“How to Define Success in Youth Ministry”

People always ask me, “how do you define success?” or “how do I know I am being successful?” It fills blogs, books, and staff meetings. It is the make or break for many in youth ministry and often is the difference between keeping or losing a job.

It is a tricky question with sometimes an even more tricky set of answers, especially when the answers are more crockpot than a microwave.

The answers come after having been in ministry for over 24 years and are not “silver bullets.” These are some of my reflections.

Here is How You May Be Able to Define Success in Ministry in This New Year…

5 to 10 years from now
Year #1 is getting to know the ministry, church, area, people, and history. Year #2 is forming and shaping what your ministry needs to look like, whom it is going to target, and what your vision for your ministry approach is going to be. Year #3 is when you start running your youth ministry. SO… minimum,m you cannot begin to define “success” until at least year #5 at a place, probably longer!!

> Success can be defined by LONGEVITY!

When they choose to serve
While we like to fill our lessons with information and a couple of Greek words, success in ministry cannot be seen through how much knowledge and facts we have imparted. Often in ministry, we spend much of our time studying and delivering lengthy amounts of information, but our students actually do not retain much of it. There is no quiz or test at the end of our ministry to assess how much our students learned or the number of facts they remembered so that we can know whether or not we “passed” or “failed.”.

What we can observe is life, actions, and service. Are the young people we have served turning around and applying what they have heard in serving others? This is not the obligatory annual mission trip and holiday service project; this is something that lives beyond our efforts.

> Success can be seen when students make their own PERSONAL DECISIONS TO SERVE!

When faith and story are shared
For many in ministry and often in the church,h the definition of success is found in numbers. Numbers in the seat…Numbers of salvations…Numbers of rededications…A number of baptisms. These are all easy and “warm fuzzy” ways to reassure ourselves we are not failing. All those things are lovely,l and I do not want to belittle those things, but those numbers are often “false positives” of success in ministry.

Consider some different numbers:
* The number of students who honestly, confidently, and regularly share their faith in a personal, relational way
* The number of students that can tell you the entire story of the Bible and its connections to the GGospelthroughout.
* The number of people coming to Christ, not through an event, a forced encounter, but because someone was willing to share their faith story with them authentically.

> Success can be defined by AUTHENTIC FAITH STORIES ARE BEING SHARED

In the Family.
Next Generation Ministry is about us ministering to young people. We dedicate hours to loving, leading, and learning. We sacrifice so much in the hope that young people will want to follow Christ in their lives. We take our kids away to camps, retreats, and trips. We put on concerts, events, and overnights.

We pack our schedules and work extra hours. We work so hard for the mission and the calling. We look back to the years of serving a group, a church, or a place. We remember the names and faces of so many students that we have poured into. We may, however, have missed the essential young people that we are called to and,d in the end, have failed after all because…

>> Success in Ministry can be defined when MY OWN PERSONAL CHILDREN CHOOSE TO FOLLOW CHRIST!!
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