How to encourage your youth to keep serving
Help your youth to grow as followers of Jesus by finding opportunities to serve at church, at your youth programs and at home.
In my late teens, I was definitely a follower of Christ but one thing that significantly impacted my faith was being asked to teach a group for kids church. It was one thing being responsible for my own faith but quite another to contribute to the faith of others.
The moment I started serving in this way, it was revealed to me that my faith was not just my own. Bit by bit over time, I searched my own faith as I spoke with a small group of year 5 and 6 boys about theirs. Serving grew my faith.
Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.- Ephesians 4:11 - 13
One of the key tasks of Christian leaders is to equip the people of God to build up the church by serving. This is just as true for youth leaders to senior ministers and it should continue to be a focus for all during coronavirus as any other time.
The trouble is when a crisis hits and it all goes pear-shaped, we’re at the highest risk of grabbing back control by doing it all ourselves as it helps us feel safe. But serving is an essential part of discipleship. To be a follower of Jesus is to serve. If we’re discipling our young people, we’re equipping them to serve and pointing them to opportunities in our youth groups, churches, at home, in the wider community and in other ministries.
These opportunities for your youth can be as public as serving in the church music team or as small as helping their siblings with homework. No matter how you approach youth service, here are five things to help you in your youth programs:
Don’t let perfectionism eclipse service. I remember asking a leader on a youth camp why there were no campers involved in serving in the sessions. Their reply was “I don’t think any of them could do a good enough job”. What this said to me was either their standards were far too high or they weren’t in the mindset of equipping their youth to serve.
Remind your leaders of their role. Leaders play a vital part in equipping youth to serve. With the right mindset, they can help your group by:
a. Finding youth to serve in particular roles
b. Helping youth prepare, lead and evaluate their contribution
Give your youth appropriate responsibility. For some things, youth need to be led through serving but for many roles of service, once they have been talked through the parameters, they will rise to the challenge of being responsible for something. At youth, for example, could they choose the songs, coordinate the prayer groups or run the interviews? You might find they’re more creative than you!
Make sure your youth (and you!) know why they are serving. Every part of your youth ministry and its programs should have a good reason for existence and it should be something about people knowing, loving and following Jesus. Make that really clear.
Understand all of the elements of your program. For most things, if it’s on the list, it’s something youth can do, do with help, or be included in. So think outside the box! I know one youth minister who asked one of his youth to help him with exegesis for the talk he was giving the following week.
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With that in mind, here are some ideas for getting kids to serve at youth group in an online world. Many of these ideas can also be adapted once churches reopen.
Get your youth to run the games (appropriately).
Invite some youth to your leaders meeting (with appropriate parental consent) to work with your team to plan their contribution.
Let the kids interview each other. Same questions each week – the interviewee is responsible for choosing and interviewing the next person.
Have older youth co-lead discussion in breakout groups.
Line up youth to share what they are finding challenging at the moment, how they are seeing God at work or a Bible verse they’ve found encouraging.
Put youth into care groups where they are responsible to call each other each week to talk and pray.
Invite your youth to be involved in your church’s attempt to love your neighbours (listen to Mitch Everingham share how he’s done that)
Ask a team of young people to set up a prayer blog that you utilise in your youth ‘gatherings’
Issue a challenge for kids to send in a short video capturing the Bible passage for the week.
Have a time of open ‘popcorn’ prayer (with screens muted).
Over the years, I’ve seen my story replicated over and over.
When Jaedan started serving, he realised it was God working through his service rather than his own abilities, now he continues to lead at kids club knowing God will use him even in his weakest moments. Serving was the catalyst for Nathan’s faith to flourish in a way it never had before and he continues to help young people by discipling them in the local youth group. When Maddie first tried co-leading a discussion group as an older youth, she realised she needed to be transformed by God’s word first and she continues to allow God’s word change her as she leads young people and intentionally encourages others in the youth group she attends.
May youth continue to be transformed by service, during lockdown and beyond.