With the right tools, your youth ministry can realize even your most "impossible" goals.
As a youth leader, you've got a tough road. Your job is to get a diverse group of busy, overwhelmed students to share one goal: getting to know Jesus Christ deeper and to make Him known to others. As if that isn't hard enough, you also want your ministry to be a place where students can find real friendships and ...
Follow this step-by-step approach to learn more about contemplation in small groups.
by Tony Jones
Exodus 14:14
A small group of high school seniors meets at our house on Monday evenings. Every week, they gather with Julie and me on our couches in the basement, munching popcorn and drinking Diet Coke. We've spent the year trying to get our arms around the entire Bible, reading a chapter each week from Walt Wangerin's novelized version called The Book of God.
Our ministry wasn't going well, the group was unhealthy and the students weren't connecting. Then, I tried cell groups.
Trevor Throness
My first job as a paid youth pastor was in a church of about 250 people. On a good youth group night we had 15 kids. On a bad night, we had three or none, depending on which key kids had offended each other that week. It's humiliating to fit your entire youth group in a Chevy Sprint and have one seat belt left over.
Our first retreat was truly an ordeal. Several kids refused to take part in an encouragement ...
Teenagers are facing immense pressure; small groups can help.
Michael C. Mack
If I hear the same old story about Moses and the Red Sea one more time, said one minister's teenage daughter, I'll scream!
It's not that there's anything wrong with traditional methods of the church's ministry to youth, but many teens are looking for more. After years of learning Bible stories in their Sunday school classes, they are ready for an approach that makes them feel that they and their contributions ...
How we started small groups for our youth, led by our youth
Wayne O. Gooden
Our youth small groups are totally student-led, with "at-hand" adult leadership available in case of needs that are outside the ability of teens. When we started out, we had one large "youth group" that usually met on Sunday afternoon from 4:30 - 6:30.
We began to share the vision with our kids and began to show them how this could work for them to strengthen, encourage, evangelize, etc. Each week ...
We had to undergo transition as people decided a cell church wasn't really what they thought it would be.
Bryan R. Stevenson
Even though we started purposefully as a pure cell church at Acts 2 Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia, we've still had to undergo transition as people decided that a cell church isn't really what they thought it was. (Where are the midweek services, the military ministry, and the youth group?) Our vision at first was to have the youth go with the parents to cell group. This didn't work, primarily ...
A father-daughter team worked together to reach the local youth, with lasting results.
Mike Osborn
It's been just about a year now since my daughter asked me if we could start a youth cell in our home. Since I was presently serving in the position of a Zone Pastor, initially I was a bit hesitant. But after praying about it, our family decided that we would take a shot at it. My 11-year-old daughter would be responsible for cleaning the house, making the refreshments, coming up with the weekly ice ...
How to start and maintain a small group ministry for teens
Michael C. Mack
"I shudder at the thought of having to go into a group of some 30 to 40 teenagers to try to elicit some kind of enthusiastic participation,: says Tony Campolo in Carpe Diem. "To get them … genuinely involved in a discussion would require a cahrisma and talent that only a superior species might possess."
If Tony Campolo feels this way, how about the rest of us? How can we get teens genuinely ...
We believe that children and youth are an integral part of the church now—not just in the future.
Jay Firebaugh
We often refer to the church where I serve as a "two-chop stick church." Other people would call us a cell church, but I prefer the picture that comes from identifying ourselves as a two-chop stick church. What we mean by that is that we have two equal aspects that work together to designate how we do "church." They are the aspects of celebration and cell. In celebration, we assemble weekly in a large ...
If you're struggling with where to start with a children's small group time, here are a few suggestions.
Holly Allen
If you want to know the truth about something, ask the children. They will tell you. When I asked some of the children in a small group what their special memories of children's cell time were, they said:
7-year-old: "I remember when Mr. Leonard (senior pastor) sat on the floor with us and listened to us."
...
15-year-old: "I remember when Jeff blindfolded us and led us around the furniture. He said ...
Printer view of these results
