The Simply Youth Ministry Conference is just a few weeks away. This will be the second time that Steph and I have gone. Last year SYMC was in our backyard, hosted at the Indiana Convention Center, and was the first youth ministry conference we had attended as a team with volunteers.
I think we went into it with low expectations. We had both done a few National Youth Workers Conventions and knew what to expect. I think we were surprised at the benefits we gained from attending the conference. In the last year since the Simply Youth Ministry Conference we have made some improvements (at least we think so) within Phao Student Ministries, some are directly related to our experience at SYMC and some not as much. I thought I’d highlight a few…
P912 Small Groups
It was after SYMC in 2013 that we decided to finally pull the trigger on high school small groups and do them right. Last Fall we launched our groups. P912 groups are organized by gender and class. We have 3 freshman groups, 2 sophomore groups, 2 junior groups, and one senior group for a total of 50 students. Groups meet wherever, and whenever they want, each with one to two adult leaders. Some meet in homes, some meet at the church, and occasionally some meet at restaurants or coffee shops…whatever works best for each group. We’ve seen our students grow in faith and commitment as well as seen the number of high school students attending a regular midweek group increase dramatically and stay consistent. So far, by the grace of God, it’s been a huge success and we’re praying it continues to grow and stay strong. A group of our small group leaders also attended SYMC last year and we really credit it in part to helping them develop the passion for small group ministry to high school students.
P58 & P912 Sunday School
In the Fall we split our students into P58 (5th-8th grades) and P912 (9th-12th grades) on Sunday mornings. We still serve a free breakfast and have games and places to hang out, but we split them into two separate groups in different areas of our building. This has created a sense of identity for each group. It has allowed the younger kids some space that isn’t overrun with huge older kids and the high schoolers aren’t as worried about stepping on a 5th grader. ha. This split has taken a space that was maxed out with the full group and given us two areas that offer room for growth and just feel more comfortable for each group.
Since SYMC we have been utilizing the LIVE curriculum they put together for our Sunday morning high school students. We give them some guide sheets based on the weekly curriculum and let them form into self-led small groups. A few years ago this was the area of ministry that struggled the most. High school students just weren’t attending and the few (literally, a few) that did were clear it wasn’t great. Now we’re seeing 30-40 high school students each week and they seem to love the format and lessons they’re learning. They’re engaged as groups and are self-led so that frees up our volunteer leaders to be plugged into small groups and other areas instead of teaching Sunday mornings.
Passion for Quality and Growth
The way SYMC helped us over all was to just give us a renewed passion for our calling. It’s easy to get caught up in church politics and different personalities that are around a church. Since SYMC we’ve really been able to take our focus off of those things and really focus on just doing good ministry. We’ve improved the ministry programs that we offer, empowered volunteer leaders to take on major leadership roles in groups and building relationships, improved communication through a weekly newsletter, social media engagement and a thorough check-in process that allows us to connect to new students more effectively. We’ve raised the bar for events by adding simple games like 9-Square in the Air and a Gaga Pit that kids go nuts over. Most of all we’ve focused our efforts on student discipleship and really encouraging and empowering students to share their faith with others.
We’re not done…
We’re not done yet! While some changes we’ve made have led to growth in both discipleship and the amount of students that are attending, others haven’t worked as well. Our midweek programming for our P58 kids is a lot of fun, but students just aren’t showing up as regularly as we’d hoped for a variety of reasons. We have been praying over this and have (potentially) big plans to improve this area of our ministry in the Fall. We hope to grow our small group ministry as we only have one group that will be finished (senior boys) at the end of the year and hope to start a handful of new groups in the fall. Those among other things we hope to continue to grow in during the 2014 year.
Round two at SYMC
I’m looking forward to our second year at SYMC. This year it’s out of town in Columbus, OH which is nice. Last year we spent a TON of time driving from Fishers to downtown Indy, which was exhausting, and being in town really made it too tempting for different volunteers to just pop in for a couple hours and leave. This time we’re getting hotel rooms and staying close by so we’re committed to the full experience. It will be a great time of both learning, improving, and relaxing to hopefully come back energized for another year of ministry.
What do you do to refresh and refuel for each year/season of ministry? How has that helped you improve and grow?
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