More emphasis is placed on what God is doing than what the youth ministry is doing. It's a great thing to love our church and youth ministry, but when we tend to highlight what's going on in our church than what's going on outside of it, we have a problem. We should be more eager to celebrate what God is doing than what our church or youth ministry is doing.
Students are encouraged to make an impact in their world that exists outside the church walls. Students have been gifted by God to serve him where God has placed them in their schools, families, athletic teams, dance studios, and communities. We need to encourage them to serve however God has called them to do so.
The youth pastor and leaders foster a Kingdom-first mentality. Our lead pastor, Roy, frequently tells our staff that it's amazing what can be accomplished when we don't care who gets the credit. A youth ministry that sends missionaries has leaders that are more interested in building the Kingdom than building their kingdom.
The youth pastor works with other youth pastors and churches to reach students in their community. I'm not saying that every single event or initiative has to be a joint endeavor. But whether a youth pastor is willing to partner with other churches says a lot about whether that leader is collecting students or sending missionaries.
Evaluating the youth ministry involves more than attendance data. We can't ignore numbers, and we should certainly celebrate when are in a season when we get to see lots and lots of lives changed by Jesus. But there are other things to take into consideration when evaluating a youth ministry. When we focus only on numbers, we're probably more interested in how many students we're collecting than anything else.
Question: What would you add to this list?
