Let the revolution begin!

The longer that I work in student ministry, the more I realize the HUGE importance that needs to be placed on relationships.  A very humbling revelation that I stumbled across in reading Jeanne Mayo's "Thriving Youth Groups" is that students will hardly ever commit to your student ministry because of the music, the sermon, etc.  9 times out of 10, students will commit to your student ministry (and more importantly to God) because of the relationships that are fostered within your student ministry.

Knowing this, I sat down with 30 of our core students and shared with them my heart and vision for our student ministry.  I shared with them how important it is that students (new and old) feel loved and accepted or they will not continue to attend our student ministry.  From there, I laid out a game plan with some key elements that we will begin implementing this weekend at our student ministry gathering.  Some of these essential key elements were:

• Greeters
  
• "Tour Guides"
  
• Row leaders
  
• A guest reception
  
• A strategic follow-up plan

While very basic, these elements can go a long way in helping new students feel like our student ministry is a warm and welcoming place.  

I can tell you that in my 10 years in student ministry, I have NEVER had students cheer in the middle of a meeting like they did as I unfolded the future.  On top of that, we ended the meeting by doing an old-fashioned group huddle and stacked our hands in the middle.  I loved the feeling because I knew that these 30 students were committed to this revolution.

So let the revolution begin!