The Barna Group's August 2005 report discovered that only five percent of adult Americans have a correct Biblical worldview. Five percent! Teaching this to teens is imperative.

A good definition of a Biblical worldview has been defined by George Barna is: "A biblical worldview was defined as believing that absolute moral truths exist; that such truth is defined by the Bible; and firm belief in six specific religious views. Those views were that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life; God is the all powerful and all knowing Creator of the universe and He stills rules it today; salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned; Satan is real; a Christian has a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people; and the Bible is accurate in all of its teachings." ("Only Half Of Protestant Pastors Have A Biblical Worldview," January 12, 2004)

Remember that youth are coming to church expecting to be taught things about God and church.

Plan Ritualized Times Together

This sounds like an awful idea. Ritual is a word many youth workers over the last 50 years have run from. Yet it is one of those special comforting things we can offer youth.

In a non-youth ministry book I read this letter from a then 20 year old: "In the last six years I have come to feel strongly that parents need to spend one to one time with their teenagers. Ritualized time together, however long or short, allows trust to build in a healthy, deliberate manner. The ritual time I shared with my father (every night at bedtime until age 13, then ice cream out once a week) helped me connect with him as a respectful adult and parent, who, through it all, was there for me regardless of whether I felt like sharing my problems." ( Putting Family First , p. 79)

Ritualized time together is necessary for teens to survive through adolescence. When looking at youth ministry overall, we are built on ritualized times together. Our schedules are built on it. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed with schedules and programs. We sweat over the creativity of these times together so they are somewhat memorable. Sometimes we devalue Sunday School as not important when in reality this is truly ritualized time together. The times we teach from the Bible (again, why they are scheduling church into their busy schedules) and the relational bonuses of these ritualized times together are youth ministry.

We need to value our ritualized times we have with our youth.

Small Groups are Organized Around Common Interests

Small groups are great youth ministry and they don't necessarily have to be made up of teens. Let other adults organize a knitting small group, scrapbooking small group, basketball small group, etc. The list is endless. And open up the small groups to the entire church family. My church's paintball small group is organized around the common interest of paintball. Youth and adults are both a part of it where they can enjoy each other, talk about what happened on the field and what happens in life, and faith crosses in and out of all conversation. A bonus is visitors are easily absorbed because of the common interest.

With this plan you could actually run an entire youth ministry and never have a weekly youth service while your youth would come into numerous faith lessons which they would remember for a lifetime. Remember all those office hours spent setting up adults to be involved with the youth whether they know it or not? This is one way to do that.

You Don't Necessarily Have to Have a Weekly Youth Meeting

In some areas the weekly youth meeting is a part of the community. In some areas the weekly youth meeting has become something on a long list of choices to squeeze into a schedule. To change up the weekly schedule is not a statement that the church is giving in to society. The reason to do it should be to help parents take back their rightful role of raising their children spiritually. Parents are already taxi drivers rushing through traffic to get their children to what is important. Sometimes getting to that weekly service after a day of work and traffic is quite a bit of stress.

Some churches operate that the church building should be open every night of the week otherwise the church would not truly be helping the community. Good theory but what is sacrificed for that theory is family time and I believe the church should be the greatest supporter of family time.

Take a good look at your church schedule. If Sunday mornings is the planned time for the family to be in church, make your Sunday school program better, more like the weekly youth meeting. Maybe planning something better and more memorable once a month would be more effective than a weekly thrown-together youth meeting that a youth forgets what was taught two days later. Maybe meet after school. Maybe do more small groups.

The greatest youth ministry planning you can do is to help your parents do their job which is to raise their own children spiritually. This goes back to those office hours you put in. With your resources, you can create tools to help parents do their role better. Moms & Pops Stuff is a great resource as you are giving them ideas that they can do in their own time. Create such resources and such opportunities so spiritual growth happens outside of the youth meeting. Parents do have countless more hours of influence in their children's lives than you do.

Plan Events Around the Church Calendar

I would like other adults from my church involved in the youth ministry. I clearly want the parents of the youth to be involved in the youth ministry. If I plan events without looking at the church calendar, I would pay no consideration to the life of the church. Besides, too much of youth ministry is already run separately from the life of the church. I don't want to contribute to the youth missing out on hanging with the saints of the church by not working with the church calendar.

When planning, do what you can to get the youth stuff on the calendar first and then get those dates into the hands of the parents. Getting first on the calendars gives you a better chance when parents need to choose between that soccer camp or the youth retreat.

Plan Events Around the School Calendar

This is also a good idea. Planning a retreat the weekend before mid-terms would be the death of your retreat. You should always check the school calendar and the church calendar before setting the youth ministry calendar.

The Youth Minister Doesn't Have to do Everything

This summer the youth group at my church went off on their first-ever mission trip and I didn't go. "What?!" you exclaim. The least I can do is the "big things." Yes, I could. But instead I had parents rise up to lead. Another adult, who prior to this trip just prayed for the youth, led one of the teams. And the entire trip was headed by one of the pastors who is also a parent. Why would I take away anyone's blessing by going? If I was there, too much "stuff" would automatically fall to me to do when everyone who went was just as capable. Plus I was not worried about the safety of the youth. The parents were set free to do what comes natural.

For some of you because you are paid, you think you could never get away with this because then what would the church be paying you for? They would be paying you to move around the adults in your congregation to be a part of the youths' lives. That takes preparation and work, lots of it. Lots of office hours.

Remember that a youth ministry centered on you doing everything turns into a "(insert your name here) youth ministry" and not one centered on the youth of your church.

Youth Leaders are Authority Figures