be connected with over 300 Christian Formation people who are eager to learn from each other and support each other through email listservs, a Facebook group and annual conference. Our Office of Youth Ministries is a sponsor of Forma and part of that sponsorship includes a membership for every youth minister in our diocese. Contact us for more info.
6. Take photos and communicate what you are doing. A monthly email may be the best way to reach your families. Check out mailchimp for an easy, free solution for a weekly or monthly email newsletter where photos and announcements can be added. An Instagram account is the best way to connect with youth via social media. Starting a Facebook Page for your youth group is a great way to let both parents and congregation members know what is going on. Check out Faithfully Facebook as a strategy plan for youth ministry. Be sure to let parents know what you're doing. You can find more communication tips on our website here or contact us for one on one strategy on how to communicate an effective message.
7. Keep meeting with your youth team. Use these meetings to celebrate what is happening as well as evaluate the program. Always ask the questions:
2. Advertise and hold a kickoff meeting for parents. Let the parents meet your youth team so they know there is a plan for the school year that is going to be great and that parents and their youth will want to be involved with this. Give them your answer to the question above–What should we do and why?–as well as a list of dates for the full year.
3. Meet with youth regularly. Youth group meetings should be at least one hour and occur regularly, monthly or weekly, in the same location. For each meeting, make sure you have both some intentional fun and formation planned.
Here is a possible schedule of a typical 1 hour night
10 minutes- Welcome and check in with something active going on
20 minutes- A game
20 minutes- Discussion, lesson, or educational activity centered around Jesus whether it is news article, world topic, or straight out of the bible
10 minutes- Close with prayer or Compline
Make sure the youth have the opportunity to lead compline and offer up their own prayer requests. (Your group may want to meet longer or include a meal. If so adjust accordingly.)
In addition to these regular meeting nights, regularly schedule a night devoted to fun or a night devoted to service into your calendar. Be sure these take place at your regular meeting times so that visitors see the youth ministry at its usual time and place.
4. Find programming and content for your meetings. Virginia Theological Seminary and the Center for the Ministry of Teaching has made the Episcopal Curriculum for Youth freely available here.. Each unit is filled with great lessons that can be adapted to any situation. This also gives you a great theme to follow for a month of great youth programming. More ideas and resources are available on our website here.
5. Find a network of youth ministers to share ideas with. Are there youth ministers close to you who would like to meet for coffee? You may also want to join an organization like Forma - there you can be connected with over 300 Christian Formation people who are eager to learn from each other and support each other through email listservs, a Facebook group and annual conference. Our Office of Youth Ministries is a sponsor of Forma and part of that sponsorship includes a membership for every youth minister in our diocese. Contact us for more info.
6. Take photos and communicate what you are doing. A monthly email may be the best way to reach your families. Check out mailchimp for an easy, free solution for a weekly or monthly email newsletter where photos and announcements can be added. An Instagram account is the best way to connect with youth via social media. Starting a Facebook Page for your youth group is a great way to let both parents and congregation members know what is going on. Check out Faithfully Facebook as a strategy plan for youth ministry. Be sure to let parents know what you're doing. You can find more communication tips on our website here or contact us for one on one strategy on how to communicate an effective message.
7. Keep meeting with your youth team. Use these meetings to celebrate what is happening as well as evaluate the program. Always ask the questions:
- How are things going?
- How can we do this better?
- What do we need to do to make that happen?