The 4 Phases of Youth Ministry - Which One Are You In? (DON'T GIVE UP NOW!)

Are you looking to grow the size and health of your youth ministry? Check out
GrowYourYouthMinistry.com ***** Youth ministry can be broken down into 4 main phases, which one of them are you currently in?  Navigating the ebbs and flows of student ministry can often feel like an uphill battle, but the view from the top makes every step worth it.  From learning to building to fine-tuning and striving for excellence join us for this episode to help you identify where you are at in your progress.  Ultimately, this continuous cycle of growth and refinement is a testament to the evolving nature of the youth pastor journey, where every challenge faced is a lesson learned and an opportunity for improvement.  Above all, don't give up...phases are like seasons, they do have an end - let us help you get there faster!

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You may also enjoy these episodes:

(#158) Why New Youth Pastors Fail at Youth Ministry (3 Things You MUST Know!)

(#148) Work Smarter Not Harder in Youth Ministry - 5 Youth Pastor Tips!

(#113) Feeling Overworked in Youth Ministry? (Top 5 Productivity Killers)

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

There are four different phases of youth ministry, and the secret is the first two are the hardest. You might need to demo and rebuild if you're inheriting something from unhealth and plan on settling in to this phase for quite a while. Anything worth doing is worth doing. Well, you might as well not have a small group ministry if it sucks. Do you feel like giving up in youth ministry? Well, don't. It might be hard now, but it won't always be. That's what we're talking about today on the Ministry Coach Podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:45

This is the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we bring you weekly tips and tactics to help you fast-track the growth and health of your youth ministries. If we've never met before, my name is Jeff Laskola and this is.

Speaker 1: 0:55

Kristen Laskola, and today we're talking some encouragement for you, because we want to encourage you to not give up in youth ministry. It might be hard now, but it will not always be hard, and so the thing that I was thinking about today is something I've learned in youth ministry, and all of these are based on my own experience. So what I've learned in youth ministry is that there are phases. There are phases of our job, and when you're in a particular phase, you think this is it, this is the job, the rest of my life.

Speaker 1: 1:33

Yeah, but it really isn't. There are four different phases of youth ministry and the secret is the first two are the hardest and then the second two. Your job levels out a little bit, Not to say there's not hard parts and easy parts of both. It's not just all inclusively hard or all inclusively easy. But looking back at the last 20 years of youth ministry, I'm like man, there were two phases right at the beginning that really stretched me, that were really hard, and when I say phases I'm talking about years like these can last for years. It's not like, well, phase one was two weeks, Phase two was two weeks, but these are years. And if you can stick in there, then when you get to phases three and four, you're like looking back and you get to sort of stand on that mountaintop of everything that you built and enjoy it. And again, I'm not saying, well, now I just coast and my job is so easy.

Speaker 1: 2:40

But, because I went through phase one and two. I'm in a different phase now.

Speaker 2: 2:46

So are phases one and two necessary.

Speaker 1: 2:49

Yeah, they're kind of inevitable, so let's just jump in. So phase one, that can last a couple of years, and that is the learning phase. And this is where you're excited about youth ministry.

Speaker 2: 3:03

You're like the other ones, you're excited about youth ministry. You're like the other ones.

Speaker 1: 3:05

You're not excited. You're not, your soul has died, no, but where you're, let's say, a little naive and you are just really good with students and you think I want to teach the Bible and I want to make a difference, but you really don't know what to do. You maybe have had someone point out some gifts in you, Maybe you have a lean toward like I think I could be good at this, but you don't even know where to start. Maybe you're still under someone else's leadership at this point in the learning phase, but you have no idea what you're doing. But you know you want to do it and it's fun because you don't know what lies ahead.

Speaker 2: 3:45

It's an adventure. You don't know what you don't know.

Speaker 1: 3:55

Yeah, and you might be in this phase of like reading every book and listening to every podcast. Hello, there, watching YouTube or going to conferences, asking people questions. You know, you got your little notebook and you're just figuring out like man. If I sat in that seat when I'm a youth pastor maybe you're a new youth pastor You're just trying to learn everything you can. How do, how do I do this? And you have enough that, enough gifts that you can get by. But you're basically at this phase, I would say, like a glorified volunteer, because you you're going to do all the fun things you did as a volunteer, but now you're going to be in this leadership. Sorry, just wrote on you.

Speaker 2: 4:36

It's okay, Um dark colored shirt in charge position.

