What You Need To Do To Help Teens Show Up

I’m starting over and it’s a humbling experience. I’ve been at my new job for less than a year and fall programming is right around the corner. The big question that looms in my mind is “Will anyone show?”

Will teenagers show up to the program if I don’t require them to be there? Will anyone want to come back if it doesn’t meet their expectations?

This is when you have to:

REMIND YOURSELF IT’S A JOURNEY

Your ministry will take time to grow. Even if you get the numbers right away you need to build an infrastructure to maintain that growth.

To determine whether or not you are heading in the right direction you should:

• Set goals on how many teens you’d like to reach
• Figure out the amount of volunteers you need to make that happen
• Create mile markers to help you measure you progress

By taking these steps you are creating a pace and identifying your needs. You’ll have a clearer sense of what needs to be done on a day to day basis.

ASK FOR HELP

If you tackle your problems on your own then the isolation is going to wear you out. Promoting your ministry needs to go beyond you and include other people.

Build a team of volunteers, recruit parents and get your coworkers involved. Get them excited and encourage them to be advocates.

Those are your first two steps. After that you need to:

DEVELOP A COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

You can’t just throw out a couple of bulletin announcements and emails expecting people to show. Your communication needs to be:

• Consistently executed so that it can work through the noise
• Creatively designed to be memorable and engaging
• Constantly adjusted so that it does not become redundant

There are great tools out there that can help you develop a communication strategy. After the event don’t be afraid to ask for feedback regarding the communication. Make it a priority.

ASK THEM FOR A RSVP

This might seem like common sense, but asking for a RSVP will help you gauge your numbers, and inform others who is coming.

If you want to get really technical track when people register or sign up. This will help you with future communication strategy by informing you when to push communication and ease up.

CONNECT THE PROGRAM WITH SOMEONE FAMILIAR

When someone is making the decision to attend your program or event they are going to ask the question, “Who’s going to be there?” The idea of being alone or not knowing anyone is a huge obstacle.

You could have cool posters, and engaging emails but teens need a point of familiarity. To take away this obstacle you can do at least two things:

Make Yourself More Present

How well do your teens know you? You need to be more present during church on Sunday and in the community. Get to know as many teens as possible so that they are comfortable with you.

Rally Friends Together

Even if teens know you, they want to know if their friends are going to go. When you make a personal invite rally friends together by asking them at the same time. Describe for them the experience and how it can help their friendship grow.

LEARN FROM EACH EXPERIENCE

Was the event a success? Did people show up? What did they gather from their experience? Are they going to come back?

Review your goals and expectations. Gather feedback from your team and the participants. Take that information to look at ways of creating a clearer communication strategy and more engaging experience so that they are excite to come back next time.

Again, building a program takes time. If people don’t show up right away it’s okay. Pray for them, continue to offer the invitation and keep your eyes set on the goals.