Starting a Ministry to Twenty-Somethings: Do Your Homework
Life on the road is not very glamorous. I've been traveling a lot of late and use to find it exciting but now I can't wait to get home. Over the past six months, I've been flying out to the Midwest at least once a month for the duration of about a week . Recently I've been contracted by Grace College to do some recruiting for the school on the west coast. Not a whole lot of traveling, and I know spending a few days in San Diego sounds like a vacation, but all this living in hotels and passing through airports has made me appreciate my little house in Whittier. Enough said.
One thing I gained from so much traveling is the opportunity to see churches from across the country. Whenever I get the chance, I like to check out a church's ministry program, especially with young people. Do they have a paid pastor overseeing their ministry to youth? Is it led by a volunteer staff that they train? What do they do for their post high school ministry? I'm always looking to see what's going on across the country with junior high through college age.
When was the last time you researched other ministries? I've talked with pastors who want to start a college ministry or attract twenty-somethings to their church but haven't investigated the subject much. Sometimes they tell me they are starting a church service for young people, but when I ask if they found a "young church" model they like, most reply that they only talked to a few churches. They felt they "got the jest" of how to do it.
Some church leaders think that "one size fits all." They read some articles or a book on Millennials and immediately start to implement what the read. It doesn't work that way. It takes time to investigate what is going on with today's younger generation. I do a lot of reading, researching, and interviews to find out what the landscape is like with those that are in their late twenties and younger. I've racked up countless of hours on the phone and hundreds of emails talking with leaders who work with this age group. I've done a number of face to face interviews with men and women from around the country. My bedroom is stacked with numerous books looking at this millennial generation, some from Christian perspective and some from outside the Church.
The bottom line is this: if you want to understand what God is doing today with this younger generation then you have to investigate. You have to take the time to go where they go. Talk to them. Ask questions and listen. Read, research, and ponder what you are seeing. Talk to the "experts" who really aren't experts at all but people who have done what it takes to see where we are going as a Church. The older I get the more the future of the Church comes running up behind me. Someday that "future" will pass me and establish its own church. I hope I had an influence on what the future Church looks like here in America. I think I have. At least I've done my homework.
One thing I gained from so much traveling is the opportunity to see churches from across the country. Whenever I get the chance, I like to check out a church's ministry program, especially with young people. Do they have a paid pastor overseeing their ministry to youth? Is it led by a volunteer staff that they train? What do they do for their post high school ministry? I'm always looking to see what's going on across the country with junior high through college age.
When was the last time you researched other ministries? I've talked with pastors who want to start a college ministry or attract twenty-somethings to their church but haven't investigated the subject much. Sometimes they tell me they are starting a church service for young people, but when I ask if they found a "young church" model they like, most reply that they only talked to a few churches. They felt they "got the jest" of how to do it.
Some church leaders think that "one size fits all." They read some articles or a book on Millennials and immediately start to implement what the read. It doesn't work that way. It takes time to investigate what is going on with today's younger generation. I do a lot of reading, researching, and interviews to find out what the landscape is like with those that are in their late twenties and younger. I've racked up countless of hours on the phone and hundreds of emails talking with leaders who work with this age group. I've done a number of face to face interviews with men and women from around the country. My bedroom is stacked with numerous books looking at this millennial generation, some from Christian perspective and some from outside the Church.
The bottom line is this: if you want to understand what God is doing today with this younger generation then you have to investigate. You have to take the time to go where they go. Talk to them. Ask questions and listen. Read, research, and ponder what you are seeing. Talk to the "experts" who really aren't experts at all but people who have done what it takes to see where we are going as a Church. The older I get the more the future of the Church comes running up behind me. Someday that "future" will pass me and establish its own church. I hope I had an influence on what the future Church looks like here in America. I think I have. At least I've done my homework.
This entry was posted
on Friday, October 19, 2007 at 8:06 AM.
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As one who currently is employed to work with college students, i would say well said. Too often we mistake application for prescription. We've learned never to underestimate the sub culture of a University or a demographic. What works at one school, fails at another.
What speaks volumes though is genuine, real life christianity. It cuts through culture.
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