Speaker 1: 4:40

So you're learning, learning, learning, meeting with people, trying to figure it out, maybe coming up with your vision and blueprint. You're sort of in that dreaming phase of like what could be. And now that's not that hard, it's exciting, and you, like you said, you don't know what you don't know. Well, after you've the learning. I remember being in the learning phase, I'd say, for like two years. The first year it was as a volunteer, uh, leading a small group. The second year was as an intern that was paid and so I was kind of just like, but I had so many safety nets around me it wasn't like I had to decide everything and build everything and be the vision behind everything. And then they sort of handed me the keys and were like I had to decide everything and build everything and be the vision behind everything. And then they sort of handed me the keys and were like all right time to go, and that put me into phase two, which lasted for a really long time. So phase two is the hardest one and this is called the building phase. So what if we took this as an example, like for small groups? So in phase one you're learning, like I think we want to incorporate small groups, and I think small group you know you're talking to small group pastors or you bought some small group curriculum or something like that. Like you're learning, all right, how does this small group ministry work? Well, in the building phase. Well, now you actually have to put pen to paper and you have to actually start doing something with what you've learned. And maybe a better metaphor would not be pen to paper, but moving the ball down the field. So I've got the ball of small groups. How do I actually mobilize? Now? This phase is hard because let's just take the example for small groups.

Speaker 1: 6:29

If you're in phase two and you've got to build it now, you're going to have to build it. You've got to recruit volunteers. You got to find these people. You've got to train them. You have to come up with an onboarding process. They should probably fill out an application. Do they get live scan? Do we have a place for small groups to meet? Well, what's the ideal place in our program where small groups are going to fit? What do we do with space? Like, what's the ideal breakdown? Do we want to do it by age, by grade, by gender? Like there's so many questions to answer and that's just small groups.

Speaker 1: 7:04

Like imagine you're building an entire youth ministry. I mean, you have everything to consider. What do we do with worship? What's our worship culture? What do we do with teaching? What? What's our scope and sequence of what we cover? What is our event culture when? Where do we go for camps? What's our scope and sequence of what we cover? What is our event culture? Where do we go for camps? Like you can imagine, building can take years, and it really does and so when you're in building, it can feel so exhausting because everything feels like a hill to climb, and the reason for that is because it really is. Like I just gave you a few examples. That's not even everything. We've got to design a youth room and you could be looking at all this like I don't know where to start, and that's probably one of the number one question. That is the number one question we get. I'm new in youth ministry.

Speaker 1: 7:54

Where do I start and it's like well, well, I don't know, that depends on what was there when you came in. Was there nothing? Are you taking over?

Speaker 2: 8:03

yeah. So how does the building phase translate into somebody that maybe this is their first youth pastor position but they're going into a youth ministry that may have all not say all but a lot of these in place, a lot of systems already in place. We already have small groups, we already have worship band. Like you're kind of inheriting this. So would you say you're still in that phase, or is it just shrink the amount of time you're in that phase? How?

Speaker 1: 8:28

does that work? And and not to answer your question with a question, but I mean, it would depend on the health of those things. Are you inheriting something healthy and thriving? And this guy got a promotion and he's leaving, or is he leaving devastation in his wake? Was it a moral failure? Was it an abrupt ending? Was it a unhealthy leadership dynamic that pushed him out, you know, or her?

Speaker 2: 8:51

so in the building phase you could almost say part of the building could be destruction, like not from them, but like we need to demo all this and rebuild.

Speaker 1: 9:02

Yeah, you could Absolutely. That's a great question. So you know, it really depends on where you're coming. In my building phase, I felt like I was pretty much going from scratch, because the guy before me had only been there for a year, so there wasn't a ton of culture.

Speaker 2: 9:18

Of a brand new youth ministry at an offsite campus.

Speaker 1: 9:22

First offsite campus, brand new youth ministry. One year in there wasn't a whole lot of rooms.

Speaker 2: 9:26

Wasn't even a building.

Speaker 1: 9:28

To begin with, there wasn't a building, there was no worship, there was no student leadership team. I had a few volunteers in a community center room, and so I had to build all that from scratch. But yeah, you might need to demo and rebuild if you're inheriting something from unhealth and plan on settling in to this phase for quite a while. So you know, going back to that small group example, you build the small group thing, this ministry maybe that never was before. And then what do you do? So that building phase eventually will give way into phase three, which is, in my experience, fine tuning.

Speaker 1: 10:15

So almost think of it like you built a house. It has all the rooms, it has all the walls, all the plumbing, all the electrical. Well, now you need to decorate, you know, to make the room functional. So it's there. So like small group ministry is there, the room exists, but it needs some fine tuning of like how do we take a ministry and not just check a box, like, okay, we have one, you know, but like make this kind of like the interior design aspect?

