Adults

Group, Mar/Apr 2001

mind your P's

VOLUNTEERS

Communicate these three easy-to-teach tips to help your adult leaders deepen their ministry to young people.

Persistence. Advise your volunteers to do the "little things" on a regular basis: Encourage teenagers by writing them notes, giving them phone calls, praying for them, and seeking them out as individuals. Being persistent in the little things can make a big impact.

Patience. Remind adult leaders that nothing healthy grows overnight. There's no "quick fix" in youth ministry. As We persist, we must remember to patiently trust God.

Perseverance. Encourage volunteers to never give up! Youth ministry isn't easy. Those who say it is are either lying or have never done it! If we quit when we're in the valley, we'll never experience the view from the mountaintop!

VOLUNTEERS 30-day prayers

Expand your base of prayer support by giving every adult in your church the opportunity to make a short-term commitment to pray for a specific teenager.

Distribute a survey that asks each church member if he or she would be willing to pray for one teenager for one month. At the beginning of each month, have each youth group member list his or her name and four or five prayer requests on a sheet of paper and then fold the paper. You'll need an adult volunteer to mail the requests to the adults who've volunteered to pray. (As an alternative idea, you could fill a basket at church with prayer requests in sealed envelopes, and have church members draw envelopes.)

This idea can also be used to target specific groups of young people for prayer. For example, those teenagers who are on the student leadership team or those who are on a mission trip.

mood music

Set the tone for your next training session with this idea from Nancy Macduff and CyberVPM.com.

Before the start of a meeting, while adult leaders gather, create a mood by playing music that inspires, energizes, or soothes-depending on the topic and purpose of your meeting. End the music when it's time for the meeting to get started, and use it again to cue the beginning and ending of any breaks. Remember to keep the volume low so the music doesn't interfere with conversation.

family games

Help families foster an attitude of service by introducing them to these games adapted from The Five Signs of a Loving Family (Northfield) by Gary Chapman. Use them as ice-- breakers for family groups at your next parent-teenager event, and suggest that families "play" them on a daily basis.

* I really appreciate that! Have each family member complete the sentence "One way in which I served you today is... (cooking a meal, washing the dishes, taking out the trash, listening to you, picking up the mail). Whoever was served responds by replying, "I really appreciate that." This dialogue not only expresses affirmation but also reminds everyone of the acts of service that are going on in the family.

* Do you know what I'd like? Each family member in turn gives a request to another family member by asking, "Do you know what I'd like?" and then making a specific request, such as "I'd like you to make pancakes for me on Saturday morning" Whoever receives the request responds by saying, "I'll try to remember that."Ay not making an outright promise, the person reserves the right to choose whether or not to meet the request-because all true service must be freely chosen.

who we are

An informal survey of the families your youth ministry serves can be an essential first step for evaluating unmet needs and helping parents and teenagers gain perspective on what it means to be a family. Try this assessment activity adapted from Family Ministry (InterVarsity Press) by Diana Garland:

* Begin a parent-teenager event by forming family groups. Give each family a large sheet of newsprint and markers, and ask them to collaborate in drawing a picture that shows each member of their family doing something. (Encourage those who aren't comfortable with drawing to simply draw stick figures or geometric shapes.)

* When families complete their drawings, ask them to write on the backs of their papers the family members' names, how they're related, and their ages. For example: Martha Jones (40); Zoe (Martha's daughter, 11); Justin (Martha's son, 15); Bill (Martha's father, 72).

* Have families tape their drawings around the walls of the room and spend a few minutes circulating, looking at the various kinds of families connected to the youth ministry.

* Ask each family to discuss: Did you all agree about who was a member of your family? What did you learn about your family as you worked on this?

* Close with prayers of thanksgiving for the families God has given. (Later retrieve the information from the backs of the drawings.)

Contributors: Kurt Johnston and Jonathan Meyer