Focused Youth Ministry

Many churches and youth ministries have a written vision statement, which is great because having a clear vision is essential to moving the ministry forward in the direction that God desires. The problem is, for many churches, that vision is mostly a slogan on a letterhead that was adapted from another church’s vision. It’s not always a vision that is specific to the context of ministry at that specific church with its unique people, history, resources, community, talents,...
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Many churches and youth ministries have a written vision statement, which is great because having a clear vision is essential to moving the ministry forward in the direction that God desires. The problem is, for many churches, that vision is mostly a slogan on a letterhead that was adapted from another church’s vision. It’s not always a vision that is specific to the context of ministry at that specific church with its unique people, history, resources, community, talents, connections, and more. And in more cases than not, it honestly has little bearing on what the ministry actually does. Without a clear focus on God’s vision for our specific ministry, we end up floating from one event to the next and one lesson series to the next without any real intentionality that ties them all together to move students toward a specific place by the time they graduate high school. Ministry becomes a bit haphazard while spiritual influence becomes something we hope for instead of something we plan for. How does a ministry discover what God’s unique vision is for them in their specific ministry context? And once that vision is realized, how can it be implemented to impact the ministry being done to students and their families? And how can we know what parts of the ministry are actually moving the vision forward and what aspects aren’t? This ebook give a step-by-step, “how to” guide for doing just that. It will give you the foundation you need to get started in discovering what God’s vision is for your unique ministry, how to implement it, and make it sustainable long-term. It will help you focus the ministry on a journey that revolves around God’s plan for your ministry. This straight-forward, practical guide includes steps on how to: -- Discover God’s vision for your specific and contextualized ministry. -- Begin to implement that vision into your ministry. -- Put metrics in place that will help you evaluate your ministry’s effectiveness in moving the vision forward. -- Ensure that the vision does not wear off over time. -- Launch a ministry every year that is better poised to move the vision forward than the year before. -- Give ownership of the vision to the church. -- Operate out of what God has called your ministry to be instead of solely out of what it does. -- and much more... The approach this ebook takes is not to just give you information on how to accomplish these things, but rather to give you and your team good questions to ask together that will help you discover together what God’s vision is for your unique ministry and how to move it forward. It doesn’t tell you what your ministry’s focus needs to be — it takes you through a process that makes that necessary focus become apparent.