Speaker 2: 10:47

Which in itself can take a long time to go through.

Speaker 1: 10:50

Exactly.

Speaker 2: 10:52

We have awesome neighbors on every side of us actually but our next door neighbors are building um an adu attached dwelling unit attached dwelling unit. It's detached, I don't know why it's called adu anyways a guest home and, from our perspective, like you, look over there and be like, oh, it looks like it's done yeah it's up. You know the roof is on, the windows are on, and yet it's like every day people are coming over there to do work, still doing work.

Speaker 1: 11:17

I don't know what they're doing. I thought it was, but so many like you.

Speaker 2: 11:20

Look from the outside, you're like, well, the framing is all there, the walls are all there, the roof is there, but it's like, well, inside there's still so much stuff that needs to happen.

Speaker 1: 11:27

That's a great illustration, because you, the fine-tuning, phase three is like okay, we want to not just make sure this is done, but this has to be done really well, you know. And so, like in the small group example, so we launched a. I knew phase one, I want to build a small group ministry. It's worth it. I know it's going to bring a lot of health to our youth group. I'm dreaming about it, I'm excited. Then I built it, I recruited my leaders, I made it happen, we trained them, we onboarded them, we had space and time for it and all the things. Well, now they're going and we do it every week and it's 30 to 40 minutes at the end of youth group and I get them their talk sheet and all of that. But does that just mean we're done? It's like, well, no, because now we need to go in with more of like the little microscope or magnifying glass and say like, is this being done? Well?

Speaker 1: 12:23

not just done, so you might. This is the phase where you're helping leaders with their issues, meaning maybe they have a really rowdy group and the culture is getting away from them and you need to do some coach leading with them. Or maybe you have groups that are too big and so it's like yeah, it's a small group, but barely we need to split this, which means I need another space and another leader and all of that.

Speaker 1: 12:48

Or maybe your leaders are like yeah, it's great, I'm glad we do small groups, but 15 minutes isn't enough to talk about anything. I've heard of youth pastors doing that. They'll write in and they'll be like, hey, can you look over my timeline and see you know what you would adjust? And I'd be like, whoa, you need way more time for small groups. 15 minutes is just a, basically a greeting and a goodbye.

Speaker 2: 13:09

Um, all the kids haven't even farted by that point, like there's still a lot of farts to go through, and then the fart jokes and then know so many farts and that's just the girls um, and then you know you're getting feedback from them, your leaders, constantly.

Speaker 1: 13:26

what do they need? Maybe you're going in and observing some groups and um talking about it with leaders each week how did your group go and what could have gone better and where do you need help? So now we're fine tuning it. Or maybe you're noticing a theme of, like kids are being super disrespectful to each other. All right, how do we change that culture and get them to say, hey, here's how you participate in a small group. Maybe they don't quite get it.

Speaker 1: 13:53

So this is where you're fine tuning the structure that you've built of like one of my mottos in life I don't know who said it, it's probably kind of one of those, just everyone knows it. But anything worth doing is worth doing well. So you might as well not have a small group ministry. If it sucks, go to phase three and then take the time to just sift through and say how could this continue to be better? And again, this phase is definitely shorter than the building phase, but it's ongoing. Like I don't think and I think you could argue none of these phases ever totally stop right like no, I'm never learning ever again, Never.

Speaker 2: 14:38

I was going to circle back to that, but you beat me to it Well it's a little obvious, but I guess it's a different kind of learning we should at least mention it.

Speaker 1: 14:45

But and then building you know it doesn't ever totally stop, but the I'm talking about the weight and the Brent of it and then same fine tuning, our programs doesn't ever stop. I kind of renamed it. Then that's when you feel like, all right, we've got a really well oiled machine going here. We fine tuned a lot of bugs out. Fine tuning will continue. But then you can move to phase four and that is where you've put in the blood, sweat and tears to make sure this thing is excellent, running well, well-oiled machine, smooth. You've talked to everyone, you've fixed everything, you've addressed all the issues and we know issues come up every week. I have new issues every single week, truthfully. But phase four, the bulk of your job then becomes maintaining the excellence that you have spent all that time and years building. And so what does that look like? Well, that's kind of fun, is maintaining the excellence, because now you're doing things like maintaining a really excellent leader culture and loving your leaders and pouring into them and doing life with them. And you are. You don't have to put all your time, energy and resources toward building because you're like, ah, it's April, I know what we're doing, you know I don't have to build April, I don't have to build the summer, I don't have to build my camp, I don't have to build my leadership team, but I have to maintain the excellence of it all year round, and that's a lot like to me. That's a completely different gear than building. Knowing what you're going to do and executing it with excellence is so different energy than what the heck are we going to do, where are we going? How are we going to get there? How much does it cost? Who can come? Who can help? Who can drive cars, who can drive a boat? Who can like? When you're in that building phase, you are sweating and you're under the gun and it's adrenaline. You're running off adrenaline and I think that's why so many pastors are like, are like I can't do this because the building phase is emotionally not sustainable for the entirety of your career. That's how I feel. I think some people or some pastors are addicted to building. They thrive with that, yes, and so they. Once they build it and then they move into three, four, they quit so they can go build something else, which is great, because the kingdom of God needs builders.

