Don’t Copy and Paste Your Ministry

This is the first installment of a new series, where YPT asked a few youth workers to write about what they wish they knew when they were new in ministry. Follow the link above to read the rest of the series.

Copy and paste is one of my favorite features on my phone. It allows me to copy something, whether it is a tweet or an email, and attach it to a text message or Facebook post in just a few clicks. While copy and paste is great when it comes to sending texts, it is a terrible ministry strategy. This is something I wish I knew before I entered student ministry.

My first student ministry role was serving as a volunteer/intern at a church in a college town (which I’ll refer to as College Church). The church ran two services and was fairly large in both attendance and its budget. This allowed the youth ministry to have certain resources most churches did not: access to a video production team, worship leaders who could practice with teenage musicians, and aesthetically pleasing stage design. Since the church was in a college town, there was a constant cycle of eager and energetic twenty-somethings to lead small groups and disciple students. During my time there, I preached some of my first sermons, led a small group for middle school boys, and helped lead various trips/events.

After serving for about two years in that role, I became a part-time Youth Ministry Director in a small town about forty minutes from the college town (Small Town Church). Small Town Church could not have been more different. There was no video production team, no worship leaders, no cycle of college-age leaders, and no stage. The budget allotted for youth ministry was less than half the budget allotted at College Church. The meeting space consisted of chairs, couches, and Bibles.

Without much thought, I immediately set out to try and recreate what College Church did, and to put it bluntly – it failed miserably. At one point I tried to get some students together to start a youth worship band. They sang once and it was clear that the students were not responding at all. My next step was to simply show YouTube videos and again, students did not respond positively. Another idea I had was to make my own bumper videos for each new sermon series. I had a buddy of mine come and record a video (starring myself) for an upcoming series that included dramatic music and an intense voiceover. The church showed it during a service one Sunday morning and – *crickets*.

What I was failing to learn was the obvious lesson: the teenagers at Small Town Church were not the same teenagers from College Church. They came from different social and economic backgrounds, had different interests, and had different assumptions about Christianity and Jesus Christ. To “copy and paste” ministry strategies from one context to another was a mistake that led to some growing pains in ministry. I was failing to minister to the real, flesh and blood students who were attending, and instead attempting to format the ministry to minister to students who lived 45 minutes down the road who would never walk through the door of Small Town Church. I had to throw away my “copy and paste” strategy for student ministry.

Let me be clear: I am not saying the context of College Church is superior to the context of Small Town Church. In the minds of many, a large, contemporary church is superior to a small, rural church. At the same time, others reject large and contemporary churches assuming the small, rural churches are superior or even more faithful.

To counter this mindset, Hershel York points out that in Acts 1:14 the number of members in the Jerusalem church is 120. By the end of Acts 2 and the events of Pentecost, 3,000 are added to the membership of the church! Within days this church experienced a transformation from what we would consider a “small church” to being a “megachurch.” Whether there were 120 or 3,120 there is no hint of the biblical authors saying that the Jerusalem church was more biblical or more faithful because of their numbers.

If you find yourself in a small church, don’t try to make it something it does not need to be. Don’t look at the members of your church as somehow being less faithful because the church is small. Praise God for placing you in the context you are in, and commit yourself to meeting the people under your care where they are. Your people may not be familiar with or even like certain practices common in larger contemporary churches (like bumper videos and stage design). Get to know your students and their families and work to arrange your ministry accordingly. 

There are certain practices that are shared from context to context – the most obvious one being the teaching and preaching of Scripture. Just as the preaching of the Word is central to the gathering of the local church, the teaching of the Word of God should be central in the life of our student ministries. It is what our students need in order to be taught, corrected, and encouraged (2 Timothy 3:16). The preaching and teaching of God’s Word should be non-negotiable in the lives of our student ministries no matter the context, although the depth of your teaching could depend on your context. For example, one church may have a student ministry with a rich and fruitful history studying Scripture, while another student ministry is reaching students with little to no background in church or the Bible. Both ministries should teach the Word, but the depth of the teaching could vary. Another example is connecting students into the practices and rhythms of the entire church body. Just like with teaching, this will look different depending on context and denominations. There will be different processes for membership, different ministries for students to serve in, as well as other factors. Some churches will have a whole host of ministries for teenagers to serve in, while others may be more limited in what students can do. No matter what it looks like, youth leaders should seek to connect their students into the life of their particular church.

Youth leader or volunteer, resist the urge to copy and paste practices you had in one context into another or what you’ve seen “work” in other ministries. Get to know your students and their families, then prayerfully shape your ministry schedule and format in order to reach them. The students at your current church are made in the image of God just like your former students or the students at that nearby youth group you admire. They need the gospel and come with unique personalities, giftings, and backgrounds, and they’re the ones God has called you to shepherd.