What Kind of Youth Ministry Do You Have?

Youth pastors, how do you define success in your youth ministry?

At a recent youth pastors conference, Josh Griffin from Download Youth Ministry asked youth pastors this question - is your youth ministry more like a cruise ship or an aircraft carrier? That passing comment came up in a follow up breakout session where the conversation became centered around the question "how do I make our youth ministry less like a cruise ship and more like a battleship?" In that breakout, Josh admitted that while it's much easier and sometimes more fun to be a cruise ship director, Jesus is calling us to lead ministries that are much more.

In discussing all of this with some co-workers a few days later, the cruise ship or battleship question led us to this conclusion - the most important factor in what kind of youth ministry you have is how you measure success. A friend commented that in his work with youth pastors the number one question that youth pastors feel expected to answer is "how many students are coming in the building each week?" How many butts are in the seats? We all agreed that most youth pastors do not believe that is the most important metric for youth ministry - but if it's not, what is?  

I once knew a youth pastor with a very small youth group of around 15 students but a large number of his students went into full-time ministry as missionaries, pastors, and youth leaders. That's a pretty good metric. Another youth pastor that I knew measured his success by how many students were serving in the church during their weekend services. I like that metric as well!

In a recent nation-wide research report from Dare 2 Share Ministries, the most important metric in youth ministries that were growing the most was found to be how many students were actively sharing the gospel message with friends on a regular basis. That's a great metric as well!

What if our primary question was not "How many are coming in?" but instead "How many are we sending out?"

What if we started reporting to our lead pastors and church boards things like...

• we have x number of students that shared the gospel with a friend last month
• we have x number of students involved in or leading campus ministries in their schools
• we have x number of students starting new campus ministries in their schools
• we have x number of students doing ministry in our communities
• we have x number of students discipling friends they have led to Christ

That sounds a lot more like a battleship to me! And it has been well demonstrated that when we focus more on how many we are sending out, we will find that many more start coming in.

The number of ministries that can help churches make this change from cruise ship to battleship has greatly increased in recent years. There are incredible resources for youth pastors who want to make this a reality. So what are you waiting for? Start reporting these new numbers to your church board - who knows, you might impact how your entire church operates!

I want to say thank you to Josh Griffin, Jeremiah Zemet, Chuck Klein, John Glasser, and Rick Eubanks for their help with this article.