Gospel Roots @toddiannetta-blog - Tumblr Blog

Porch 2015 Mission Trip

I have been going on summer mission trips since I was a freshman in high school. When the average person thinks of a mission trip, they think of raising lots of money to travel overseas to a third-world country where they will hammer some nails and play with some kids. I have been on many of those trips and I have no complaints about them. They have been very impactful on my life. Those cross-cultural experiences can really stretch and challenge anyone. They can give you a different perspective on life. However, I think mission trips for students can end up becoming more about the experience for the student than about meeting the needs of the people they are serving.

This is my first year leading our high school ministry, and I set out to come up with the best mission trip experience possible for our students. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that giving our students the best experience is kind of selfish. The mission trip is not about us, it's about the people we serve.

In the mean time, I sat down with Rodney Matthews from Urban Vision, a ministry to kids and families in the North Hill area of Akron. It's a phenomenal ministry that our church has supported for a long time, but in order for them to operate, they heavily rely on the support of churches and others to come alongside of them. Rodney started explaining to me all the needs that their ministry had, and all the ways that people could help. They needed financial support to run all their programs, and they needed volunteers to come along side them in their existing programs to help run them.

That's when it hit me. Why would we attempt to get our kids to spend thousands of dollars to go thousands of miles away when they could spend a small amount of money to go 15 minutes away and make a longer term impact? And the best part is that I believe that they could have the best experience of missions to date. That's why I am excited to announce that we are headed to Urban Vision in Akron for the Porch 2015 mission trip on June 14-20. It will be like any other mission trip, but it's just right in our backyard. There are more details to come, but here are a few more bonus reasons why this is going to be a great trip.

The cost will be low, but 66% of the cost per student will go directly to the ministry.

This will be a cross-cultural experience only 15 minutes away from home.

The cost, the location, and the safety will make it very easy for almost every student to attend.

Everyone on mission trips wishes they could stay involved with the people all year around, and since this is local, they very much can.

As a matter of fact, we are already starting to connect with Urban Vision by raising money over the holidays for them.

Diving into High School Ministry

As many of you know, we have been in a search for a candidate to lead Porch, High School Ministry at CCC-Hudson Campus. We have taken several months, started with 50 plus applicants, and several rounds of interviews. The process was good and produced some really good candidates. In the meantime, I was taking on the interim role of leading Porch. Over the course of those months, God began to do a work in me and my calling. You see, over the past couple years, I shifted from leading Edge, our middle school ministry, to becoming the Student Ministry Pastor, overseeing the student ministry staff at all 4 of our campuses. I have enjoyed being a part of the bigger picture of Student Ministries, but God has shown me that I still have a lot of passion for more direct ministry to students. I love working with our staff, our volunteer leaders, and most of all, the students and their parents. Through much prayer, the support of my wife, and the support of our leadership, I have accepted the opportunity to continue to lead our High School Ministry, while also continuing to influence student ministries across all campuses. I believe that God has prepared me to take this ministry to where it needs to go. I am excited to work with this team to see high school students KNOW, GROW, and SERVE Jesus. I grew up in this church as a high school student, and it's really when my faith became my own. It's been my experience that students have always had a tremendous impact on the life of the church. Therefore, it is going to be my great joy to work hard to lead this ministry so that it continues to build the church and to impact the surrounding community for the sake of Christ. I am thankful for all the love, support, and affirmation that I have received over the years from my church family. Todd

Parents = Cross Cultural Missionaries

Parenting is one of the hardest things I have ever done to date, and my kids are still really young. With the fast-paced changes in technology, I can't imagine how much more difficult parenting will get when my kids are teenagers. Our teens are entrenched in a culture that parents do not understand. This statistic is staggering...

Americans aged 13 to 18 spend more than 72 hours a week using electronic media—defined as the internet, mobile phones, television, music, and video games.

Students are living in a different culture than their parents, and because of that, parents are fighting a battle. As a respected expert on youth culture, Walt Mueller has said that parents have to become 'cross-cultural missionaries' to their kids. In his concern for the effect that the media has on today's teen, Mueller said the following:

“Adults—who are largely ignorant to new media technologies and the roles they play in their children’s lives—are unknowingly abdicating the parenting role and the spiritual nurture of their children to the world of today’s media. And, when parents do want to respond, they are at a loss regarding God-honoring response strategies.”

Parents and youth workers alike need to engage the culture of their kids, instead of bury their heads in the sand. We should not mistake this with becoming culturally relevant. In other words, our kids do not need us to become like them, but instead to become informed about their culture so we can love and lead them more effectively.

