Grow Your Student Ministry…for Free
I had a couple lunch conversations last week with guys that have been doing student ministry for years — lots of years. Both of them shared a few simple strategies that I thought might interest those of you in the student ministry trenches.
Let me first introduce you to Bill Kagey. He’s the student ministry pastor over middle school at LifePoint Church in Tampa. LifePoint’s student ministry is amazing. Typically, if a church’s student ministry attendance is 10% or more of the overall attendance, I consider that to be very healthy. At LifePoint, they’re well over 20%.
I also had lunch with Tom Shefchunas, the middle school pastor at North Point Community Church. I’ve gotten to know Tom over the last several months because he’s in one of my current coaching networks. Great guy!
Here are a few things the guys shared that have led to success in their ministries:
- Bill encouraged churches to shift summer camps to the end of the summer. Instead of students going away for a great week of camp at the beginning of summer and then having a couple of months without any ministry connections, camps at the end of the summer become a launching pad for fall ministry. Rather than being the culmination of a year of ministry, they become the start to new momentum.
- Tom said North Point has gone a step further. They focus overnight experiences for students during the school year rather than the summer. Again, this breaks from tradition, but it has proven to help them connect far more students into ministry.
- Bill also said he’s careful about how he invests ministry dollars connected with camps. As an example, rather than buying every kid a camp t-shirt that’s really only significant for one week, he encouraged leaders to invest money in resources that will attract students all year long. LifePoint doesn’t charge more for camps, but they’ve purchased all kinds of equipment and games for their student ministry space using fees from camp registrations.
- Tom shared a great insight for ministries that are compelled to buy t-shirts. Rather than giving the t-shirts to students when they show up for camp, give them out at registration. For no extra money, the students become walking advertisements for your upcoming event. Of course, that’s much more effective if they’re wearing the t-shirts at school to promote something during the school year.
If you’re in student ministry, you may want to begin following these guys. They both offer practical advice for reaching students for Jesus.
What other free or near-free ideas do you have to help churches grow their student ministries?
Tony,
I’d love to hear your thoughts or get a connection contact for new churches with younger crowds (lots of preschool, growing children, very few students) – who have a real burden to reach the student population in our community. I’m sure this is a real issue for many new churches – just looking for some great steps, advice…
We’ve experimented and tried things – but tough to “stick” and gain momentum…
In your experience & connections, observances, conversations – what would you say? Point us to?
This is good stuff Tony. Thanks for sharing!
Love it! Thanks for posting.
Those are some great and very practical ideas! Sounds like they will go a long way in helping to make a lasting impact on the students. Thank you!
It was very reaffirming to read this and encouraging. Our youth group is a little above 10% of the Church membership, its nice to hear that we are healthy. We also love simple over night experiences during the school year. It is cheap so new students can go and it generates instant memories with current and new students. We have especially found separating the guys and girls for over night activities make it 98% less stressful on the leaders and the students. It really frees up the sexes to talk about things they would never share around the other sex. My students now all look forward to what they call Girl Time and Guy Time. And we dont have to worry about “purpleing”.