Ministry Interview Project:
Strategy Paper Assignment
YOUT 201-Section # B02
What I learned:
This course helped me understand the hard work that goes into making sure teens are
reached with the Gospel. Today’s generation is getting further away from church and
understanding how to reach them is what I will most take away from this course. I grew up
catholic and accepted the Lord in my twenties, so youth ministries were unknown to me until I
had my own kids who actively attended and currently attend. I’ve been teaching pre-teens and
teens for the last 17 years in private Christian schools; this is my first year in the public
education system. It is easy to lose sight of the great need for God in this generation when one is
in Christian schools. I realize now that the real battle is outside our comfortable doors. This
course, through the observation project assignments, made me realize how much the youth of
today have no connection with God, and how they desperately need Him.
Second, I learned the importance of having youth outreach events to challenge students to
come and take part in them. Renting and putting together an event is the logistical part, the hard
part is to reach out to teens that don’t want to be associated with church. How do we reach the
unsaved teens when the culture opposes everything that relates to God? I was very impressed by
the video on “Let’s never forget the lost” (week 4) on the Scare-mare event. I must be honest, I
had to look it up to see what it was, I had no idea this even existed. It was awesome to learn that
this event took place during a time when most celebrate Halloween, but it was used to present the
Gospel. It was inspiring to see the young man in the video was led by the Lord to witness to the
group of people that had walked through, and many were saved.
The third thing I learned is the importance of the leaders in the life of the students. The
verse that comes to mind is Matthew 9:37, Jesus said “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers
are few”. The desperate need for Godly leaders in youth ministries is abundant. It is crucial to be
quipping these leaders with the Word of God and helping them grow a closer relationship with
the Lord so they can be role models for the teens. Lastly, the amount of prayer that is needed for
a youth ministry to have success in reaching and transforming the lives of the students. If we are
to have a healthy church body, reaching teens early to love the Lord and serve in their church and
community should be urgent in today’s culture.
Three-fold Outreach strategy:
Prayer strategy:
In my interview with Zack, 16-year-old high school junior, he said that his prayer time
with the Lord could be stronger. He does a lot of things on his own and as he’s matured, he’s
realized that prayer could have helped him more had he approached prayer as a constant
conversation with the Lord. He said that his idea of prayer was a formal petition to God for
things and growing in the Lord he realizes that he prays for thankfulness, for his success,
protection and when someone asked him to pray for them. He knows how rewarding it is to
intercede for others, however, he said he has great role models in his life that have shown him
how to pray. He thanked his parents and his youth leaders for always being there for him. I know
that not all teenagers have a loving Christian home life that demonstrate this, so that’s when the
leaders make themselves available to listen and pray for them.
Building a strategy based on the information I got from my interviews resulted in a strong
foundation of praying for students as a consistent routine. The pastor I interviewed stated that
they encourage their youth ministry team to be praying for students by name on a weekly basis
and creating opportunities for prayer within services and small groups. They also encourage
students to pray for their friends. At times we ask them to think of 1-3 specific friends they can
pray for by name with a focus on those friends they are wanting to share the gospel with
specifically. There isn’t a formula on how and when so much as prioritizing the need for and
power of prayer. Equipping students on the importance of prayer and secondly how to pray.
Having conversations with the Lord should be the priority for all believers, prayer is our
moments of communion and connection with Him. With respect and reverence to God we come
to Him every day with our thanksgiving and petitions, so it is very important to have a strategy in
approaching God with our prayers. Conveying this to students makes it easier for them to carry
out prayers throughout the day, instead of waiting to pray before they go to bed or go to church.
One strategy that came up in the interviews was to make prayer lists in the small groups, pass
them out and have the students pray for each other during the week. This yields a desire to cover
everything in prayer.
Personal Connection Strategy
Developing a personal connection strategy with the students starts with building
relationships with them, equipping the leaders on how to properly connect with the students is
key to its success. Through my interviews I got many different answers on ways to connect with
students in and outside of youth group. It was clear from the youth pastor to have communication
and consent with the parents. Letting the parents know that the leaders will be reaching out and
mentoring their teen ensures they are aware of what is going on.
Another point made by the pastor is if you want to build connections with students
outside of your youth ministry who do not yet have a relationship with Jesus it’s important to be
where they are. Showing up at school and community events can be a great connection point. But
they also look for opportunities to serve. For instance, they have partnered with student councils
and tailgated at high school football games offering free hot dogs and snacks to students. They
have also cooked pregame meals for the football teams. In serving students and the school
(teachers, coaches, etc.) we build relationships that open deeper opportunities. Our mindset
should always be how can we show these students we want to reach that we care about them.
How can we love them where they are?
An important step in building trust with the students is through prayer, asking and
engaging with the students about their daily life and how can the leaders pray for them opens
them up to trust in them. Establishing morning prayers groups at their school before classes
begin to start off their day a couple of times during the week is a good way to start engaging with
students outside of the church’s youth group. Most middle and high schools have Fellowship of
Christian Athletes, so volunteering to bring doughnuts to these meetings at their school
(everyone loves free food) and then praying with them is a good way to get involved. Leaders
can attend their school sporting event; most high school students have parents that work and
can’t make it to their events. Having a church family present at a basketball game or a dance
recital makes a great impact in their life. The teen I spoke to said it meant a lot to him to see his
pastor in the stands.
The teen I interviewed said, “accountability” at first, I was surprised to hear this, but he
explained that when a youth leader holds him accountable for his actions creates respect for that
person. For teens there are a lot of things I come across that are not beneficial or spiritually
helpful for me and having a mentor who will hold me to a faithful walk with the Lord is
important to me. I agree with him, teens need to have a person that they can talk to, because there
could be things that they would not like to share with parents.
Group Evangelistic Event Strategy
I loved this part of the interview because both were so excited to share how successful it has
been at their church with these outreach events. The pastor and the teenager both agreed that they
love having big outreach events. A very popular outreach event are the monthly bonfires where
students gather around to share praises and prayer requests. Students will post pictures on their
social media, and it has created a very big advertising for the event, it brings in over 60 students
every time. This year they are excited to have the second annual Jr./Senior prom hosted at the
church. Students dress up and invite friends for a night full of dancing and the gospel is
presented at the end. While I do believe there should be opportunities to share the gospel and
invite students to relationship with Jesus, a relational approach is most effective in leading
people to Jesus. The goal is to train our students to have gospel conversations with their friends.
We want them to know how to talk about Jesus and His impact on their lives in organic, daily
ways. We also want them to have tools to share the gospel and lead someone to the Lord one on
one. We should encourage them to invite unsaved friends to church and youth ministry events
and activities regularly and then work to create a youth service environment that not only
disciples our regular students but is welcoming to new and unsaved students. When they come
and feel seen, loved and as though they belong, they are more open to the gospel. It is important
to also approach this way because evangelism is every believer’s job, not just pastors. It should
be something we all do as part of our daily lives and not just event specific. If we do a specific
outreach event the one thing we view as a must is follow up. We want to make sure students who
respond to an altar call are given opportunities for further discipleship. An initial response to the
gospel is only the first step in a lifelong journey so we want to help them navigate the next steps.
We can also put resources in their hands to take home that will help them as they begin to walk
in relationship with Jesus. This is one reason relational evangelism is so effective, because we
don’t grow alone. And when new converts have relationships with believers whether us as
leaders or our students, they will have someone helping them take those first baby steps.
Integrity Statement:
I, Evelyn Gimón, interviewed Zacarias Gimón on February 24, 2022, and leader Pastor T.
Caplinger on February 27, 2022 and have followed all necessary instructions.
