Structured Ministry

We’ve been examining the current trend in America among young people losing their faith. In this last part of that series, we’ll look at some of the logistics that the programs can use to try to keep students engaged.

Youth ministers, there are plenty of sources for Bible studies out there, like the Great Adventure Bible Study, for one, but I think it would be MUCH more enlightening and interesting for students if you were to use some older sources, such as the Catena Aurea, by Thomas Aquinas. The Catena is a compilation of what Church Fathers, such as Augustine, Ambrose, John Chrysostom, Jerome, and more, commented on Scripture. There’s no need to focus on the deep theological meanings posed by them, simply to take these commentaries into consideration when planning the study is enough.

For apologetic resources, the team over at Catholic Answers (www.catholic.com) do a fantastic job of what they do. Youth ministers, to prepare for an apologetics topic. Head on over to the forums on their website for an introduction to the topic. Should a student pose you a question you don’t know how to answer, you MUST answer them somehow. Sometimes, the best answer you can give is, “I don’t know. I’ll get back to you.” Why? Because it acknowledges that the student had a legitimate question. Don’t try to make up an answer on a topic that you don’t understand. This will do nothing but confuse the student and show them that the youth minister is more concerned about his or her own ego than actually training the students. Acknowledge questions you can’t answer, look up the answer, and then actually answer the student. Usually, these questions weigh on their minds for a while and they’ll remember if you don’t answer.

                Now, how should these meetings be run? There MUST be some sort of time to socialize before the meeting starts. The way I’ve seen it handled is to schedule the meetings for two hours, 7-9pm, then use the first half an hour as a time to allow the students to socialize and catch up with people who may go to different schools. After that, open with a prayer and begin the night. The topic for the night shouldn’t take more than half an hour to 45 minutes, max. If the students have demonstrated in the past to actually have a long enough attention span, feel free to go longer, but until they’ve proven that they can handle it, keep it shorter.

                What to do after the topic for the night? Break up into small groups to discuss the topic, provided the meeting is large enough to merit such groups. Don’t get into groups smaller than five or six people, because that will just go nowhere. These small groups should vary in structure, but should try to include a mix of all ages in them. Each group should have at least one senior. Why? Because this gives the underclassmen a chance to start looking for some role models and peers they can turn to if they don’t feel comfortable going to a youth minister.

                Some nights, these small groups will most definitely need to be run by the youth. There will be topics that students don’t want to talk to youth ministers about. Chastity is generally one of those topics. Having a senior in the group will almost guarantee that there will be an older student in the group who is capable of leading the discussion.

                These seniors and juniors, though, need to be examined before they can be told to lead a group. They should have proved themselves in the past through involvement, attendance, and even, and I know this sounds crazy, but their reputation among their peers. It’s astounding how often youth ministers have no idea what the students they are ministering to actually do when they don’t come to youth group.

                These upperclassmen should also have some way of assisting the development of the program. They’re the ones who are actually experiencing it and they’re the ones who will know what the most common grievances of their peers are. Form some sort of core team or forum where these students can meet with the youth ministry team and discuss things such as the topic for the next night or how to improve presentation of the topics. I’d recommend allocating an hour a week to meet with these students to discuss. At the very least, you’ll be able to have your ear to the ground, so to speak, to understand how the program is going.

                One final comment before ending this series. Prepared discussion questions. These are a TERRIBLE idea for the most part. I was leading a retreat once, and the very first thing I did to the group I led was take my sheet of discussion questions out and shred them in front of the students. At the end of the retreat, those same kids told me that was the best thing I could have done to gain their trust. Why? Because with that action, I showed them that I was more interested in what they had to say and in learning from them what we needed to discuss, instead of trying to force them to answer questions they probably didn’t care about. Your youth ministers, when leading small groups, should be capable of leading a discussion that they actually paid attention to and learned from.

                This post was considerably longer than the others, but in general, this whole series concludes my opinions of what needs to change in youth ministry, as well as some ways youth ministry programs can change to open students up to the faith instead of driving them away. Thank you for joining me.