Parents, your job is more difficult in this generation than maybe any other generation. The battle is not just a physical one...it's also spiritual one. We have an enemy that is fighting for influence on our kids for the purpose of destroying them.

Ephesians 6:12-13

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

Parents, do not get discouraged, because you can be confident that Jesus has already won that battle over sin and death and hell and reigns in heaven on his throne. You have never been the one in control of your kids. But God did give you a responsibility to "Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. (Proverbs 22:6)" Would you, first, place your full trust in Him and give your kids over to God every day, knowing that He is in control? Then, let's join together to be culturally informed so that we can continue to inject Christ into our kids culture.

Social Media 101

A couple months ago, we did a series of seminars for parents called, "Parents vs. Technology." I blogged about the first seminar, but one of the follow up seminars was called "Social Media 101" by Austin McCann, our Stow Campus Student Ministry Director. Austin did a great job teaching parents the basics of social media, how to protect their kids from the potential dangers, and also how to teach their kids how to use it for God's glory. If you are interested in the full seminar on video, check it out!

#parents vs tech #social media #austin mccann

Parents vs. Technology: Protect and Prepare

Last week, I led a parent seminar I called, Parents vs. Technology to parents of middle school and high school students in our ministry. You can listen to the seminar HERE. I don't find that I am an expert in any of this stuff, but I am grateful for ministries like Center for Parent Youth Understanding, XXX Church, and Homeword, which have devoted their whole ministries to keeping up with the culture, technology, and the huge epidemic we know as pornography. These resources will be helpful to you as you seek to both protect your kid from the dangers of technology and prepare them to make good decisions with it.

Protect and Prepare was exactly the outline for my seminar. It seems that parents can lean to 2 possible extremes. They can give their kids way too much freedom or keep way too much control over their kids. Both of the extremes can be out of love, but both also have problems. When it comes to parenting our kids with the amount of technology that is available to them, we must work to find a balance here. No parent has this down, and no parent will ever have this down. That's why we need God's strength so much. However, we have to focus on both Protecting and Preparing. But why?

Why Protect?

If we do not protect our kids and keep some control over their technology and media consumption, we are saying that our kids are completely capable of making the right decisions in every situation. My son, Griffin, is 2 and if we gave him freedom to eat whatever he wanted, he would probably choose candy and cookies every time. Why? He doesn't know what is best, and his little mind is incapable of making all the best decisions. Recent studies on the adolescent cognitive development prove that the brain of an adolescent goes through more changes during puberty than the span of age 0-2. It's why your 10 year old was fairly stable emotionally (happy, sad, mad, scared), but your 13 year old is the most emotionally unstable person you have ever met, experiecing emotions you thought didn't exist. Its because of what is going on inside of their head. Their brain is changing at the speed of light, and we are relying on them to make their own decisions regarding the media and technology. Not good.

Why Prepare?

But if all we do is protect we are not helping our kids at all. The Bible actually doesn't say much about parents controlling their kids, but talks way more about training them and preparing them. Proverbs 22:6 says, Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. We need to train them to make the right decisions based on God's Word. It seems like they shouldn't start making their own decisions when they hit college, but instead, slowly give them some freedom over time so that they are used to making some decisions (even if they are bad ones) and then live with the consequences while they are under your roof. When it comes to technology, I would offer a word of caution. I believe that one of the decisions we should train them to make is to protect themselves from the dangers of technology no matter what age they are. I am 31 and I still need to be held accountable with my media consumption. Parents, lets set that example.

It's ok if your kids see that you are imperfect. After all, you are, and you need Jesus just as much as they do.

Learning how to Preach

When I first started teaching/preaching about 9 years ago, I honestly was not very good at all. Thankfully, teaching is just one part of an effective student ministry so I survived. Over the years, I have had to work really hard at it. Still not great, but I think I have improved. One of the best ways to improve as a teacher is to listen to really good teachers.

Our Lead Pastor, Joe Coffey, has taught me so much about teaching so he should really be writing this blog, but I thought I would pick out 6 things I have learned from him over the years. These are all practical things so these tips come with 2 assumptions: That the teaching is biblical and that the teaching is gospel-centered. If it’s not, none of these other things matter.

Start with the End

Once you have your passage of Scripture that you will teach, it’s important to figure out what truth you want people to leave with. Start there, and build your sermon around that one truth. If you don’t know where you are going, you will go nowhere. Trust me, I have made that mistake. Also, don’t try to communicate too much or they won’t remember anything.

