In 7 Practices of Effective Ministry, Andy Stanley and Reggie Joiner argue that doing fewer things will make a greater impact. They call this practice narrowing the focus. They debunk the myth that doing more does not necessary mean growing more. Actually it is the reverse, one has to do less if they want to grow more.
Bottom line: As youth pastors we need to figure out what we do well and go for it. We identify and clarify what one or two things our youth ministry does well and we keep doing it.
I get overwhelmed when I start thinking that my small YM needs to be doing more. For example, we need to do a small groups or evangelism campaign. We need to equip the students with apologetic skills, so they can defend their faith. I need to start preaching the hard core truth to them every week! The list can go on and on and on.
Finally, I realized that I don’t need to developed a YM based off of the themes of the Great Commission, my overwhelmed feelings simply went away.
Our YM needs to be our YM, which may not necessary be status quo. Actually our youth ministries philosophies/methods/programmatic structure should not look like everyone else youth ministry. Some organizational leadership theories suggest that if one is not challenging the status quo, who gets out in front of their people and the people in their niche, is the person who can and will start movements.
I am comfortable saying: If we are not evangelizing for one year, great. If we aren’t doing small groups for two years, awesome. If we never have a worship band, even better.
My points 1) We cannot be all things to all church goers, 2) Find what you do well and keep doing it, 3) Do less, and 4) Be yourself.
