Revive Your Group
by Sherry Kirton
05 March 2002

Are your teens challenged by you and the Holy Spirit or just “a challenge to you”?

Most of the time a youth group needs reviving when their faith hasn’t been challenged enough. It seems dangerous, but a mission trip for a small group struggling is exactly what they need. Too often, we youth leaders are so focused on our group that the group thinks that that is what they are supposed to be doing... focusing on their “small, getting more comfortable with things the way they are” selves...

Present the challenge.
I thought my youth pastor was crazy when he took us to Mexico with Azusa Pacific University’s Mission to Mexico... we were going into a place where only the interpreter’s spoke the language and we were told we’d only get one bath during the whole week. None of us were prepared for it except, maybe the leaders who had to get more leaders from the congregation in order for it to work. Then, we held VBS [Vacation Bible School] for the children of the small town of Peligro (literally, “Danger”) during the day, and then we held nightly worhsip services for the whole town in the tiny church of a Mexican Pastor who was rarely around because he pastored three different congregations in three different towns. We were hot, unsure of what we were doing, confused, and filthy. But we came away understanding that God loved so many more people than we could imagine and that we had been ignoring our calling, “reaching out to those around us with God’s love” so we had been sent far away to struggle doing that very thing.

Don’t stop there. Challenge them even more.
When we returned, our YP had a new mission for us all-mapped-out and we didn’t want to try it alone, so we started inviting our friends and the Fire swept up all of us. Our small church youth group of 20 (when you look at jr/sr high and college/career students together) has turned all of us into adult christian men and women who have either become full-time missionaries and/or strong leadership in our churches who focus on outreach and missions.

Your group isn’t alone.
I have found that this is true for all groups as I have since worked in Presbyterian, American Baptist, Lutheran, Southern Baptist, Methodist, and non-denominational churches. Even though the main tools for youth groups are Bibles, pizza/soda, contemporary christian music, and fun, our main mission is to Know Him and Make Him Known. When the youth see their need to cling to God in order to survive and reach out then you’ll just need to get out of their way and watch them GROW.

It is great fun and so rewarding that I can’t imagine doing anything else even if it means never getting a salary ever again.

One thing you should consider, include everyone.
Especially the kids that seem incapable of doing anything, whether it be for handicapped reasons or just bad attitudes. They usually grow faster and inspire the rest to try harder and reach for more even though in the beginning it can just seem like everyone is just getting more and more frustrated with each other. Pray for each of them outloud and expect God to move, move, move.

Also, your group doesn’t have to go far away for a mission.
Plan to present some skits/human videos at the park or in some public place or at a rescue mission for a vacation time of outreach. Encourage those that don’t perform to help out in other ways... work a prayer station, make art: banners, poetry, bookmarks to give away, hand painted tee-shirts to designate y’all as a team, make camp/food, etc., work sound/lighting if you so desire, whatever they can think of... just help them prepare. It can sound crazy and intimidating, but allow the youth to plan and dream and soon you’ll find that your main job is to pray, prepare, encourage, and drive.