Brain Food

Investment

You probably wouldn’t be involved with youth ministry if you didn’t also enjoy hanging out with teenagers and building relationships. Way to go! It’s easy, however, to focus on the students with whom you share a similar sense of humor or a common interest. God made people different, and tapping into those niche areas is great for ministry. It’s okay that you don’t know every student in your ministry if there are other adults investing in their lives. Focus on building deep and lasting relationships with the students whom God has given you in your small group, on a retreat, or wherever you may be.

Nonetheless, sometimes it takes a little more effort. If you’re stuck in a place where you can’t connect with anyone or are the only person on your ministry team, that’s okay! Three cheers for your commitment! Keep asking students their names. Keep asking them questions and getting to know them. Show up at a game, play, concert, or where a student works. It’ll show that you truly do desire to get to know their world, not only as someone who asks about it but also as a participant. You’ll begin to develop life-changing and lasting friendships.

Make sure to also target those students who might be on the fringe, those who don’t seem connected to the ministry or other adults. They probably act as if they don’t care, but a friendship initiated by you is probably what they’re screaming for in their heart.

Like they say...

“A knight on a journey who was seeking the King and picked the Prince as his travel- ing companion said, ‘There is no one else I would have trusted...As we journeyed, he played your song. I learned it so well that though a thousand false flutes tried to hide your music, I could hear your song above them all. It was with me all the way.’”

—Max Lucado, With You All the Way

God's Word

“I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.”—Philemon 6