Connect with your Audience

People will listen to you if you relate to them in some way. It could be through humor, current events, pop culture, talking about personal things (family life), or just talking about what everyone else is thinking about. These things can begin to break down barriers between you and the audience to prepare them for what you will teach. As a result, you should expect that there are people in the audience that feel like they know you better than they do. That’s a good sign that you connect with your audience.

Use Illustrations that Work

Joe Coffey is the master of this. I am not saying this to keep my job or get a raise. This is true. So many times, people use illustrations that are good, but they have no idea how to connect them back to the truth. No illustration is perfect so you don’t want to spend too much time on it. Use them to make a point, and then move on. To make sure they are effective; practice them, especially the 2-3 sentences that transition the illustration to the truth. You miss that, you miss everything!

Keep it Simple

I used to think that the 3 point sermon was boring and predictable, but then I realized that was selfish of me. One of the most important parts of teaching is making sure that those who are listening can remember what you said so they can act on it. It’s really important to keep one main point, and at the most, 3 points that help explain the one point. If someone comes up to you after a sermon and says, “Great job,” but they cannot tell you one single point that you made, that’s not good. How will their life change if they can’t remember the point of the sermon?

Be Clear

Make your points clear and memorable. State your 3 points from the beginning. After the first one, repeat the first one, then go to the second one. After the second one, repeat the first two and then start the third. You get the point. You can’t repeat enough. You have spent hours and hours preparing for this sermon, but your audience has not. Don’t assume that they know where you are going. Be very clear.

Cast Vision

Again, Joe is really good at casting vision. Application is one thing, and casting vision is a whole new level of application. We can’t just challenge them; we have to dream with them. Instead of just saying, “Because the Bible says this, we should start doing this,” we should use language like, “Imagine what this church would look like if we started living this way.” Then, give examples of people living that way.

Those are my thoughts on teaching. Special thanks to Joe Coffey. These are all things I learned from him. Check out his blog!

#teaching #preaching

For a number of years now, I have been working hard to drive home a concept with students. This is it...

IT'S NOT ABOUT ME!

Most of us really struggle with this concept because selfishness comes very easy, and selflessness, not so much. There is only one person who has the power to turn selfishness into selflessness, and that person is Jesus. Mark 10:45 says, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” That's why he came, that's how he lived, and that's how he died. He served us to the point of taking our sins and the wrath of God on Himself, so we could have a new life, freedom from sin, hope of eternity, new identity, and so on...

But very simply, if we understand what Jesus has done for us, there is a giant shift that takes place. It's no longer about me. It's about Jesus, and it's about others. Jesus turned our lives upside down. When we understand this, we will begin to do things that make no sense to a watching world.

In a world where adults look down on teenagers with little hope, I would like to share something that happened in our ministry. It makes no sense outside of Christ.

Since Christmas celebrates Mark 10:45, Christ coming to serve and not to be served, we wanted to celebrate the same way. We asked our students to make a small sacrifice. Most of them are getting a good amount of gifts for Christmas, but we challenged them to tell their parents to withhold one of those gifts worth $25 so that they could give the $25 towards the purchase of a passenger van for a ministry in our area that reaches out to women stuck in drugs and prostitution called Rahab. Well, to many people's amazement (not mine), our students responded! Many of them sacrificed Christmas gifts, some sold possessions (sound familiar, Acts 2), and some of them gave out of allowance or money made from a job. Together, they raised $10,000 to purchase a van together. A local car dealer, who also attends our church, sold us the van for a great price, and threw in unlimited service on the vehicle. The family of God is amazing!

Students have a lot to work on. They are a work in progress (aren't we all). However, a few hundred of them, who don't bring in much income at all, managed to pull together enough money to give a van to a ministry who needed it.

Don't write off the next generation. They are here and they get it. Jesus is in the process of transforming them.

#rahab #it's not about me #giving #serving #sacrifice

The Art of the Debrief

No one has a perfect ministry. That’s okay, but the key is to learn from your mistakes and adjust. One of the most frustrating things in ministry is to make the same mistake that you made last year or last time. Early on in my ministry career, I made a couple mistakes a couple years in a row, and I learned that those mistakes could have been avoided easily by adding a simple step to the planning process…the debrief! After an event, a retreat, or a program, I find myself wanting to celebrate the fact that it’s over, and my time demands me to move on to plan the next big thing that is coming up that week. The last thing I want to do is cut out time to debrief. However, I have found this to be one of the most valuable things our team does.

