Create A Buzz In Your Youth Ministry

I thought our high school ministry was dead.  A year after taking over our attendance dropped significantly and consistently we had twice as many adults volunteers as teens.  There was no buzz and no one knew we existed.  Even people who were coming on a consistent basis to church had no idea that our high school ministry existed.  After a few changes, tweaks and adjustments that started to change and now there’s a healthy buzz of what is happening in the student ministry.

Courtesy of Brian Smithson (Old Geordie)/Creative Commons License

While you do not want your ministry to be all hype, it’s important that people inside and outside the church know you exist.  That means creating a positive buzz that tells people that there is a THERE, THERE.  The first inclination is to plan something big and huge.  While events draw crowds and create hype, the sustainability is limited.  Your ministry needs a growing buzz.  It needs one that is continuously growing.  If you want to create a healthy buzz in your ministry you need to:

• Be Patient: Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your ministry.  You might grow frustrated with it’s progress, but talk to any veteran in ministry and they’ll reassure you it takes much longer than you think.  To build patience, spend time prayerful crafting your vision and developing the strategy of your ministry.  The buzz takes a while to emerge.

• Build Something Worth Going To: You could spend all of your energy on advertising your ministry; however, if it stinks no one will come back.  As your ministry grows spend your time making it quality and run efficiently.  Teens want to know you aren’t wasting their time with a half-hearted, thrown together program.

• Preach Invest And Invite: The best way to get teens to come to your ministry is through a personal invitation.  Communicate to your teens to invest in their friends, neighbors and classmates so that an invitation comes naturally.  Encourage them and celebrate when they bring someone new. 

• Focus On Relationships: Make your ministry relational by building it on the concept of small groups.  While you might be the youth minister you are not capable of reaching every teen that walks in the door.  Recruit adults who can pour into and connect with teens that you are not capable of reaching. 

Buzz isn’t about hype, it’s about making your presence known.  A healthy buzz builds upon itself and teens (And parents) will learn about who you are and what you do.  A healthy buzz comes from a patient leader.  A healthy buzz comes from a quality ministry.  A healthy buzz comes from people who care about why you exist and how it will make an impact on others lives.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment.