How to Empower Students for Ministry

As youth ministers, we have lived in an environment where handing off ministry to students sounds appealing but is not always seen as professional. They might do things wrong, they might mess up a good opportunity to grow the ministry, they are kids and will most likely flake out, and on top of that letting the students own the ministry takes a lot of time and organization that feels more like herding cats than doing ministry. And if we are being 100% honest we want our ministries to be appealing and done with professionalism, but when you hand it off it to the kids it is guaranteed to be messy and unprofessional, which causes us all sorts of anxiety and makes us want to keep the ministry in our hands.

But the truth is that empowering students to lead a youth ministry is not only possible—it’s essential to ensure that your church’s future is in good hands. If the students don’t own the ministry, they just become passive consumers rating your performance and never learning that they are a vital part of the Body of Christ.

First let’s talk about the messiness of it all. When you hand the ministry over to the students to lead it will be messy. There is nothing you can do about that. The more they do it the better they will get at it, but they are students learning how to lead, not professional performers. The mess however, is learning, is becoming, is discipleship. When the students own the planning and the ultimate outcome of the ministry, they engage in a way you cannot manufacture. This affords you the opportunity to come alongside them and show them their mistakes and successes.

If you think about it Jesus did things in a similar way. He showed his disciples how to the Kingdom worked, taught them the essential tools they needed then released them, and they made tons of mistakes that Jesus used to help them become the leaders he wanted them to be. Think abut the feeding of the 4,000, why did Jesus tell them to feed the people, because they had all the tools they needed and had seen Jesus do this sort of thing before (feeding of the 5,000), plus they had just gotten back from a successful mission trip where they had preached, taught and performed miracles without Jesus by their side. Jesus was preparing them for the day when they stood on their own with nothing but the leading of the Holy Spirit to guide them.

Our students are no different. One day they will graduate and need to stand on their own two feet, make messy decisions, and do their best to be like Jesus in their given context. If we just teach them to be passive consumers of whatever ministry gift we possess then they will not be ready to stand on their own two feet as followers of Jesus. That tells me that no matter how messy it gets, it is worth it to help them learn to own their faith and ministry in the future.

The great thing about the students owning the ministry is that your ministry stops being about “wowing” the kids from week to week and begins to be about discipling the students who are leading the ministry. In a way its refreshing because you no longer worry about how things look or how to “one up” last week. You start to see the places that the students need coached up and they begin to lean into it because they want to do the ministry well. You shift from consumer based ministry to a ministry that truly uses each aspect of your ministry to develop students that contribute to the Kingdom of God.

What we have done in the past is begin to equip students who are leaders through a process we call huddling. We share with the students the ways in which we follow Jesus and try to lead them to do the same thing in hopes of them passing it on one day. When we do that their talents emerge allowing us to build a simple structure that they can take over.

The next thing is to build a simple structure. The structure we use is built around UP | IN | OUT. We have 3 practical aspects of our ministry: Worship/Bible Study (UP), Small Groups (IN), and Missional Communities (OUT). Each of the 3 aspects of the ministry have an UP, IN, OUT rhythm to them that the students can own and plan with a little prompting from the adults.

Then we end each event, meeting, study, whatever gathering we have with an evaluation that we taught them do in their huddles. This gives them opportunity to learn and an opportunity for the adult leaders to disciple the students. If we have to follow up on one aspect or another with the students we mentor we do it one on one later in the week.

Then once a quarter we get the students who are leading the different aspects of the ministry together and do an overall ministry evaluation. This allows us to plan for the next quarter with some form of purpose and gives us another opportunity to disciple the students.

This is just our way of doing ministry that empowers. If you have other ideas or want to do it differently, that's great, just empower your students to own the ministry. When you do that your ministry will blossom, your students will appreciate the trust you give them, and will want to pass on what they have learned to the next generation of students.

Empowering students with leadership roles within your ministry is one of the best ways you can ensure its development—not just today but tomorrow as well! By discipling the students, guiding them to own the ministry, and equipping them with resources and opportunities for success, you can create an atmosphere where everyone feels empowered and invested in their own growth as well as in the growth of others around them. In doing so, you will have created an environment where every student has a vested interest in ensuring that each person feels welcome and accepted—and ultimately becomes a follower of Jesus not just a consumer of religious goods.