Doing youth work for a church can be a confusing business. Setting aside the obvious difficulties, such as differences of opinion in what you need to be doing or never having enough Dr Pepper, when does your year start? January is full of people making new year’s resolutions. Social media feeds are packed with diet suggestions, people starting to exercise and those who are stubbornly resisting to improve anything in their lives. But does the new year make any difference for youth work?
Well, many of us work to the academic year, so the time to implement changes, start new ministries and realign existing ones is usually September. And our churches probably work to the church year, which only started with Advent about six weeks ago. Yet, January brings a shared cultural sense of new starts, and these can still be useful in reassessing the direction we’re going in and the things that we do.
Refine your work
If the start of our year is September, we’ll have had a term of ministry under our belts already. And that’s a great amount of experience to refine what we’re already doing. Maybe an aspect of your ministry hasn’t worked in the way you’d hoped. Now would be a good time to alter or reshape it in the light of what you have learnt since September. For example, in my Sunday groups, we have split various groups up for parts of the session, to allow the young people to get to know each other better and explore faith in amore age appropriate way. What changes can you make to help your ministry run more smoothly and maybe scratch an itch that you’re currently not reaching?
Reaffirm your strategy
One of the common causes of friction in church is that people in the church can often be pulling in different directions. This time of new starts can be a good excuse to reaffirm that what you’re doing with young people fits within the strategy of your church. Talk with the stakeholders of your youth work: the minister, the church leadership, the PCC, the parents of the young people in your group and, most importantly, the young people themselves. Each conversation will need a slightly different approach, but checking in with these different groups will mean that you can ensure you’re heading in the right direction. And that everyone understands and supports that direction.
Value your team
You might be part of a team of people with different levels of experience, expertise and confidence. Some of your team will be thriving, while others might be struggling or in need of more support. Make sure your team meets together as a whole, but also make time to support any of your colleagues who need help. They have volunteered their time and need to be held up and given everything they need to succeed in their ministry. See how each of your team has done over the last four months and how best they can be supported.
You might not be able to make wholesale changes this January, but you can make little tweaks and adaptations which will help your church, your team and your young people grow closer to God through your youth ministry.
Alex Taylor is part of the Diocese’s children and youth team, and works with a group of around 50 lively and unpredictable young people at his church.