Subscribe to the Network5 Parts to a Typical Youth Ministry Small Group Night
There are 5 parts I think are in a typical small group night in our youth ministry (add a 6th in the comments if you would like). These don’t happen each week, they don’t always happen in order, but these are definitely things we want to happen regularly in our high school small groups.
COMMUNITY || Talk about life and hang out.
It feels most natural to start off a small group night with a relaxed atmosphere. Students usually show up over the span of the first 15-minutes of group, so some casual non-programmed time up front talking about the water polo team or the hilarious new Youtube video is usually time well spent. Plus, it’ll give you a little honest glimpse into what your students are into when they’re not with you at group.ACCOUNTABILITY || Spend time sharing the good, bad and ugly in our personal life.
Transition the time of hanging out into a time where you talk about real-life stuff that’s going on. If there’s something we talked about the week before that might make a good transition, throw it out there. It doesn’t have to be super serious – some nights it will and some nights it will be random, funny stories everyone shares. Begin to focus the group and talk about personal discipleship decisions, Bible reading, girls/guys, purity, etc.TEACHING || Instruction encourage students in their walk with God.
Part of the purpose of small groups is giving students a lesson/teaching, so we spend a few minutes talking over a story, passage or principle from the Bible. They key is helping them make it personal.CHALLENGE || Ask them to take a step forward.
What is your challenge this week? Students are asking “so what” I issue a challenge to the group. Maybe the challenge is a resource I want them to tackle with me. Maybe it is a article I read online I copied for them to check out on their own. Maybe it is a prayer I ask them to pray. Either way, make sure you invite them to take a spiritual step forward.PRAYER || Spend a few minutes in specific prayer for the members of your small group.
Cover last week’s prayer requests quickly and then jump into what is on the hearts/minds of students this week. Usually the group ends in prayer than quickly moves to the COMMUNITY stage again for fun/games/stupid for the last bit of time in the evening.
JG
How about worship? We were just reviewing our midweek group and wishing we could bring other elements of worship into the meeting. Our midweek is ususally our more core kids and we total skip over the worship aspect other than prayer. We are looking to incorporate creation walks, scripture reading, meditation, and as many other forms of worship as we can to get them thinking more than just singing. Curious to know if others are doing this or have tried it, and any advice they would give.
[...] helpful. I am sending this out to all my youth mentors as well. Enjoy, and the original is found here. 5 Parts to a Typical Youth Ministry Small Group [...]