SUMMARY REPORT YOUTH MINISTRY MADE TO SUMC CHURCH COUNCIL. On July 30, 2013

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1 SUMMARY REPORT ON YOUTH MINISTRY MADE TO SUMC CHURCH COUNCIL On July 30, 2013

2 I SUMMARY OF THE FARMINGTON VALLEY YOUTH MINISTRY BEST PRACTICES STUDY (CONCLUDED JUNE 2013) A. Best Practices Study Overview: Currently, SUMC has no organized, long-term planned young adult ministry in place. We are utilizing the services of several people to pull together a program of disparate pieces to keep a program running until a more stable, planned and organized longterm program is put in place. Yet SUMC has had a long history of offering vibrant, varied activities and programs for our young people. As we began planning for the year ahead, we recognized a need to evaluate our offerings to determine our strengths and opportunities for improvement. In addition to polling members of our own church community, we decided to reach out to area churches that have successful programs of their own. It is our hope that by gathering and sharing best practices among several churches, we will empower all of us to better serve the youth in this area. B. Project Objectives: In order to refresh the framework for our own youth ministry, we collected data about successes and opportunities for improvement in these areas: A general description of the types of programming incorporated in youth offerings A description of the youth program leader (paid/volunteer, experience, time commitment) Characteristics of the target youth group (age/grades, personality types/interests, other) Programming messages to use to attract and retain young people Existing curriculum materials used to generate programming C. Report Findings: Importance of Youth Ministry: According to the UMC Call to Action: Vital Congregations Research Report (Towers, Watson, 2010), Children & Youth Ministry is one of four key elements of a vital church. We found a chicken and egg analogy with churches and their youth ministries. That is, successful churches are committed to their youth programs. One may ask: are those churches successful because they have youth programming, or are they able to support youth programming because they are successful? Five Keys to Youth Ministry Success: 1. Relational Ministry is of paramount importance: the Youth Director must be able to relate to the students. The students must be drawn to the leader. 2

3 Ideally, the leader must walk a thin line between two valuable roles. First, the leader must be able to develop a relationship with each individual student. Second, the leader must be an authoritative figure that earns the respect of each student. The leader is not the students friend. The Youth Director is someone who trusts and is trusted. Our research concluded that the programs with the most impact focus on a relational vs. program orientation. Mentoring, life-investment, disciple time and one-on-one involvement by leaders produce the best outcome. The most successful leaders spend time involved with their students outside of scheduled group activities. Some examples are attending sports, theater and music events, going out for coffee, a meal, or a movie with just a few youth at a time. This requires a much higher degree of commitment by leaders. 2. Parental commitment to a church s youth ministry is essential to its success. The biggest message we heard was that we need more parents to be involved and committed to the success of youth group. The Youth Directors told us that many children started going to youth group because their parents made them, just like confirmation class. The kids grew to want to attend youth group because they began to develop friendships in the church setting that crossed social boundaries at the junior and senior high schools. Consider communicating to the parents the several benefits that will flow from involvement in the SUMC young adult program among them are leadership experience and skills development (highlight the resume value). 3. Programming should meet a variety of needs along a spiritual spectrum. Junior and senior high students are at different points along their own spiritual journeys. Traditional youth group has struggled because it was trying to be most things to most people. It is important to provide opportunities that meet more students needs more often. This may be achieved by addressing all points along the spectrum: Basic community development (meet new people); safe haven for difficult issues; community service and serving God; connections between the Sermon of the day and teens life; and Bible study. It is time for a paradigm shift to a modular approach. Youth Ministry is not simply Sunday night youth group. The church should look at the wide variety of opportunities for the students to interact with the church. The collection of those opportunities may be grouped into a modular framework for youth ministry. Students may select one or more opportunities to be involved in with their church. It is not necessary for all students to participate in all activities. Students should be able to select from a menu of possibilities to best meet them where they are on their own journey. 3

4 This new framework clumps student activities into four modules: Spirituality, Service/Outreach, Fellowship, and Ecumenical. These four modules represent various levels of commitment/spirituality and overlap with each other, depending on the church event. 4. Variety is essential to attract and maintain interest. Today s teens are used to juggling multiple activities with multiple inputs. Some have described this generation as being over-programmed, desensitized, and distracted. Seeing the glass half full, today s students are more capable of multitasking than past generations. Programming needs to be designed to respond to that talent. Students do not respond well to passively listening to linear presentations. In general, this is a group that craves stimulation. Keeping up with the speed of transformation of technology builds credibility and respect. 5. There is a direct relationship between the amount of resources devoted to the youth ministry and the positive outcome of its programming. (The greater the investment, the greater the return). A common theme in our conversations was investment. You get what you pay for was mentioned many times. This does not mean that churches must buy student interest through planning various fun activities. Ministry programming choices must be purposeful and support major Mission commitments. A good program takes time, effort, materials, and manpower to implement successfully. Time: hours per week was the minimum time required to run Youth Ministry as reported by the respondents. Most reported spending more than 25 hours per week. Several church leaders recommended paying both the Youth Director and the lay leaders. One leader noted that when a church makes a decision to hire a paid Youth Director, that church usually takes the Youth Ministry to the next level. Authority: Unfortunately, the average turnover for a Youth Director is 1-3 years. High turnover rates can be exacerbated by giving the Youth Director all of the responsibility but none of the authority (respect, money, manpower) to do an excellent job. Compensation: Staff members leading youth ministries are usually part-time, non-ordained, compensated persons. Most work hours a week. Salary ranges between $15,000-32,000. Some have additional benefits. Pay scale closely correlates with level of experience. These paid leaders often have other responsibilities in the church, or are a combined position. 4

5 II RECOMMENDATIONS: A. Have one individual who is accountable for the aggregation of what we already are doing (leveraging our current modules ), and then building from there. B. Hire New Position: 1. Part-time (15-20 hours/week); 2. Paid position (compensation to be determined); 3. Having a leader take on new role will allow SUMC to consider some reorganization of staff to facilitate this from a budget perspective. C. Although the former Sunday night time slot can be used during the church year, it should not be the cornerstone time for youth ministry. The modular approach to young adult ministry will allow a more diversified young adult program with many opportunities for involvement in youth activities throughout the week. D. Focus of Young Adult Ministry: Have leader focus on four modules: Spirituality, Service/Outreach, Fellowship, and Ecumenical. 5