The 'attraction model' of youth ministry that we all used to live by....

In this video, I'm rambling on about the 'old way' of doing youth ministry. Building specific events to attract new kids was common place. For a while, periodically, we'd have great results. More often than not, we just had great programs... 

1.  in my experience, few kids ever really shifted their attendance/engagement from the big, crazy Friday night event to the weekly discipleship/growth meetings. The different programs we offered were just too different. Kids that came for the fun just came for the fun. Only a few shifted like we intended.
2.  kids have told me that they didn't appreciate getting invited to a fun event and being blindsided with a serious, invitational 'God talk'.  This changed how we invited kids - not what we did. We started inviting kids to 'a big fun thing where we will talk about God'... that didn't really work either.
3.  my youth group just ended up bringing the same kids over and over... they got used to it, accepted the deal and had fun; but results diminished. Some of those kids finally accepted Christ because of the relationships built - could we not have done that much more effectively?
4.  I spent a TON of time and money on attracting kids. Kids came for the program, not for relationship, not for growth, not for the message, not for God. I was a program director more than a shepherd.

 Here's about 5 minutes of my ramblings...

 

How should we respond? Create healthy, authentic followers of Christ who will work at following Christ well. Then, in the relationships they have, invite friends into the community who practices following Jesus well.... Get good at doing what Christians do... let the world see that!

Let's not 'green screen' folks into hearing the gospel.  
dave


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P.S.
After shooting this, I remembered where I got the ideas I mentioned in the video. The article that talked about the choir and the debate team is by Ken Moser. His article on tearing down the house is awesome! So, Ken... I'm not stealing your material; I'm pointing it out! Good job.

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Dave Brotherton was a youth pastor from 1984-2006 and now teaches youth ministry at Ambrose University College in Calgary. Dave is also the National Youth Guy for the Alliance churches in Canada, the director of Legacy Youth Conference, and a junior high volunteer in his church. Dave is married to Lisa and they share 2 of the greatest kids in the world. Fishing, camping, and cheering on the Leafs are some of his favorite things. 
This summer, Dave is transitioning to lead the ministry of Sauble Christian Fellowship, Sauble Beach, ON. 
twitter: @oldbrotherdave 

Focus

There are many things that we can focus on in our lives at any given moment. I can focus on my 6 year old's soccer match and become fully immersed in the game not letting anything distract me. You can see focus in the eyes of someone when you look at them or when the camera zooms in on them. Focus is hard for some and easy for others.

Youth workers have been labelled recently as people who cannot focus. When you look at the hemorrhaging faith of students over the last number of years, who's getting blamed? Youth workers are getting blamed. Children's workers are not getting blamed, just youth workers. Mainly because we cannot/will not/have trouble focusing. How many things do you do as a youth worker through out the week? Small group, event planning, program planning, social media, website design, reading, parents, emails, lesson planning, worship, graphics, etc... (not a complete list).

What do you focus on when it comes down to the youth ministry that God has placed you right now?

I believe that the biggest failure in youth ministry is that we are focusing a majority of our efforts on the students we have or attend our events. We are not going to where the students are.

When was the last time you walked the halls of your local school? Do you know the names of your local high school administration? Better yet, do they know your name?

I get it, honestly I do. You feel safer being in "your own atmosphere" it's more climate controlled for you.

I used to be a youth worker like this, safe in my own program and environment that I had created. What I discovered is that I was missing the untamed climate of relationships that God want me to have with students "where they are" not asking them to come to my thing.

When you focus at all the things that you do in youth ministry, is it really about you or them?

Reflections from Ottawa: Leadership Development & The New Evangelization

You may recall that last I week I wrote a blog just prior to the start of the CCYMN (Canadian Catholic Youth Ministry Network) National Youth Ministry Conference in Ottawa on the conference theme of "Be Still and Know That I Am Your God.

As expected, the conference affirmed me, inspired me, humbled me, and challenged me.  During the conference, I was interviewed by Cheridan Eygelaar of Salt + Light TV for their blog on their website (Salt + Light TV is our national Catholic TV station).

We spoke about some of our office initiatives, my thoughts on the New Evangelization, and some of the challenges of ministering to an increasingly “plugged-in” generation.

-Clay





Clayton Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean Isaiah and Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie.  He has served as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver for the past ten years.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo