Subscribe to the NetworkGUEST POST: No More Silly Games
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.
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.