In my 12 years as a youth pastor, I remember making a silent vow: "God, if I ever get to be a senior pastor, I'm going to do youth ministry for big people." The lessons of youth ministry have helped our church attract and retain a difficult demographic: twentysomethings. Keeping it RealOne of the first lessons of youth ministry is to keep it real. Teenagers have their authenticity meter tuned high. If you're not the same person on Sunday that you are the rest of the week, if your language is different, or if you act differently, they can smell it. When they turn 18, if they suspect the whole church is that way, they leave it. My first church was filled with good-hearted people, but they were trying to become what they thought they should be, instead of being themselves. Through modeling and from the pulpit, I consistently communicated, "Let's talk about real struggles and real questions. Let's not be an exclusive club, but instead build a community that currently disconnected people want to be a part of." I encouraged them to befriend non-Christians and to rub shoulders with the culture, so they could learn to talk normally and engage people outside the church in meaningful conversation. In preaching, I would crack open the door to my personal life, not to glamorize evil, but to say, "This is my struggle, and this is how God has helped me." Sometimes I would deliver a string of Christianese jargon to point out how exclusive and silly we sound when we talk like that. There's a saying in that area, "The reason central Kentucky has so many rolling hills is because people have been burying their stuff for generations." We won't have any impact on twentysomethings if we bury our stuff. Russ didn't hide anything. I had Russ share his story of gambling addiction before the church. They didn't normally talk about things like that, but we started inviting people from the congregation to share their stories. Russ pushed us to become more real when he stood up and said, "I was sitting there with a bottle of Jack Daniels in one hand and the remote in the other, watching the Super Bowl, knowing I had just lost my house because my team had lost. I put down the remote, and I picked up the phone to call rehab." He opened a door for people to be honest. Getting Young People InvolvedRather than separating young people from the mainstream, we need to engage them. This means including teens and twentysomethings in visible ways: in worship and drama, as greeters, through testimonies, and even in leadership. Engaging means targeting your programming and teaching like you know young people are there. That means including them in preaching illustrations or challenge points ("whether you're at work or by your locker"). It means learning about their culture and addressing their issues. Casting the VisionWhile every generation maintains its uniqueness and offers different strengths, the heartbeat of God is for one church. Bringing the generations together requires humility, mutual submission, and respect for different strengths and passions. Those virtues don't happen easily. They emerge as we teach them and model them. Sometimes that means straight talk. Len Sweet asked a seniors group, "How many of you grandparents love your grandkids? How many of you love your grandkids so much you would lay down your life for them?" Many hands were raised. Then he said, "How many of you love your grandkids so much you would lay down your music for them?" Other times you can just drop in comments, like the one I made following a service that included children and teens: "I am so proud to be part of a church that sees the next generation not as the church of tomorrow, but as the church of today." And to the students, I would say, "You need to be grateful to be in a church where older adults love and support you like these do." The vision must be cast and recast, because in the end, you must create a culture of unity and embrace. It's beautiful when that culture develops. We once held a reunion service featuring the former senior pastor and the quartet that sang with him every week during his 40-year tenure. These guys we all loved sang old gospel songs, and it was a great night. The next morning, an older guy in the church grabbed me. "Were you here last night at that reunion?" "It was great, wasn't it?" I really thought it was, although our music was now led by a worship band. He said, "I love that old quartet and that old preacher. Let me tell you something—" He put his hands on my shoulders and said tearfully, "When I look down that hallway and see thousands of teenagers pouring into this church, I thank God that I'm a part of this church. I'm not longing for the past; I believe that these are the good ol' days." — Mike Breaux; excerpted from our sister publication Leadership journal, © 2005 by Christianity Today International or the author. For more articles like this, visit www.LeadershipJournal.net. Discuss1. How well do we communicate that younger people are welcome in our fellowship? 2. What aspects of our services and programming are we willing to change so that twentysomethings feel welcome? 3. How well does our youth ministry prepare teens to be involved in church after they graduate? © 2009 ChurchCentral.com 
  Stage Design for the Large Group SessionSet the stage for captivating communication.  Fresh Activities for Senior Adults—An Overview An overview of the steps for planning activities for your senior adult ministry. Cultivating Creativity The inexact but essential art of bringing freshness to ministry. Bible Study Use these Bible studies to reach your senior adults where they are at. |            | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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