A debrief is spending time evaluating what we have just done and asking ourselves three questions.

1. What went well?

2. What could be improved?

3. How can we improve it?

Talking an hour or so after some of our bigger events (or even smaller ones) makes all the difference in continuing to improve ministry and make it more effective. However, there is a bit of an art to it, and admittedly, our team does not have it down (maybe we need to debrief the debrief).

From my experience, I have 4 reminders that are helpful for a successful debrief.

Make it a TEAM EFFORT: If you are alone in ministry, you can certainly debrief alone, but I wouldn’t recommend it. I love a team debrief, because there are people on our team that see things differently than I do. That’s a good thing! I can say with complete confidence that without the team of staff and leaders that are around me, the ministry I lead would not be nearly as quality and effective as it is. If there is no one on your team, find some people (parents, volunteers, etc.). The best people for your team aren’t always exactly like you either.

It’s NOT EASY: Be prepared to go through a painful process. You may have poured your heart and soul into an event and all you want to hear is that it was good so you can be encouraged. But a debrief does not exist just to celebrate, it exists to improve the event. Go into it with that mindset and be ready to hear things that aren’t easy to hear.

Don’t Debrief TOO EARLY: Don’t wait too long after an event to debrief, but at the same time, I would not recommend doing it the next day or even the next 2 days. If you are like me, you need time to celebrate the good things, and recover from the event before you start picking it apart. Our team has found that it is still pretty fresh up to about 2 weeks later. I wouldn’t recommend much past that.

Take GOOD NOTES: Most of our events we debrief don’t happen again for another year, so taking good notes is vital or else you will forget everything that was talked about. That’s not helpful. Our team uses shared Google documents for all of our planning and debrief notes so it’s very easy to go back to when it comes time to plan for the event again. However you do it, make it easy to refer to next time around.

#debrief #practical ministry

Middle School Students Studying the Bible?

Our middle school ministry called Edge is in a series right now called Vertical where we are talking about investing in our Vertical Relationship with God, and how that is the key to all the horizontal relationships in our lives. The focus is on how to study the Bible. Within this series, we are spending a short time teaching students how to study the Bible, and then we are giving them a chance to do it together in groups at Edge. During this series, we are also giving students at challenge to spend 10 minutes five days of the week studying God's Word, using the methods we teach at Edge. It's been awesome watching students understand that they can study God's Word ON THEIR OWN.

What!? Seriously, middle school students studying God's Word? Now that's a little much for student ministries, isn't it? Let's just make sure that our students feel loved and safe...that's all they need, right? I would like to propose that if we take that approach in student ministries, the gospel will never go deep inside of our students. And if it doesn't go deep, what happens when our students leave the ministry? They will have no root system. Here is what I believe would happen if we didn't teach students to study the Bible.

Students will be…

Starved to the point of emptiness: Students cannot just rely on pastors, teachers, and small group leaders to teach them the Bible...they have to rely on themselves too. The Bible is written for all of us to understand. Jesus said Himself in Matthew 4:4, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." As believers, our daily sustenance comes from God's Word. Studying the Bible is living on His words. We will starve without it.

Ignorant to the point of moral collapse: College (let alone high school) can be a brutal place. If students don’t know how to study the Bible, they will not know the Bible, and professors, peers, and friends, will do all they can to convince them Christianity doesn’t make sense. Their ignorance will keep them from standing for their faith, or anything. That usually results in a collapse of their Biblical morality. 1 Peter 3:15 says, But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…”

Tempted to the point of destruction: Again, look at Matthew 4:4, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." Jesus is quoting Scripture in response to Satan’s temptation to turn the stones into bread. The best way to battle temptation is with the truth of Scripture. However, without studying Scripture, students will not know the truth or internalize it as a weapon in the battle against temptation. James 1:14-15 says, but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Sin is destructive, but temptation can be fought by internalizing the truth of God’s Word.

Our job is not to see students become starved, ignorant, and tempted with no way to get out. Instead, we want to see them feeding themselves, ready to give a reason for their hope, and prepared to battle temptation. They won't always be in our ministries. Let’s teach them how to study God’s Word.

A 3 Year Old Obedience

These are 2 of the most precious things in my life about to go trick or treating. The one on the right is Reese. I love her like crazy, but she is 3 and lately, she has had the unique ability to drive my wife and I crazy. Mostly, we get frustrated that she is often unwilling to obey us.

