Energizing An Initiative

Want people to get excited about something?

Get some kids and youth involved! 

Yesterday our Student Ministry (for students grades 8-12) baked goodies for a baking fundraiser for our new building project. They came together for 3 hours and baked up a storm, and then today after our church service they gave their goods away by donation. 

People young and old were eating it up (pun intended). They thought it was so cool that our students were involved in this project so they wanted to support it. In fact they raised a couple hundred dollars more what I had projected for us to raise. And this was because our students were excited about what they did and their excitement for the project was contagious.

I'm pretty sure anyone wanted to bring excitement to a campaign, cause or initiative of any kind, if they just found a few young and energetic people who were passionate about the cause and then brought them on board they would have far greater success than they originally projected.

So think about it, how do you incorporate young people in what you do?

Missed the mark

This weekend we tried to do something different with our youth ministry. We decided to have the youth volunteer in the Sunday school classes so that adults could take a break.

Was it a great idea? YES. Did we execute it well NO. The problem wasn't that the students did a poor job. In fact they were amazing. Great volunteers who made a difference. The poor job was done by me.

I wasn't thinking about the fact that on Easter Sunday a few youth might show up that weren't regulars. And sure enough a bunch did and one who wanted to come to Sunday school was disappointed to find out we were helping out elsewhere.

I tried to get him to hang out but he fled into the sanctuary.

This got me to think about how are we going to work things out as our ministry grows. I am hoping that our ministry will grow greatly in the next little while. We have been seeing some significant growth in the maturity of a few students and I am excited for the idea that they will bring others.

Lets hope we can adjust to our growth and plan ahead so that we don't miss the mark.