Youth on Zoom in 2021

Leah is the Youth and Children’s Minister at Cobbitty Anglican Church where she has served since 2015. She loves hanging with her family, a good cup of tea, anything competitive, and sharing Jesus with young people.

When Sydney went into lockdown 2.0 I felt many things. But the word to summarise how I felt towards my ministry work was…deflated. Flat. Out of air.

And I know why. Because in ministry, every time I have an unexpected but wonderful conversation with a teenager, it’s a breath of encouragement. Every time we explore the Bible and something clicks, it’s a breath of encouragement. Every time I hear the leaders reflect on how their small group went and how their teens are growing in Jesus, it’s a breath of encouragement.

These things happen so naturally when we meet face to face throughout our weekly gatherings of youth, small groups and church. I felt deflated, knowing that those breaths of encouragement would change.

2020 vs. 2021

As a Youth Group, we had a good experience of Zoom in 2020. The teens were motivated to jump into our Friday night Zooms with the same enthusiasm as they jumped into Youth. We did bonding/social activities, Bible talks (live) and breakout rooms in our small groups. We wanted the teens to still know that they were part of the youth family, connected to each other even if they could not meet together.

But Zoom 2021 is different. Everyone, not just me, seems deflated and understandably. The same things that are breaths of encouragement to me, are breaths of encouragement to our youth and leaders. Our young people thrive in communities where they can share, compare, and challenge each other in healthy ways. Our leaders flourish in communities where they can take every opportunity to speak Jesus into the lives of young people. But on Zoom, these things are lacking.

The reality of Zoom

Zoom is a good option. It is a good option in a sea of ordinary options. Why? Because it allows for some semblance of community. It allows our young people to see each other, to share, to discuss in a regulated way.

The problem is, I (and probably you) know that even though Youth Group has structure, there is flexibility in there to take spontaneous discussions or flagged topics and work through them when needed. There is flexibility to take aside the struggling teen or mediate a conflict. There is flexibility to sit and pray for a young person in need.

On Zoom, this spontaneity is difficult. You can’t follow multiple conversations at once; you can’t “follow up” a comment on the side; you can’t look the teen in the eye and ask them how they’re really going with life and faith. There is a façade that naturally comes with communicating online – a façade that makes deep discipleship and evangelism hard.

Despite this, we’re back using Zoom for Youth Group. Because the value of “gathering together” is high. But a Friday night Zoom meeting isn’t enough. To try and break down the façade of online communication, to try and get real conversations about how our young people are feeling, to challenge the youth in their way of thinking and acting so they are more in line with Jesus, we have to go beyond our whole Zoom gathering. Here are some ways we can do that:

1.      Small groups are key

We need to focus on our small groups. Less people in a Zoom meeting means more opportunities to talk, digress, ask harder and more challenging questions.

Consider spending more of your Zoom gathering in breakout rooms. This could be for games, discussion groups, prayer, testimonies. This time round our leadership team decided to pre-record the talks so that we could show it in small groups. This means our breakout rooms take up most of our Zoom meetings as they watch the Bible talk, pause to discuss throughout, and pray together. We have found that helpful for the leaders to connect more personally with their teens.

Encourage your leaders (if you haven’t already) to focus on a particular group of young people. In that small group have a weekly bible study via Zoom. Use that opportunity to connect, encourage, challenge, and pray.

2.      Supplement Zoom with other forms of contact

•   Send out weekly encouragement texts.

• Give them a call (yes, like talk to them on the phone!) – and chat to their parents while you’re at it.

• You could even drop off a pack of goodies at their front door to encourage them.

• Check in with them individually, and ask them how they are going, and how you can pray for them. Teens are not always the best communicators – so the leaders need to work hard at taking the initiative.

This is particularly important for those youth who aren’t connecting via Zoom, for whatever reason. Youth who were previously committed to face-to-face meetings but are not gathering online. Our Youth Group has them. I’m sure most do. See what lines of communication their parents are okay with and have regular contact with them also.

(Note: please do any of the above suggestions in line with Safe Ministry practises and Covid regulations.)  

3.      Discipleship is always the aim

What we want is for our young people to know Jesus. We want them to keep faithfully following him if they already call Jesus Lord. We want them to know the hope they have in Christ, a hope that is not weighed down by the hopelessness of our current world situation.

How I miss being able to do that face to face! It’s deflating. But we still have options. We still have avenues we can do this through. It may not be ideal – okay, it’s not ideal in any way – but we can follow Jesus’ call to make disciples. Using Zoom, how can we best disciple these young people God has entrusted to us? Let that aim shape the way we do our online ministries.