At the end of every High School year, as a youth pastor, I enter into what I call the “Off Season.”  Yes… I view my day to day youth ministry job just like a professional athlete

Actually, it really just means that we stop regular school year programming and go into a lighter season of ministry.  This actually provides me and my team some much needed rest and recuperation for the next season.  But, just like any athlete, the off season is not just a time to sit back and do nothing.  I do “OFF SEASON TRAINING.”  No, I don’t start working on my bench press or my 5k times… I train myself in leadership, communication, youth ministry, and team building.  So how do I train? Well, here is a short list of some things I do:

1. Intentionally read books on leadership, communication, & Youth Ministry.

I push myself to go beyond where I am at in these areas.  Even if I think I am strong in this… I can always improve on those strengths.

2. Look for conferences to attend.

Whether they are online or with a whole team of people… conferences are a great way to train for a year of ministry.

3. Go to lunch with other Youth Pastors.

I have, over the years, made a point to go to lunch with other youth pastors (on and off season) and sharpen myself as a youth pastor.  We’ll discuss philosophy, resources, ideas, theology, best practices… These are always AWESOME times!

4. Plan “HANG OUT” events with students.

Summer becomes one of those times where the stress of every week programming is gone… and I can do some great relational ministry.  This helps bring me back to remember what it is all about.  Sometimes I just need the reminder.

What do you do to TRAIN in the offseason?

A couple of weeks ago a friend in youth ministry asked me a pretty good question:

Sam… I was hoping to pick your brain a little bit. I have a fairly small youth group (about 17 students), which is mostly comprised of Middle School students. Also, about 75% of my students don’t attend [our church]. This has caused a bit of tension between the Senior Pastor and I, as he believes I am not making progress because I haven’t gotten the students from Sunday morning involved on Sunday night. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions as to how to get the students tied in?

That is a great question because I have also, over the course of my youth ministry experience, struggled with this [I think we all have].

So here is what I have learned over the years as it relates to getting students tied in to your ministry:

1. Use “UP FRONT” time on Sunday Morning to cheerlead for student ministry.

Let’s face it… you [as the student pastor] are probably the only one who is thinking about student ministry non-stop, so you need to use your time in front of the congregation wisely as it relates to promoting your ministry.  If you don’t get regular time up front… ask your Senior Pastor if you can and let him know the purpose behind it.  I’m pretty sure that they would not object to you trying to get the students in your church involved in your youth ministry.  But BEWARE: You need to do these things as SHORT and SWEET as possible.  Don’t drag on about it.  Nothing kills your upfront time in a church service like stealing time away from everything else to go on and on about something that affects 10% of the audience.

2. Go out of your way to introduce yourself to new students.

Now I know that not every youth pastor is wired up the same.  Some are more extroverted and this comes very naturally… and some are more introverted and this just sounds like swallowing a cup full of thumb tacks.  But if you are going to get students “tied in” to your youth ministry… you need to acknowledge them and introduce yourself to them.  And to take it a step further… get others to do the same.  The more student ministry “cheerleaders” you have… the more students will feel like it is a welcoming, inviting, and fun place.

3. Leverage natural relationships.

If going up to a new teenager in your church and introducing yourself as the youth pastor seems very awkward to you… you can always leverage the natural relationships around you.  For example… this last fall I was standing at our student info desk in the lobby of our church and noticed a family with a high school student in it that did not attend our sunday night program.  I thought, “I’ll just go up and introduce myself to them!”  As I started walking over to them… the family walked over to someone else and started talking, leaving their High School aged girl alone.  I thought to myself, “Well, I don’t want to look like a creeper… so what should I do now?”  I saw one of our high school girls and asked her if she knew that girl.  She did and she went over to talk with her, and then brought her over and introduced her to me.  I have leveraged natural relationships A LOT over the years and it has worked great.

There are probably hundreds of more ideas… but these were the top 3 that came to mind for me.

At every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend.

- John Stott

Know of anyone who would be a good fit?

if you are someone who teaches the Bible to anyone… this is a conference that you need to attend.  And there are two AWESOME advantages for this conference: #1] it’s online, so you don’t have any travel, lodging, or food expenses & #2] It’s absolutely FREE!  Go to www.preachbettersermons.com and sign up today!  It will be worth your time!

So back about 10 years ago I read Doug Field’s book “Purpose Driven Youth Ministry.”  That plus my college classes plus life experiences have radically shaped how I view youth ministry and my youth ministry philosophy.  In his book he refers to “The Funnel.”  What he means by this is that as you go deeper both in community and spiritual content… your numbers will DRASTICALLY decrease.  I teach a class for my students that helps them dig deeper into God’s word and sets them up well in the knowledge department about the what the Bible is all about and how to study it.  I love the class… but sometimes I can get discouraged about the numbers of students that show up to it.  I say to myself, “I wish EVERY STUDENT in my ministry would come to this class.”  But the bottom line is, they won’t.  The reason?  It’s the funnel!  That picture up there shows how I strategically plan out our student ministry programs.  We have large events where we want students to invite their friends, we have our regular Sunday night gatherings, then we have small group nights once a month, and THEN the classes, and then individual discipleship happens (which is not a program).  So classes are 4th on the ladder down the tunnel.  So what I started doing was tracking each of these by a PERCENTAGE.  So now… if we hit our percentage for our program, we know that we are not failing in this area.  If you have a youth ministry of 50-60 students and do a “class” during the week… expect about 10%.  That’s 5-6 students.  These percentages have helped me put all of this into perspective.  And who knows, as the word gets out, maybe the percentage will change?

Well… there it is!!!  That is Burke Baby #3!  not sure if it is a boy or girl yet, but we are all VERY EXCITED anyway!