Here’s what most churches get wrong about youth ministry!

Let’s talk about growing young. As pastors, we may have a few ideas on what our churches must have to facilitate a thriving young congregation. Maybe it’s a contemporary worship style, a lavish church building with its own coffee shop, or a senior pastor wearing ripped jeans and sneakers. The question is, do these changes make a difference with the youth?

Kara Powell and her team at the Fuller Youth Institute don’t seem to think so. In an excerpt from their book*, they highlighted 10 aspects of churches that haven’t proven successful with the youth. Let’s see what the experts had to say after exploring the chasm between the church and the youth.

1. A precise size  Don’t buy into the Goldilocks fantasy that some churches are too big, others are too small, and few are "just right". We saw no statistical relationship between church size and effectiveness. Size doesn’t matter. 2. A trendy location or region Did our data unearth churches flourishing near bustling urban centers and dynamic college campuses? Sure. But we also uncovered equally robust ministries in rural one-stoplight towns and middle-class suburbia. Your location does not have to be a limitation. 3. An exact age We applaud how God is working through new church plants. We love what we learned from churches that are less than five years old. But we learned just as much, and recorded just as much life change, in churches that are over a century old. When it comes to churches that grow young, there is no age discrimination. 4. A popular denomination or lack of denomination When we started our study, we wondered if the churches that rose to the top would skew toward particular denominational or non-denominational leanings. While it’s true that some denominations are shrinking or aging faster than average, our fear was unfounded. No need to apologize for your tradition or the fact that you are part of a denomination at all! God is working powerfully through churches of all stripes. 5. An off-the-charts cool quotient Granted, several of the congregations and leaders bubbling to the top of our research have a certain hip factor. But those were in the minority. For young people today, relational warmth is the new cool. 6. A big modern building Some of the congregations that are most effective with young people have new state-of-the-art facilities – but not all. The majority of the effective churches we studied gather in decent, but not spectacular, spaces. Some don’t own their facilities and are creatively meeting in local schools, community centers, and living rooms. For teenagers and young adults, feeling at home transcends any building. 7. A big budget Churches that grow young intentionally invest in young people, and most often that translates into a financial investment – but not always. Less-resourced congregations creatively support young people in other ways, proving that a small budget does not have to mean small impact. 8. A "contemporary" worship service Our data indicated that while many young people are drawn to "casual and contemporary" worship, others are drawn to "smells and bells" high-church liturgy and everything in between. While the churches we visited were likely to prefer modern worship in some or all of their worship contexts, they didn’t depend on that alone as a magnet to draw young people. 9. A watered-down teaching style It’s often assumed that we have to whitewash the teachings of Scripture and somehow make them seem less radical in order to appeal to teenagers and young adults. That’s not what we found. For today’s young people, growing young doesn’t mean we talk about Jesus or the cost of following him any less. 10. A hyper-entertaining ministry program The entertainment options available to young people in our culture are endless. We don’t have to compete. If we try, we will almost certainly lose. Our research highlighted that faith communities offer something different. Slick is no guarantee of success. Have you been buying into these myths? Is your church focusing on what matters with the youth? Source: Todd Rhoades Implementation Lab Director www.lab.leadnet.org *Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church (2016)