{"id":6573,"date":"2011-10-20T10:26:38","date_gmt":"2011-10-20T17:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharefaithblog.wpengine.com\/?p=6573"},"modified":"2017-10-30T12:05:34","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T19:05:34","slug":"5-tips-starting-youth-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/5-tips-starting-youth-group\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Tips on Starting a New Youth Group"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Possibly one of the scariest challenges in ministry is starting a new youth group. As scary as it may seem, the next generation of church leaders depends on us, and someone\u2019s gotta take up the call. So here are some tips for those of you who are jumping into an exciting (and life-changing) ministry like this.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>5 Tips on Starting a New Youth Group<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Live the example you want to show to your teens.<\/strong> Now this is very clich\u00e9 and you\u2019re probably thinking, \u201cDuh!\u201d All of us know it\u2019s never that easy setting a good Christian example in our lives. But you need to have it in order to fortify yourself and to present Christ in a pure manner with love to your kids. This includes making scripture, prayer, and a good attitude part of every moment of your life.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Set ground rules for your group.<\/strong> It\u2019s pretty aggravating to have kids come in and walk all over you when you\u2019re trying to minister to them. Set rules like: no cell phones, no PDA (public displays of affection), no talking during service, etc., etc. and be ready to enforce these rules while remembering that you want them to have a good time\u2014so long as they respect you and everyone else there.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Remember who the enemy is.<\/strong> It\u2019s not the teens and it\u2019s not their parents; it\u2019s sin. Sometimes, you might have a kid that makes you want to rip your hair out (perhaps they already ripped your hair out), or a parent who drives you insane. However, we need to take a step back and realize that they are the people who need you the most right now. You and your other youth leaders (if you have any others) need to reach out to these kids and their families, and patiently speak to them about their behavior, making sure to maintain a positive attitude and show the love of Christ through it all.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Give yourself plenty of time to prepare.<\/strong> Youth ministry generally involves quite a bit with games, teaching, and worship. Of course, your church may have different ways you go about it, but you don\u2019t want to slack off on your preparation. The youth deserve your time and your attention, and you have to have back-up plans in case your group size is different than you expected or another leader couldn\u2019t make it. Never assume you have plenty of time the night before to get everything done.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Have fun with it.<\/strong> If you aren\u2019t enjoying yourself, then chances are neither are they. Be active in your students\u2019 lives and enjoy their company rather than dread it. Be engaging in your devotions\/sermons and speak to them about things that they are going through. Get to know them and try to spend time with them in smaller groups or individually. Make friends with your youth while maintaining a teacher\/student relationship.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>There\u2019s no perfect science to to being an awesome youth leader and every youth group is different. Instead of worrying about being the perfect youth leader, let God move your ministry and be ready to give your best for your flock. Being a youth pastor is an amazing blessing if you put your heart and soul into it and share the blessing with your students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Possibly one of the scariest challenges in ministry is starting a new youth group. As scary as it may seem, the next generation of church leaders depends on us, and someone\u2019s gotta take up the call. So here are some tips for those of you who are jumping into an exciting (and life-changing) ministry like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4143,4155],"tags":[1437,1434,1436,1435],"class_list":{"0":"post-6573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sunday-school-ministry","8":"category-sunday-school-resources","9":"tag-student-ministry","10":"tag-youth-group","11":"tag-youth-group-tips","12":"tag-youth-pastor"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogrouting.sharefaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/new-youth-group-blog.png","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v14.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>5 Tips on Starting a New Youth Group - Sharefaith Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sharefaithblog.wpengine.com\/2011\/10\/5-tips-starting-youth-group\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Tips on Starting a New Youth Group - Sharefaith Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Possibly one of the scariest challenges in ministry is starting a new youth group. As scary as it may seem, the next generation of church leaders depends on us, and someone\u2019s gotta take up the call. So here are some tips for those of you who are jumping into an exciting (and life-changing) ministry like [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sharefaithblog.wpengine.com\/2011\/10\/5-tips-starting-youth-group\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sharefaith Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SharefaithPage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-20T17:26:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-10-30T19:05:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogrouting.sharefaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/new-youth-group-blog.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"204\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sharefaith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sharefaith\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Sharefaith Magazine\",\"description\":\"The Best in Church Leadership, Worship, Tech and Gear!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sharefaithblog.wpengine.com\/2011\/10\/5-tips-starting-youth-group\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogrouting.sharefaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/new-youth-group-blog.png\",\"width\":480,\"height\":204,\"caption\":\"5 Tips on Starting a New Youth Group\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sharefaithblog.wpengine.com\/2011\/10\/5-tips-starting-youth-group\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sharefaithblog.wpengine.com\/2011\/10\/5-tips-starting-youth-group\/\",\"name\":\"5 Tips on Starting a New Youth Group - Sharefaith Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sharefaithblog.wpengine.com\/2011\/10\/5-tips-starting-youth-group\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-20T17:26:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-10-30T19:05:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1934eae265ee976147f8cfe4ec53cb10\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sharefaithblog.wpengine.com\/2011\/10\/5-tips-starting-youth-group\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1934eae265ee976147f8cfe4ec53cb10\",\"name\":\"Sharefaith Team\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8464e92f0defc55d259c6c3cf4ac7e9b2de32bfba982df4f5da19a5e4154dadb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sharefaith Team\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jHXE-1I1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}