Not everyone is cut out to work with pre-teens and teenagers. A lot of people think that you have to be young yourself to survive working with them. The fact is that a lot of retirees love working with this age group and make great leaders of the kinds of youth ministries San Antonio TX churches want to be able to offer their members. Most of these leaders adhere to some simple rules.
You need to make the ministry meetings fun places to be. This may be the only way to get and keep a crowd. You can make up silly games, organize rock bands, or have overnight lock ins that, on the surface, don't seem to have much to do with religion. It might be showing the kids how to work together or getting normally reluctant kids to volunteer. Everything you plan however must have an underlying purpose and gospel foundation.
There are always kids that hang back. They might have been forced into your program by their parents or followed someone they have a crush on in order to get their attention. It doesn't really matter why they are there. It's your job to engage them and try to pull them into the group. It takes time and effort, and doesn't always work, but this is one of the challenges of the job.
Along with the fun activities, gospel lessons also have to be fun and interesting. Kids can be turned off by preaching. If you take the time to engage their imaginations and demonstrate how ancient stories are relevant to their lives, you might get them thinking. Instead of making yourself the center of the discussion, open the dialog, sit back, and let your kids take over.
It's important for you to really understand these kids. You have to be sensitive to which ones will grab the spotlight away from others and which ones are terrified of being singled out. You need to understand where they are on their spiritual journey. Instead of asking directly, which will embarrass most of them, you have to let them open up on their own terms.
Meeting the parents is important for youth ministers. This is especially true if you are working with younger children. You want the parents to leave their kids feeling that they are in good hands. If you sense a kid has problems at home, or seems to have parents who don't want to be involved, you can reach out without forcing yourself on them.
Becoming a youth leader is serious business. It's not a job you should enter into lightly. There are going to be kids in the ministry who have had bad experiences with unstable and unreliable adults. They may look to you as the only consistent, positive presence in their lives.
Teenagers are not babies, and they aren't adults. They are in flux between the two. This is a critical time, and you can make a difference.
You need to make the ministry meetings fun places to be. This may be the only way to get and keep a crowd. You can make up silly games, organize rock bands, or have overnight lock ins that, on the surface, don't seem to have much to do with religion. It might be showing the kids how to work together or getting normally reluctant kids to volunteer. Everything you plan however must have an underlying purpose and gospel foundation.
There are always kids that hang back. They might have been forced into your program by their parents or followed someone they have a crush on in order to get their attention. It doesn't really matter why they are there. It's your job to engage them and try to pull them into the group. It takes time and effort, and doesn't always work, but this is one of the challenges of the job.
Along with the fun activities, gospel lessons also have to be fun and interesting. Kids can be turned off by preaching. If you take the time to engage their imaginations and demonstrate how ancient stories are relevant to their lives, you might get them thinking. Instead of making yourself the center of the discussion, open the dialog, sit back, and let your kids take over.
It's important for you to really understand these kids. You have to be sensitive to which ones will grab the spotlight away from others and which ones are terrified of being singled out. You need to understand where they are on their spiritual journey. Instead of asking directly, which will embarrass most of them, you have to let them open up on their own terms.
Meeting the parents is important for youth ministers. This is especially true if you are working with younger children. You want the parents to leave their kids feeling that they are in good hands. If you sense a kid has problems at home, or seems to have parents who don't want to be involved, you can reach out without forcing yourself on them.
Becoming a youth leader is serious business. It's not a job you should enter into lightly. There are going to be kids in the ministry who have had bad experiences with unstable and unreliable adults. They may look to you as the only consistent, positive presence in their lives.
Teenagers are not babies, and they aren't adults. They are in flux between the two. This is a critical time, and you can make a difference.
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When you are searching for information about youth ministries San Antonio TX residents can come to our web pages online today. More details are available at http://www.mountzionfbc.org/youth now.