"Reese, stop climbing on the furniture."

"NO, I don't want to."

"Reese, you need to eat your dinner."

"NO."

"Reese, don't push your brother."

"NO," she says as she pushes him yet again.

We are battling her on many things both big and small. Some days are harder than others, and we know this is just a phase of life. There are days where Jillian and I want to sit her down and make sure she knows that without us, she would not have food, clothes, water, and shelter, and maybe that will push her toward more obedience. You would think that understanding that we are the source of all her basic needs would be enough motivation to obey. I have heard that reasoning doesn't work too well with a 3 year old (maybe a teenager).

The other day, I started reflecting on our willingness as believers to obey God. Through Christ, we have been restored to a relationship with God that satisfies the longing of our soul. He is our source of life. He has given us a new identity, the hope of eternity, and on and on. What do we need that we don't have in Christ? We recognize these things about God, but then he asks us to do something for him, and we respond like my 3 year old saying, "NO, I don't want to. I wanna do what I wanna do." When we refuse to do something God wants us to do, it is worse than a 3 year old. For one, students and adults know better, and two, this is the God of the universe who has saved me from sin and death and hell. If He asks me to jump, I should say, how high? My willingness to obey should not be an issue. When I am reading a biblical command, I should not even finish reading the command before I start obeying it.

Obedience is not a very flashy thing these days, but obedience accompanies the gospel of Jesus Christ. Question: How do you know if the gospel is taking root in your life? Answer: Your willingness to obey God in the big and small things.

2 Corinthians 9:13: Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.

This is a process for all of us. But in the process of applying the gospel to your life every single day, your obedience to God shouldn't stay at a 3 year old level. It should mature. Why? We have been given everything in Christ. What do we need that He hasn't already given us? How can our response be any less than an immediate willingness to obey Him?

#Reese #3 year old #obedience #family

Chronicles: Student Edition

Our church does a really nice quarterly publication that goes out to the whole church body across 4 campuses. The fall edition of the Chronicles was the first one ever to focus only on our student ministries. It was an awesome privilege for our ministry to get some press, but even more, for us to communicate our heart, vision, and passion for students to the whole church body. Our Lead Pastor also gave us a great endorsement. The communications team did a great job on this, and I am proud to be a part of the team on this one. CLICK HERE to download the newsletter and check it out.

#chronicles #student ministries

This is the video we showed on student ministry weekend at our church. This is the student application of the passage that was preached during the service on Hebrews 9 and 10. Bottom line: Jesus died for your sins once for all...how does that change your life now? Proud to be associated with these students! These students are developing Gospel Roots.

#student ministry weekend #video

Student Ministry Weekend

This past weekend marked our 5th annual student ministries weekend at our church. The concept is pretty amazing. Our church leadership gives up running typical weekend services so that our student ministries can run the services. We create our own bulletin (above), put together a student video (to be posted), and much more. Our staff, students, and volunteers do the greeting, ushering, worship, up front hosting, and preaching. We also display art and do live art as a part of worship through our Student Arts Ministry called, Door #2. It's a unique morning. Our whole purpose is give people hope that this generation of students loves and desires to serve Jesus too. One of the best compliments we received this year was when someone said, "We felt like it was less about the students and more about Jesus." In my mind, that's a success.

I think this weekend does a lot for our students and for the church as a whole, but I thought of 4 things, and good reasons why your church should consider doing one too.

1. It affirms students, their gifts, and the place they have in the church now. (by the way, we have students leading worship almost every week even on normal weekends)

2. It communicates that the church believes in them in a world that doesn't believe in them.

3. It's a reminder that the gospel still changes lives, and continues to be an unstoppable force in the world.

4. It gives people a slightly different experience worshiping the same God through the same Jesus by the same Spirit.

I have to say that it's a privilege to work at a church where our Lead Pastor is not just ok with the idea of student ministries weekend, but endorses it and the value it brings to the church as a whole.

Another reason why I love the church I serve at!

Our Student Ministry Team

So far in my blog, I have referred to the awesome team we have on our student ministries team at CCC, so I thought I would introduce them to you. We are being highlighted in the upcoming all church publication, which is really cool. Here are the pictures that made the publication, along with the ones that didn't. Introducing our team...Shout out to Jonathan who took the pictures, and Hannah who put it together.

