Setting Goals in Youth Ministry
In your ministry, you will have four primary audiences: Students, Parents, Youth Workers, and Church Members. Each of these play an integral role in helping students discover their identity in Christ and develop a faith that last for the long-haul. I have always found it more effective to plan according to the people I’m serving rather than according to the “purposes” I’m trying to establish. With that in mind, here’s a model for how your goal-planning might take shape.
Setting Goals
Organizationally, if you don’t make goals then you won’t know how to lead your ministry. How can youth workers discern which events, retreats, hot-topics, and day-to-day ministry realities get priority? There are more “good ideas” out there than anyone’s ministry could possibly pursue. This is why goal-setting isn’t mere pragmatism, it’s simply good leadership. Prayerfully discerning a few goals each year will help you plan and lead your ministry on purpose, rather than flying by the seat of your pants.
Youth Pastor Theologian recommends planning with discipleship and gospel-formation in mind. Remember, the mission of youth ministry is to make adult disciples whose faith took root in their teen years. With that in mind, determine a few goals, write a short description that gives the reason why it’s a worthy goal to prioritize, and then determine a few pathways to try to accomplish this year in order to fulfill your goal.
The examples below are just that… examples. Feel free to replicate them in your own ministries, but they are presented in order to show how one ministry set goals for the four primary audiences every youth ministry serves.
Four Audiences of Youth Ministry
It’s easy for youth workers to only think about teenagers while setting goals in their ministries. Perhaps they’ll also think about youth leaders, since volunteers are a pillar of every good youth ministry. Thankfully, an increasing number of youth workers are re-committing themselves to partnering with parents and integrating the youth into the broader church - but very few ministries actually plan around these commitments. With this in mind, YPT wants to encourage youth workers to craft their ministry plans around the four groups of people every ministry serves, rather than building your goals around your ministry values.
Students
Goal: Student Leadership
Reasoning: We want to identify spiritually mature students who are teachable and looking for mentors. Let’s invest in them as we rebuild the ministry in order to deploy them to minister to their peers and in the church.
Pathway
Student Leadership Bootcamp: A weekend retreat to launch this effort.
Student Ministry Crew: Monthly meetings for training and deployment.
Deploy student ministry crew to actively serve in our regular ministries.
Parents
Goal: Ownership over their teenagers’ spiritual development
Reasoning: Parents are the most important spiritual influence in their kids’ lives. They know that, but don’t always know how to disciple their teenagers.
Pathway
Quarterly Parents Meetings: Consistently express the mission of youth ministry as co-discipleship between parents and youth workers.
Parents Newsletters: Equip them find and use good resources.
Establish personal relationships with parents to hear their concerns, frustrations, and stressors about parenting teenagers. Demonstrate to them that we are genuine partners for their kids.
Youth Workers
Goal: Well-Trained Youth Workers
Reasoning: Volunteers are the backbone of the youth ministry. We simply cannot disciple our students without these leaders’ investment and intentionality. A youth ministry is only as good as its volunteers.
Pathway
Monthly Team Meetings for prayer, fellowship, training, and planning. Reading through Lead Them to Jesus together.
Weekly check-in and prayer before Youth Group each Sunday.
Quarterly in-person check-in with each youth leader.
Church Members
Goal: View Teenagers as their Spiritual Responsibility
Reasoning: We want students to know and experience that they are valued contributors to our church. This begins by the church membership embracing their role in students’ lives.
Pathway
Prayer adoption partners for the school-year.
One large intergenerational program.
Quarterly business meeting report that consistently reminds members of their commitment to parents/children at infant dedication.
Note: church leadership isn’t considered here because you aren’t directly leading them, you are serving alongside them (or under them) in your ministry to these other groups. Hopefully, you will have a certain degree of influence among the church leadership, but that’s not the type of audience we’re talking about here.
