What's the point?

I know I know. I just posted the other day. Sorry this week is crazy so I’m posting my next post early this week. I have a Skillet and Disciple concert we’re taking the teens to tomorrow. I have two assignments due in college, and my heads still spinning over the post-modernism lecture. On top of that I work a full time secular job. So pity me lol!

What’s the point of my ministry? If you have been in youth ministry for longer than a year you have asked this question more than once. I ask myself this question at least once a month and four times near lock-in time! One of the best books you can ever read in youth ministry is “Purpose Driven Youth Ministry” by Doug Fields. It is a timeless classic on how to set up and run a biblically based youth ministry.

I won’t get into the particulars of the book but I will tell you my experience. The first year of my ministry I got beat up pretty bad. We were doing at least two major events a month with no growth, no direction, and a lack of counsel from my church as to what they wanted me doing.

I sat down and read that book at the behest of a friend of mine in the faith who had been a youth minister. I was blown away. I had never thought of a youth ministry being set up like this but it made sense. The first thing I had to do what to set down a Mission statement for our ministry. Why do we exist? I canvassed the church and got so many different statements about why we existed that I had to write a mission statement from scratch. The one that fit was this:

“The purpose of Revolution Youth Ministry is to REACH non-believing junior high and high school students, to CONNECT them with other Christians, to help them GROW in their faith, and to challenge the growing students to DISCOVER their ministry and HONOR God with their lives.” Park Ave Baptist Church Revolution Youth Ministry 2009.

Everything I plan and do must meet one of those guidelines. Tomorrow night’s concert got filtered through this statement. What is the purpose of this concert event? It will help us REACH a non-believing student we are taking with us and to CONNECT them with our Christian students. I try to make sure our events at minimum meet two of the criteria.

So come up with a purpose statement for your ministry. Need help? Read “Purpose Driven Youth Ministry”. Your ministry will have direction and your students and volunteers will know your vision