The Ministry Process

Over the past few years, my view of youth ministry has consistently and continually changed. We've made pretty big updates each year that have modified the feel and look of our weekly, Wednesday night programs - from changes to incorporate worship to splitting middle and high school groups, to numerous updates to the small group programoverall, these changes have worked well to move us more fully toward our vision: That students would See, Seek and Serve God. (that has to be a run-on sentence)

This year, we're adding another large tweak, but with one caveot: this change isn't easily seen. Instead of redeveloping programs, switching schedules or adding events, I'm attempting to redirect my ministry focus entirely. And it all comes down to three words: The Ministry Process.

This is something I've blogged about a little over the past few months, but it's still something I want to elaborate on as we move forward. Ministry is a process - a process of introducing broken, sinful humanity  to a glorious, sufficient Savior, and then helping, in community, to guide a transformation by the Spirit of God.

That process needs to be thought through. There's an effective way of doing discipleship, and there are very, very ineffective ways as well. In being entrusted with the spiritual growth and development of hearts, I want to be able to say we're more intentional about discipleship than just merely throwing gospel darts at an ambiguous target.

And so we're implementing an actionable, deliberate ministry process framework for the 2011-2012 school year: Plant, Root, Produce. You'll notice I've dropped those words in different blog posts - and I'll continue to do that. The notion of our process comes directly out of Matthew 13 and the parable of the sower. There is a process in ministry there - the seed is sowed, or planted, to a wide range of hearts. The seeds begin to grow in some hearts, and those are identified by those seeds taking deep root. Finally, true conversion is evidenced by an abundance of produce.

So too is a ministry process for HYPE - there will be events and activities throughout the year with the intent purpose of sowing the gospel to hearts that may or may not be receptive to the gospel. At Plant events, we're not afraid so much of the rejection of the gospel, more so the ignorance to the gospel.

There will also be focused Root events and programs throughout the year. The idea behind these program and events is to provide opportunity for the growing seed of the gospel to deeply root in the hearts of students. Identity is a main component of root level discipleship - identity as a son or daughter of God, and identity within the community of Christ. These events and programs will focus on these things, as well as Scripture and prayer.

And finally, there will be "Produce" level activities - areas of specific challenge to students we feel are evidencing the effects of life-changing grace.

This ministry process is a meta-framework to activities and events in HYPE Youth Ministries. It's a formulative, guiding process for thinking and planning events and the structure of the year. For instance, in thinking through a specific event, I might ask, "Is this Plant, Root or Produce level? Based on the level, who am I targeting? What's the teaching going to look like? The structure of the night? The take-away challenge?" Then, I can evaluate the ministry calendar based on the number of Plant, Root and Produce events and programs, to ensure that the year is effectively challenging different students at different levels.

I really want to stress that this ministry process is nothing more than a framework - it's certainly not a means to conversion or discipleship. That is only accomplished through the movement of the Holy Spirit. A process doesn't reduce my dependence on God's movement! But a process does help me evaluate my faithfulness to organizing and structuring an effective ministry. And only by God's grace...

Trek: Defined

Another definition piece! I'm excited - this is the last "meta-program" that we'll be looking at in this series of 'what's-what' at HYPE Youth Ministries, and from here, we'll begin to look at some other aspects of our ministry; we'll especially be looking at some of the changes in the upcoming year.

Trek is very similar to Core, at least in it's intention. Where Core exists to develop depth-level accountability and discipleship primarily in high school students, Trek serves the middle school students. This is a Root level program.

Trek is an AWANA extension for Junior High students, targeting 7th and 8th grade students with Scripture memorization, life lessons and other activities. The usual implementation would be in a youth group setting, with games, handbook time, a teaching time, and other activities.

In HYPE YM, we've chosen a different implementation. Although CrossOver targets 6-8th grade students, we generally reserve Trek for the 7th and 8th graders. We meet on Monday evenings, at the church, during the regular AWANA time. For the first hour and a half of AWANA, Trek students are used as volunteers for the younger kids. They serve in the game times, in the Cubbies, and during handbook time. Near the end of the evening, we break away for an hour to do Trek-specific work. Our emphasis has been on teaching and community, while also spending some time working on our handbooks, too.

This year will be the third year of Trek, and I'm more excited than ever. I think we'll have a strong number of returning students - with weekly attendance hovering around ten. That mean ten middle school students who have committed to memorizing, learning and reciting Scripture, and then serving on a weekly basis. That's pretty awesome.

The implementation will be firmed up this year as well, with a more pragmatic and intentional placement of students in service roles. I want to see students serving more hands-on with the younger kids, helping at handbook time and during the lesson time.

Overall, Trek serves to give the AWANA program valuable volunteers, while creating an environment of service and study for Middle School students.

CORE: Defined

We're going to continue giving some background and info on the different specific programs we have in HYPE Youth Ministries - so far, we've looked at HYPE Youth Group and CrossOver. For info about those programs, check out the archive to your left. Today, we're going to look at CORE - something I think is very unique.

CORE (or Core, either works) came about through a serendipitous series of events (or, some might say, a divinely inspired few). I had been spending a few weeks specifically thinking about the process of HYPE Youth Ministries; I was realizing ministry needed an entry point, a growing point, and a sending point. As I looked at what we had, I noticed we had been trying to cram the first two - entry and growing - into a single program: HYPE (or CrossOver, for Middle School). We were trying to accomplish two objectives with our Wednesday night program: introduce unbelieving students to Christ while concurrently building into our believing students and give them an opportunity to deepen their relationship with Christ and with others.

This had left us, in a number of ways, failing at both; when we had a lot of unbelieving students, the tenor of the evenings tended toward evangelism - leaving a ministry gap for our more mature students. But when the maturity deepened, we had begun switching to a more discipleship-focused methodology; as a result, we had lost a few of our more 'fringe' students who were no longer engaged by the content.

At the exact time I was realizing this discrepancy, I had a student come to me and confess the Lord had put on his heart a desire to form and run a depth level discipleship Bible study for students. It would be a time to develop accountability, relationships and reliance on the Lord, while also learning Bible-study techniques and grappling with the truths of Scripture in a real, honest way.

Obviously, when you have a student come to you and say, "I'd like to lead a Bible study," you kinda roll with it! And so Core was born.

The purpose of Core is to give Christian students and opportunity to deepen their dependency on Jesus. This is accomplished through prayer, Scripture, and community oriented activities. Usually, the evening will involve an activity or service project (for instance, baking cookies for members of the church), and then move to a time of Bible study and prayer.

There are adults at the meetings, but the general idea is that this is for the students, by the students, and through the students. In our process speak, this is the "Root" level of ministry. This is where students allow the Word of God to deeply grab their hearts, and challenge them into new ministry.

Core is yet in it's infancy. It's really only been meeting for a few months, but already there's been growth. Recently, we've opened Core to Middle School students, further creating a facility of vertical training and accountability through the group - not just high schooler's mentoring and encouraging high schooler's, but now high schoolers mentoring and encouraging middle schoolers.

Core has a bright future. We'll be running it through the summer, and then tweaking during the 2011-2012 school year to make it as effective as possible. As the community deepens, Core will have an exceptional effective on HYPE and CrossOver, as well as providing a first-look place for ministry leaders, ministry participants, and other activities. I can't wait to see how Core develops! Through this blog, we'll keep you up-to-date on the tweaks and changes we make to Core. It'll be an exciting process.

Thanks for continuing along in these posts with us! Next, we'll be taking a look at Trek.