#student ministry staff #yearbook pics

Multi-Site Student Ministries, Part 1

Four years ago, our church moved from being one church in one location to one church in 4 locations. It's been quite a process of change including renaming our church, hiring campus pastors, reworking roles, and completely changing our mindset. There is quite a process involved. Actually, things were easier as a church of one location, but we knew that God was not calling us to stay with the same vision. Our lead pastor, Joe Coffey, had a very simple vision, "to reach our neighbors for Christ." If we were going to do that effectively, we had to stop being a regional church where people drove 30 minutes each Sunday, and instead launch campuses out in our surrounding communities so that our people reach their community for Christ.

One of our more recent changes is creating Global Positions. That is, designating a staff member that oversees an area of ministry across all campuses, but doesn't specifically lead at one campus. Recently, my role has changed from leading our middle school ministry at one of our campuses to leading student ministries across all campuses. There is a quite a learning curve with that. My job has moved from leading one ministry to students to leading a staff that does ministry to students across 4 campuses. It's different, but it's the same. Let me explain.

Different Joy: Ministry has always brought me joy, but it used to be more direct. I would shepherd students, teach them, execute programs, run retreats, and lead mission trips. Those things gave me life and brought me joy, but now I receive joy by leading a staff who does those things. Their joy brings me joy. We have an incredible team so it's a lot of fun.

Different Personalities: One of my jobs is to work with the team to cast a vision, mission, and teaching strategy that all our student ministries work from. But it's great to watch the different personalities execute it in their own way to their students in their context. Each personality adds something to our team that makes our ministries more effective.

Different Schedule: I used to have a very consistent schedule each week, doing the same things, but now I have more meetings, more administrative work, and more variety. I have to find a way to get to 6 or 7 different weekly programs to help give direction, resources, influence, vision, and encouragement. I don't go everywhere every week, but each week looks a little different.

Same Priorities: If I am going to be an effective leader in student ministries, I have to have the same priorities, which means I still make it a priority to invest in students. The day I stopped involving myself in student's lives, I lose my effectiveness in leadership.

Same God: I am so grateful for the immutability of God. He never changes even in the midst of a role change. He still loves me, He still loves students, and He is still doing His thing. It's humbling that He wants to still use me.

Here is the truth...I have no idea what I am doing, but God does. Also, I am looking for student pastors from multi-site churches to network with. Is anyone else doing something like this?

#multi-site #same but different

5 Myths About Student Ministries

Recent statistics say that churches are closing their doors in America at a staggering rate, and that gives people a tendency to lose hope on the future of the church. But there is reason for a renewed hope. If you are not involved in student ministries or have no real connection to it, our student ministry staff thought we could dispel 5 myths about student ministries so that you understand the hope for the future of the church.

Myth #1: Some adults are too old and uncool to serve in student ministries.

We get this all the time, but the truth is age and coolness are not anywhere to be seen in our volunteer job description. We are interested in adults who love Jesus, are in a growing relationship with Him, and enjoy working with students. If that’s you, you have what it takes.

Myth #2: Student ministry staff members do not have any education in teaching or ministry.

The truth is that all of our staff is well-educated and most of our staff members have a degrees in theology or ministry (or pursuing graduate degrees) which makes them well prepared for their job. We are professionals in this field, and this is our life’s work, not a good start until we make it big. With that, our team is young and desires wisdom from the generation that has gone before us.

Myth #3: A typical program in Student Ministries (Porch/Edge) is chaos, at best.

Many think they wouldn’t be caught dead at one of our gatherings because of how crazy students can be. Our goal is not just to survive the craziness. Our programs are organized and purposeful, and we find that students are hungry for God’s Word and worship.

Myth #4: We are all about entertaining kids.

It’s true that we have fun in student ministries, but even our fun is intentional to build real community with students. If we think something we do doesn’t have eternal value, we usually ditch it for the good stuff, teaching God’s Word, worship, community building, and challenge. They have enough entertainment…we don’t need to add to it.

Myth #5: Students are too immature to take responsibility, leadership opportunities or their faith seriously.

Over the past 5 years, we have taken 710 students on 24 mission trips. We did no promotion for an outreach event this past September, but because of our students desire to invite their friends, we nearly tripled our normal weekly attendance that night. It has become clear to us that students take knowing God and serving God very seriously. They continually amaze us with their desire to step up, take ownership of their ministry, and share Christ with their friends. They are making a difference right now in their world for Christ.

Be encouraged...there is hope. We see it every day.

#5 myths #student ministry #future of the church

"When my mom asks me to do something, she doesn't understand that I am playing a video game."

the problems of a middle school student

#middle school quotes

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Gospel Roots