Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Food for thought: Hey Pastor you want a successful Youth ministry

Perry Noble is the Senior Pastor of New Springs Church and writes regularly about ministry....

Recently he wrote an article on thoughts why youth/student ministry at New Springs is successful...My summary his thoughts are:

#1 –Hire a leader, someone you can trust, someone you dont have to stand beside and make decisions for. (Some pastors won’t do this because they need to be needed!) AND…I made sure he was able to assemble the team he wanted around him…I did not hire for him!

#2 – Make sure the leader is resourced. The youth are not responsible for raising the funds for youth ministry....the church is. Why??? over 85% of people in church are connected and committed before they turn 18 Take care of your youth.

#3 – Make sure the youth leader understands the vision of our church. Spend time with them…go to lunch, encourage them to communicate with you in ways that suit them ...like sending text messages, etc..

#4 – As senior pastor spend time with the students/youth

#5 – But don’t try to do youth ministry! Your idea of what is suitable is likely to be out of date.....The senior pastor is not the expert in youth ministry…and so don’t try to be!!!

#6 – Ask your youth and student ministry staff/leaders lots of questions! BECAUSE, like it or not…what they are doing right now is going to be what the church is doing in the next 10 to 15 years!

#7 – Give them permission to fail…as long as they fail by trying great things then don't be overly concerned about it

To read his full comments visit http://www.perrynoble.com/2010/04/01/hey-pastor-want-a-successful-youth-ministry/

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