jordan muck

Our ministry has changed “the look” of how we do things to reach young adults for Christ. While the gospel message and biblical meanings don’t change, the delivery does. The whole “goal” of ministry with the youth (in our community) is to take the Matthew 28 principle (go and make disciples and teach them to obey everything) as far as we can. This is how we make it happen or an “inside edge” at GeNESIS.

Using the teaching part of Matthew 28, I think it is my responsibility as a youth pastor to first teach my staff how to minister to young adults. This way there isn’t just one youth pastor but eight people just like me, doing exactly what I do to reach teenagers (sound like Jesus and the twelve?). My staff has a huge potential, great ideas, and engaging thoughts that need to come to the surface. They are more than snack providers or people who retrieve dodge balls. As a teacher, it is my job to be a “ring leader” to these people, to value their opinions, and use what they are thinking and coming up with to equip them to reach youth.

The biggest problem we have always faced as a ministry is being a step behind. In our Sunday night activities and events we were always working on the upcoming Sunday the week before it actually happened. What we realized is that we need to be ahead of the game, way ahead of the game. To be the best we can be, our focus switched by planning and plotting out our next series while the current series is going on. For example, the series we are running right now is new to the students but old news to the staff because they are already working on the next one. The whole concept for being a month (if not more) ahead is so everyone who is serving can come together and have the time to make events lively, big, active, and an overall experience that our students will never forget.

So how do we do it? Well, we meet as a staff for a half hour on Sunday night between programs which helps us plan out together what the next “best step” for GeNESIS will be. (Our staff has to meet at this time due to their work schedules and other activities outside of church. ) In these half hour meetings, our staff plans out everything with me as a guide (or “ringleader”) to the discussion, keeping everyone on track. These meetings include coming up with the new series topic, the way the weeks will work and look, the worship songs we sing, the music playing in the background, the snacks on the bar, etc. We want to make sure that everything is integrated as much as possible so the students are getting the message loud and clear. The harder we hammer home a point, the more the students pick up on it. Repetition is the best way to learn something new. To become seamless, every element has to flow together to create a very unified experience. Even the Sunday school message hit on Sunday morning flows into the series discussed on Sunday night. Everything comes together so the biblical message is heard loud and clear.

The real change and how this process happened occurred in the organizational structure of staff meetings, e-mails, and other communications. We realized we were spending a lot of wasted time at staff meeting discussing things that were unimportant. Now, instead of just coming into a meeting to talk and relax, we are now combining our efforts by using everyones creativity and knowledge to work toward the overall vision. Staff meetings now focus on the “big picture” of the worship experience for a Sunday night and how it relates to the vision we have set (Matthew 28).

Here’s an even further glance. On Sunday night, our meetings occur 50-60 days out from a new series (right now we are focusing in on the August 3rd series because we will not meet in July). Every idea that is brought to the table is put on a white board (or chalk board). No one is allowed to shoot down any of these suggestions (yet). We cover every element; from the series design, to what the kids will “takeaway” from the message, to song ideas, to games, to even big events that we could do to close out the series or a midweek activity (putt-putt golf, etc). We also invite people from other departments (AWANA kids program, the board, students, etc.) to contribute in these meetings.

The whole goal of the meeting now is to encourage suggestions and bring ideas to the table so we all can use them to effectively minister to the students the best we can. We then have a follow-up meeting every week to further talk through which ideas are worth pursuing. This gives us some the opportunity to assign tasks and responsibilities to the appropriate people that want to contribute. (Big thanks to Wade Joy for his inspiration on this concept that I took and ran with. You can find his article here.)

Here’s a breakdown of how meetings run when a five week series is currently running.

• 1st Meeting – Prayer and updates on personal life, lock down series topic, quick brain storm session on activities, worship, games, and events that we could do for this series. This will be off the top of our staff’s heads and a little random. The whole idea here is to just think of “big” ideas and “ring lead”.
• 2nd Meeting – Prayer, updates, and then another brainstorm session that went off of last weeks discussion. The staff has had a week to think and pray about what was discussed. As a staff, we sort out what we think will work and what won’t for the upcoming series. This is a great time to bring some of our students, board, etc. in to give them a snapshot of what we are going to do and to allow them to give some input.
• 3rd Meeting – Prayer, updates, and then our staff gets everything solidified for the individual weeks of the series coming up. This session hammers our all the small details that need done.
• 4th Meeting – Prayer, updates, and then on to a time where the staff focuses in on the individual weeks, fine tuning what needs to be done. This is a great time to order Sunday School material, and anything else that we will need to pull off the series.
  
• 5th Meeting – Prayer, updates, and then tying loose ends and wrap everything up. We also talk about promotion and how we can get the word out more about the series coming up.

By engaging in this style of staying ahead, we now actually have a destination to arrive at. This structural change brings a great sense of unity and cohesiveness to everyone involved. It makes our staff part of the team (which they are). There will be times when we don’t all agree on something as a staff but thats what I am here for as a youth pastor. My job is to “land the plane” or be the “ringleader” in these meetings to make decisions when we don’t all agree. My job also consists of working out the details in the week. This includes e-mails and other communication with staff, students, and parents, and allows me to focus on hammering in on the message.

What are you do to equip others and minister?

-Jordan