week 6 reponds
arnita
db6responds.docxBenjamin Moeller
Intentional Synergy
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Intentional youth ministry is where there is a specific focus. For example, perhaps a church is nestled in a housing development and the church specifically wants to reach the youth in that development, so the church has a block party and invites the youth from that local development. Intentional is a specific focus or I like to think of things happen on purpose and not on accident. To have synergy around intentional youth ministry the youth leaders need rally around the same intentional purpose, “By rallying leaders around the ministry process, you are choosing to create unity where disunity can most often fester. You are creating synergy around the how of the student ministry”. [1]
I have seen youth ministries become stagnant due to the youth program just being the same schedule every year. The pastor shares a message every Sunday, the youth hang out during youth group, and there is typically a once a year mission to build a home in a third world country. The youth program lacks drive and focus and is stuck in cruise control. Youth may even stop coming because they feel they have something better to do and no one realizes they stopped coming, so that person is never contacted.
One win I have seen in youth ministry is where the youth leaders intentionally care about the youth. They call once a week, they check-in when in person, and the youth leaders meet regularly to focus on what needs to purposely happen in the youth ministry. The youth leaders pray a ton and lead by example. The purpose of having the youth go out and share the gospel or even just serve those in needs. When a youth leader is intentional themselves and the leadership group has synergy around the focus, then a youth ministry comes alive and everyone wants to be a part of it. It is basically, the youth see Jesus in the ministry and everyone wants to be like and around Jesus.
Being intentional is great, though there can be drawbacks. For example, the intensions may not be specific enough. The focus may be on reaching the youth in the community. However, the youth come from all different lifestyles and backgrounds. Therefore, that needs to be discussed with the youth leaders on how to reach each group and subgroups. This way everyone is being focused on and then synergy is created with a higher level of focus from the youth leaders.
[1] ERIC GEIGER // JEFF BORTON (2012). Simple Student Ministry. B & H Publishing Group. Retrieved from https://app.wordsearchbible.lifeway.com
Michelle Boykins
DB6
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The synergy is to build strategically balanced, a strong student ministry to the building as it correlates to building a local church student ministry. Synergy is coming together to get things done efficiently and build each other up. Geiger goes on to say, “By rallying leaders around the ministry process, you are choosing to create unity where disunity can most often fester. You are creating synergy around how of the student ministry.”1Churches need to make youth ministry priority churches that have not made youth ministry a priority tend to have smaller youth groups as opposed to churches that have larger youth ministry groups. Some churches lack outside activities such as (specifically camps, retreats, and missions) there is a lack of student leadership or ownership and a lack of involvement by the parents. There is a lack of parent’s interest, a lack of adult volunteers, a lack of interest among youth, and a lack of youth taking leadership roles.
I have seen a big leadership change concerning the youth department. I feel it is important to choose a person that has compassion for the youth and youth ministry, a youth minister need to learn about youth needs in context, lay the ground rules, raise up leaders, and get creative by taking young people on mission trips or running a camp ministry. Youth ministry can be exciting if that is what God called you to do I believe without preparation is like driving into a direction without direction. Follow the vision that God has given you and then apply it to the youth ministry. The effective church helps the family prioritize so that time to participate in integrated discipleship exists.
Student ministry must keep their meeting balanced and the ministry must be aware of the various means to fulfill each dynamic. Developing an integrated strategy is hard. It takes serious effort to get leaders on your staff on the same page. It takes energy, training leaders, and parents to become partners in ministry. Potential of intentionally training leaders and parents together in an integrated strategy, how much do you want to increase your capacity as a church and how much do you want to increase the capacity of your families? As long as God is in the mist things can be accomplished if working together and I call that synergy!
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1 ERIC GEIGER // JEFF BORTON (2012). Simple Student Ministry. B & H Publishing
Group. Retrieved from https://app.wordsearchbible.lifeway.com
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