As adult leaders in student ministry, we’re in this to make a difference in the lives of students. We are compelled by something inside and by Christ Himself to see Jesus alive and well in their lives, to see them surrendered to the will and wonder of God, and to see the faith we hold dear passed on to their generation, in the context of their place in history, so that they might hold it dear and give it extravagantly.

However, while it may not be possible to be too eager for those things, I do believe that in our eagerness, we can go about things the wrong way. In our attempts to just “do something”, we end up doing the wrong things. And even with a heart to see teens drawn in we end up pushing them out.

Ministering to teens demands a few basic yet essential ingredients. I’ll list a few of them here, but don’t hold me to the order in which I list them.

1. A real-life relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
This one sounds like a no-brainer. However I can tell you that I have honestly seen youth workers exhibit little to no fruits of the Spirit. I’m not trying to be oversimplistic, but I think we need to agree that if there aren’t any fruits of the Spirit, then there isn’t the Spirit. A real-life living active relationship with God will over time cause us to be more loving, more joyful, more peaceful, more patient, kinder, filled with goodness, gentler, filled with faith, and controlling ourselves.

2. A willingness to do what it takes to build bridges into the lives of students.
I have known people with incredible amounts of knowledge of the Bible and even a passionate desire to teach it to students, but were blatantly honest that they had no intention of connecting relationally with students. They simply wanted to teach what they know. But without bridges of relatability, relevance, and genuine relationship, how did they suppose that information was going to be transferred in a way that sticks? I’m afraid that gone are the days when students simply sit and absorb information just because an adult is speaking.

3. A teachable heart.
I’ve been in fulltime student ministry for 15 years, and part-time before that and my opinion is there is nothing that will muck up a team of youth leaders more quickly than an adult who knows it all. A “don’t confuse me with the facts” attitude will kill a team effort in a heartbeat. The longer I’m a leader, the more I realize I’d better be a maturing follower if I want to lead effectively. So as a leader, devote yourself to learning, reading, listening, researching, and integrating. There are some great online (and free!) tools to help in this process. In fact, this site itself is meant to be a place of learning, growing, corporate reflection, sharing, and being enhanced as leaders. We need that so desperately.

4. The nerve to reproduce.
One of my earliest memories in life was being a very young boy, standing on an old wooden stool, next to the table that held our church’s mimeograph machine. My dad was the pastor and he’d set up the original copy (on wax paper), affixed to the ink drum, and feed the blank sheets into the machine while I–like a circus monkey–would turn that handle, spinning that drum, and making those copies. Making copies was hard work and while advancement in copy-machine technology has brought us to nearly painless push-button copy making, I’m afraid that reproducing ourselves in students is a bit more arduous than that. But without reproduction, people will eventually wonder what it is you do (not out of the ordinary, maybe), but so will you.

What other ingredients do you see as key to fruitful ministry to students?

Jerry Varner is a Student Discipleship Pastor in the Richmond, VA area. He’s been at it for 15+ years and only asks for 15+ more – read Jerry’s blog at http://jerrythinks.blogspot.com.