So our church is located in a very strong Christian area of Melbourne.
Within a 5-10min drive from our church are a number of churches with great youth ministries doing great things.
I believe we've got a great youth ministry doing great stuff here too, but we miss the one thing these other churches have. LOADS of people. Our youth group probably gets on average 10-15 on a Friday night. A few more come on Sunday, but they don't come on Friday, and many who come on Friday don't come on Sunday.
It makes it hard to get new people, particularly youth, to stick around. I think this is totally understandable, it's exciting to be part of a church with 40-50 or 200-300 other like-minded youth.
I'm still uncertain how to operate in this kind of climate. When I was in Tasmania, we were one of those 'big' groups, with 30, 40 or 50 people. There weren't that many other 'big' youth groups around. I new numbers would win more numbers. We didn't focus on numbers it was just exceptionally helpful in doing growing gospel ministry.
Here are some of the questions I'm thinking about often:
1. How do we be distinctive from these other groups?
2. Why do we bother existing when there are these other good groups?
Popular Posts
-
In 2008 I preached this sermon on Dating. I was then a single man and about a month later I put this into practice and started dating Ell...
-
I've just finished my first ever full blown exegetical sermon series. I decided to tackle Hebrews over eight weeks. You can listen t... -
I think there are two mistakes we can make as Christians as we seek to be missionaries or evangelists in our world today. The first...
Here's another question to ask... how many young people are in your area, that aren't part of any of these big youth groups? Why aren't they? (Do all the groups cater for the same sorts of kids) Is there a specific sub group not being reached that you could aim to reach?
ReplyDeleteQuestion #2 is a penetrating question, isn't it? I think that is what David was asking other churches to consider in Tassie. But the answer, for you, is probably quite different. Often times the distinctive of smaller groups is deeper discipleship. Jesus, for instance, often let folks who were not part of his inner crowd go. But with his smaller group he gained deep commitment, and eventually through their work grew his Kingdom.
ReplyDeleteHave you done much partnering with other ministries for events? We do a "mission trip" to our own community once a year with like 8 other churches. It's a great opportunity to see Christians working together in unity transcending denominations. One of my favorite events throughout the year. Not to mention, seeing Christians unified in acts of service for their neighbors is just a beautiful sight.
Take advantage of the benefits of smaller groups by having leaders disciple in small groups of 2-3, demonstrating Christ-likeness by involving them in other parts of their life and ministry - taking on big-sister/brother roles. This is life-changing and hard to do in large churches. My view is that big is not better. "lifestyle discipleship"
ReplyDelete