19 Things I Learned In 19 Years Of Youth Ministry, Part 15

They were a once-in-a-decade graduating class. They were the perfect storm of parental involvement, excellent timing (our church was growing so much and we were moving into our new building), teachability and servanthood. They'd been small group leaders in our middle school ministry for two full years. They were plugged into other areas of our church. They were the kind of teens who pursued me for coffee, breakfast or lunch continually. They went on mission trips. They showed up at Sunday School. They didn't miss their mid-week Bible study. They made it their goal to make the younger teens feel welcome and offered them rides wherever the group was heading after school.

In short, they were the kind of class that an elder told me something like this in a hallway right after my senior sermon for them: "Listen, we all see the work you did. We all see the difference they've made in this church. I really just wanted to let you know that we don't expect these kinds of results every year. At my other church, the youth minister had a class like this and walked away three years later because he didn't see those kinds of results again. Thought he'd lost his touch. So, enjoy them. They're great. But don't put that kind of pressure on yourself. Let God be God and you just be faithful to Him."

Think about that for a second.

A graduating class of seniors so impressive that "outsiders" were letting me know not to have that high of expectation! How staggering is that?

Depends what side of that fence you're sitting on, doesn't it?

A big transition time for our ministry is seen on our early-summer trip to Juarez. It's a time when the outgoing graduates usually get plugged into our college ministry and the new senior class asserts itself. Add to that reality it's also the first thing that the incoming freshmen get to attend...and...

...PRESTO!...

Entirely new student ministry.

And those new seniors really tried to ramp-up, too. They were vocal. They were visible. They were active.

But they weren't the previous class. For one thing, they were smaller in number. Their personalities were different, too. Their giftedness was in other areas. There were signifcantly more boys than girls this time. And the previous class had sorta "hogged" all the service opportunities for the better part of two years while they waited their turn...which usually they only have to wait one year. So, they were also a few spiritual steps behind, too.

And the incoming class was extremely large. Fruit of a successful middle school ministry. But they were still freshmen. They still hadn't learned the ropes yet.

And they were the first group to have a full year in a shiny new building with all the bells and whistles we'd never had before.

But it was an extremely fun year, all-in-all.

Sure, we had challenges in all sorts of areas as we adjusted as a staff to the new dynamics. We'd have to remind the middle school servant team to vacuum the room. We even posted a schedule on the wall so they'd know what their responsibilities were. The previous class just did those things without being reminded. We'd have to put more adult staffers around the room to help keep order during large group teaching time just for crowd-control. We adjusted to more "guy humor" out of necessity...and also the overall dynamics of being bottom-heavy when it came to age dynamics. We were top-heavy the year before.

But, they grew their own time and their own way. It was just different. Not really better. Not any worse. Just different.

And they graduated. They've since taken the lead in missions and seminary training and God has worked His time and His way with them. It's really cool.

But they graduated.

And we repeated the process. The next year we had an extremely mature group of freshmen come in. Some of those folks who came because of our shiny new building with all the bells and whistles went other places once the shiny bells and whistles wore off.

More change.

And it isn't just people, either. We've changed the decor of our student ministry room 7 times in the six years we've been in the building. We've adjusted mission trip plans we'd been working on for a full year in one afternoon after seeing that what we'd planned wouldn't accomplish what we'd hoped to accomplish. We've had Sunday School moved to a stand-alone night service in the old building to two classes, one morning, one evening, in the new building. We've cut a video we spent three weeks making because worship ran long and we didn't want to force the video, no matter how good it was. We've had summer trips cancelled due to hurricanes so we developed a week's ministry replacement in 24 hours. We've had four major outreach methods try and fail, only to add one that required a major addition to our ministry area and to pay people to staff it. We've had talented staff move on to other places because that's what talented staff have the opportunity to do (I'd be upset if other ministries weren't going after my staff--they're good). We've had volunteers come and go. We've changed fundraising methods for trips. We've changed teaching methods--from notes to power point to neither.

And most people in the rest of the church don't do change that often. Services look alike for years. The people don't really rotate in or out unless there are job transfers and the like. Music styles are more constant. Your friends are your friends. Just a lot more set in their ways.

But if you want to be in student ministry, the 15th things I'd tell you is that your ministry, and your life, will be in a constant state of evolution. There's simply no way around it.

Whether it's people.
Or methods. I've been around long enough for some methods to be in fashion and back out of fashion twice.
Or staff.
Or the nature of trips.
Or philosophy of ministry.
Or styles of teaching.
Or things you learn along the way--for example, I identify with parents so much more now that I've got teens in my own house.

And others won't quite get that.
And they certainly aren't as adept at changing on the fly as you are...so you'll need to be sensitive to their insights.

But change will be your lifestyle, and you will be in a constant state of evolution--personally and professionally. So get used to it and embrace it.