I work with Junior High students, ages 12-14 at Second Baptist Houston. When students and other youth pastors come in they are all expecting games and just fun for an hour on Wednesday nights and then just some goofy stuff on Sunday morning. Well, we have totally redefined how we do student ministry. We don’t do all of the games and fun stuff all the time, and for some reason students keep coming back.
But I think that if you treat a student with respect and show them that they are not just a “little/annoying/smelly/hitting puberty/loud/immature-Junior High/High school Kid” (as everyone calls them), then they will come back and bring everyone they know because they feel like you love them for them. Plus they feel very respected as a student and not some little child. We will very rarely do any sort of a game that is childish in nature.
Many people in ministry say, “oh you have to that is why they come, they only come for that stuff.” No, I disagree they come because they feel loved, loved the worship, never knew what was going to happen (had a element of surprise-never ever the same order or stuff) and the message was challenging, applicable and easy to understand.
So here is my challenge, instead of planning silly games, or cute things to get students to come – plan on making an experience for you students so that the second they step into your ministry they experience the Love of Christ and leave feeling challenged and wanting more.
Michael Head — Is the JHIG H Pastor at Second Baptist Church Houston. You can follow him on Twitter http://twitter.com/mycoolhead, and his blog at www.michaelhead.org.
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Josh Griffin has been in youth ministry for 15+ years and serves as the High School Pastor at Saddleback Church. [
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Geoff Stewart serves the Jr / Sr High School Pastor at Peace Portal Alliance Church in Surrey B.C.
Absolutely LOVE this post.
We did a very similar thing when we were overhauling our ministry and “throwing out the ‘old couches’” as Andy Stanley calls them. It’s amazing what you’re willing to do when you’re not consumed with “losing students” but “loving students”.
I will admit though, that it’s tough to walk the line between giving students what they ‘need’ and giving them some of what the ‘want’. It seems that to do student ministry effectively today it has to be a ‘both/and’ type of strategy.
Anyway, good dialog, love the thought pattern and I know it will be liberating for some who’ve always wanted to try that approach but were too afraid. Keep up the good work.
Perfect! We don’t do games either and we always get the same comments. We live in an affluent area and any game we can put on cannot compete with the game systems they have at home. We only have the students for 90 minutes a week and the world has them for the remaining time so we need to put as much Jesus into those 90 minutes as we can. We also found that games are very awkward for new students. We think it makes it easier for them to get connected but it actually makes is more uncomfortable. If we don’t expect more out of our students and realize that there is more to them than fun and games they will never live up to their full potential as Christ-followers.
Anyways, thanks for the post!
I think it depends on many things. You need to know your students. I don’t think it’s necessary the same everywhere. I think both extremes “All games” and “no games” are bad. Playing a game could help build community, etc. Our approach is doing games sometimes, not every night. Kids love it, but when there’s no games, they don’t complain. Finally, there are games, and there are GAMES. A boring game can be devastating. A great game can be one of your best allies. Hope this makes sense.
I have to agree with the post but I don’t know if it has anything to do with games. I think when you use the word to challenge kids and expect them to learn and look into the word more deeply than anyone has expected them to before that they get a sense of responsibility. Not just to the youth group but to the church and ultimately to our community which is who we are to be reaching anyways. When I challenge my young people with tough things in the scripture they tend to get excited and more interested than when we do things to have fun or even when a lesson may seem less challenging. So I think that youth ministry is about loving the youth but I also think it is equipping them to reach there friends for Christ too. And honestly that is how change is going to happen.
To eliminate games for the sake of “doing more” Jesus is not a fool proof answer or plan. I have games/activities every week for 10-15 minutes but they will always apply to the message that comes after it. It is about being intentional with all we do with our time with students.
Our student ministry does exactly ZERO silly games each week. We love it…..