Dec
15
Split Decisions
There is a slowly but surely truth that is coming into Student Life at Suncrest Christian Church. The truth is this:
Youth Ministry is a long journey. It is long and it is not always straight like this train track.
(Photo from: CreationSwap)
If youth ministry was a straight and narrow path, it would not be much fun. I dont mean that in a bad way, however there is definitely times when CHANGE is something that can make what seems to be a straight and smooth path seem bumpy, twisty and full of questions.
Right now in our youth ministry we are looking at more of a situation like this:
What does this mean?
Here are the few things that we are facing right now as a youth ministry:
1) The big one is always the most focused and that is: To split into a Jr High Ministry and a Sr High Ministry. Granted this does not mean we would be completely seperate ministries. What it does mean is that we start a path towards seperate programs on a weekly basis. We offer multiple times and locations for students to come worship, learn, laugh and have conversation throughout the week, but we are seeing a little plateau in our students. The big question circling this thought is this: What kind of leadership and logistics will it take to make this happen?
2) To go along with the first big split in the road, it has to deal with this: How do we split and continue both our momentum and gain more community within the ministry? For some reason it seems so difficult to fathom the idea of being seperate but yet being unified in all that we do. I don’t know if I am missing something but we are working at making sure that if we split, what do we do to keep unity as a huge key component to our ministry.
3) The last thought is this: maybe we just need to re-launch and re-advertise everything that we do. That could make a difference right? We are half way through the year and I continually get questions about what is going on with the youth ministry from parents. Not in a bad way, but what do we offer. So maybe there needs to be a resurgence of energy and advertising for our ministry?
HOW DO YOU HAVE YOUR MINISTRY SET UP?
DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR SPLIT MINISTRIES?
Last year we actually did the exact opposite and combined our ministry. For us it was a good move for a lot of practical reasons:
-We purchased a building and moved into a much bigger space, therefore to keep the energy level up we combined our MS & HS.
-It allowed all of our leaders to be together for the same time.
-It was easier for parents (the previous set up was both ministries on the same night @ different times).
We have seen positives from the decision, including lots of numerical growth, but it definitely provides new challenges too like keeping some of the older HS students engaged.
Those are very important questions. i would advice, on the third, that a “relaunch” may not be necessary, but perhaps just a team whose job is to keep parents informed.
Those first two are great questions, and I don’t think there is a right answer. The question is, what works best for you and your church?
Thats awesome! I love hearing when decisions are made and they come out on top!
We are currently meeting together (middle and high school) and it works ok. But there is this nagging feeling that it is not as good as it could be. It is becoming more and more apparent that the typical blocks in merging are keeping students from coming.
Hope all is well my friend! Merry Christmas!
Matt, good thoughts as always! I think I set the re-launch as a shut down and re-starting. I think I meant by re-launch meaning getting all the info out there again. I agree that the first two questions are more important. It is a matter of time and conversation to see what will work well and what would not work. Sometimes I hate to wait and want to just do it, but I dont think this kind of decision can handle that.
Love ya man. Merry Christmas!