Why Numerical Growth Doesn't Equal Success In Youth Ministry.

Thinking through what the the goal should be for youth pastors, leaders, and Christians who work with young people.

This last week I was doing a two-part workshop for Youth Pastor’s in Eastern Washington and I asked them to think about how we define what success looks like in youth ministry. 

At the beginning of my session, I said there was not one Youth Pastor in the room who would have said that quantity is the greatest determining metric of success. 

For one… you would sound like a shallow and insecure Youth Pastor. 

But secondly, Youth Pastor’s just don’t believe that the size of their youth ministry is the determining factor of if they are successful or not. 

Let me confess something about my earlier years as a Youth Pastor. At one point we legitimately had over 200 young people coming on a Thursday night. I knew that didn’t mean I was somehow super successful in my role, but the problem is this… 

Although I knew numbers were not the metric of success… it really REALLy felt like success. I liken it to gossip. Like all of you I have gossiped and I knew it was wrong, but it felt good. 

And then on top of all that – this feeling is sometimes reinforced in evangelical circles nonverbally. Do you have a big online following? You are more likely to be invited to speak at that special youth invite night. Have a big youth ministry? You are more likely to be invited to that big youth conference. 

We often equate audience with authority. 

Now, the statements I just made are generic and obviously, it doesn’t always pan out that way. There is nothing wrong with a big online following or a large youth ministry obviously. 

And yes, numbers do tell a part of the story. 

I know you are reading this and can’t hear my tone, but trust me this isn’t coming from any other place than authentic care for fellow youth and young adult pastors and the young people in our churches.

But some of the reasons numbers don’t equal success are because: 

1) There are so many variables like the size of your church, and how many students live in your area, and let’s not forget… students have to invite other students. There have been seasons of a lot of numeric growth in our youth ministry partially because we’ve simply had more outgoing personalities that invited others all the time. These are all variables that I have no control over. 

2) Sorry to state the obvious, but it’s still worth remind ourselves that just because you have students in seats in a mid-week service or attending a small group doesn’t mean they are growing in Jesus. 

3) There is no biblical mandate in the New Testament to grow our local churches. Now, I grew up in a protestant/evangelical church so I know what some of you are thinking about this point… “yes we are! We are called to go and make disciples!” and yes thats true, but let’s just take a breather here and remember that even when someone is born again it is always a work of the Spirit. Oh, and Jesus has this little story where he talks about different the different soils and how many times there is quick fruit, but no root. We want to see our local churches grow for the kingdom of God and we want to plant seeds of the gospel as much as possible, but it’s God who brings the transformation. 

So, how do we define “success”? There are probably a number of ways we can answer that depending on what the vision of your Lead Pastor is and other important factors that we can’t discuss today. 

Because I don’t have the time to share my thoughts on success in youth ministry at large – let me share my thoughts on how I personally define success for myself in my role as a Youth Pastor. Nothing flashy or revolutionary, but here ya go:

• Am I in a healthy and growing relationship with Jesus? (Word, prayer, confession, accountability, tithing, sabbath, etc.)

• Am I putting my wife and family first before my role at the church? (Family is without question the most important ministry that every believer has…)

• Lasting fruit. (I would rather make a massive impact in a few, than a small impact in thousands. I care about if a student will love Jesus, their family, and the Church by the time they are 85 years old.)

There are a million more things I could say on this subject, but time doesn’t permit me to write more this Tuesday morning. 

The question that remains is – if we are after “fruit that remains”... how would we build our youth ministries, programs, events, methods of discipleship, biblical study, etc. etc. towards this vision? That’s what I’ve been working on for months. More to come ;)

What are your thoughts? For real… I read your responses and genuinely want to hear from you. Let me know if you agree or disagree and why. 

Talk soon!

Xoxo