Planning a Youth Group Meeting

 As a volunteer youth group leader for the past seven years, I have read many interesting books, magazines, and blogs on youth ministry.  Very few of them would work for a small group, run by volunteers, and on a very low budget.   Those books (although many have been very good and helpful) are for much bigger groups with much bigger budgets than what I have had to work with over these years.  This article and those that follow are intended for the small church youth group leader.  I would like to begin with some tips for how to plan your meetings.

The first thing I do before I begin to plan anything is to pray.   I ask God to help me come up with creative and relevant ideas that will get across a clear message to the teens that I am serving.  I ask for the Holy Spirit to empower me with wisdom and discernment.  I pray that Jesus would be at the center and heart of all that we teach.  During this prayer time, it may be helpful to write down some notes or ideas that just pop into your head.  Even if they seem ridiculous, you never know where God could take them or what His plans might be.

I next will try to read something from the Bible.  If you are able to talk with your Pastor before you start planning request that he give you a copy of the material he will be covering during church.  You can then focus your meetings around the same scripture verses to reiterate the point that he is trying to make. This helps take what is being said in church and make it something concrete that the teens can use in their own day to day lives.

After I have found a passage to focus on, I take more time to think and pray.  I read it over a couple of times.  What are themes from the verses that could relate to the lives of youth?  Common themes that always need to be covered include honoring parents, peer pressure, respect, gossip, being thankful for our gifts, serving the poor, and growing in worship.   If you keep reading the verse with your youth in mind, you should eventually be able to think of a theme for the meeting.

I then take the theme and create an outline for a talk based on the scripture reading.  I try to use many sources for the talk and focus on one specific point that I want the kids to remember.   I strive to reinterate that same point several times in the talk because it is said that typically people will only remember one thing you say in a teaching.   Use specific life examples and stories to get your message through.  People will also remember these more than they remember specific facts.   Many times, I will write  an outline and ask one of the youth to give the talk. I will help and guide them through the process of writing it, but the outline is very specific about what should be said and the teens only need to add in their stories and examples.  A message to teens from a teen is very powerful.

After writing the talk, I spend some time thinking of a fun activity to go along with the theme and the talk.   I know that a lot of resources have some crazy ideas for icebreakers.  These can be fun and at times they are ok if you absolutely cannot think of anything else tha is fun, but I feel that they are a waste of time.  Why spend precious minutes doing something that really has no point?  What you can do is take some of those icebreaker ideas and make them into activities that also teach a lesson.  I will provide some more examples of these in future articles.

Finally, I plan out the time of prayer and worship.  I choose songs and scriptures that relate to what we have been talking about throughout the meeting.  This is a time for the teens to give back to God and focus on solely on Him.

There should always be sometime for fellowship either at the begining or the end of the meeting.  During these times get to know the youth you are serving. Talk with them and get to know them.  The better you know your group, the more accurate you will be in discerning the issues that they are struggling with.   The relationship you build with your teens will be more meaningful than any teaching or even you could ever plan.  This is where they really learn who Jesus is because of how you treat them and love them.   During your prayer time be sure to ask God that He would give you a heart to love and serve like Jesus.