Speaker 1: 17:23

This is the cycle that my particular ministry has taken to where I feel like I built and built and built and built and built. And now I'm getting to enjoy people and enjoy relationships and the level of stress I once had of having to invent something and figure, like decode, what works for our church and our community and our leaders and our students. Now that I've decoded that and put it on paper and I can kind of rinse and repeat that I can lean into man. I want to be an a a better teacher this year. I'm going to work on that.

Speaker 1: 18:11

Oh, I want to really focus on my leaders and give them even more of me. Like I'm going to focus on that man. I really want to focus on the aesthetics. So then you can kind of pick and choose. Where you just want things to get better, our room rocks, but if I have extra money at the end of the year, I'm like how can I make this even better, you know? And so I'm not in a desperate mindset anymore where there was desperate years where it was like just trying to make it you know, to the end of the year within the black budget and not, like you know.

Speaker 1: 18:46

And now I'm like, okay, I can just keep making. This is a pastor that loves that, like adrenaline, frantic energy, and they seek opportunities for that and who knows, maybe I'll be ready to do this whole cycle over again someday and build something else. But it's pretty cool to step back and say, oh, I see the years of each one of those phases and what I wish I would have known in phase two, because there were moments where I'm like, huh, maybe I want to be like a librarian at a public library and just, or a barista, I don't know anything but anything else?

Speaker 1: 19:39

because you just don't think the building will ever stop. And I wish someone, and maybe nobody, could actually verbalize that to me. But to know, oh, the building, like someday a house is built, yeah, and then you just do cool little things to it, you know clean it all the time.

Speaker 1: 19:58

Oh, like, let's change this about it, or let's add this, or, oh, this one's a little outdated, let's keep this room but change the way it looks, you know. And so seeing your ministry as a house almost of like, well, yeah, you've lived in it for a while, it's built, it's structurally sound, but you could always oh, I mean if you, if you never touched it again, it would go to ruin. So obviously it's not like foot off the gas, but you're not sweating out.

Speaker 2: 20:28

That's the maintaining part of it.

Speaker 1: 20:29

Exactly so. I guess I mean all this as encouragement for youth pastors to know that it's not a clean break between the phases, but kind of ask yourself what phase would I consider myself to be in, and maybe just even being cognizant of that knowing? Oh, that's why I'm so tired, it's because I'm hardcore building, but you don't build forever. Decorating is a lot less effort than building, you know. However, decorating is a lot less effort than building.

Speaker 2: 21:00

You know, a question of the day actually would be what phase are you guys in right now, or is it even a combination of the two? Are you an absolute three or are you a two slash three? Put down in the comment section, if you're watching on YouTube, what phase you believe you're in right now and if you haven't already checked it out, make sure you go to growyouryouthministrycom where we have our Youth Ministry Growth Accelerator Program, which now offers a payment plan for three months or six month payment plan. But this is something that helps youth pastors grow their youth ministries in a healthy way and kind of expedites the whole phases, really because you have somebody, have somebody you helping them through the process, through the, through the experiences that you've had, kind of like fast tracking.

Speaker 1: 21:48

You know that learning, building, fine tuning and it's just sort of delivered to you right like a roadmap right what I wish I had just dropped in my lap when. I was starting out like that phase two. Well, phase one it's a lot of learning in the course, but I wish someone could have just tied it with a neat little bow and said here you go. It'll take you time to learn it, but you don't have to go search the world, you know.

Speaker 2: 22:15

Right.

Speaker 1: 22:16

So maybe your building phase will be a lot shorter than mine was.

Speaker 2: 22:20

Yeah, so make sure you check out growyouryouthministrycom. It's in the description of whether you're listening on a podcast player or on YouTube. Go check the description and or just memorize the fact that it's growyouryouthministrycom. Just go right there, all right. Community comment of the day. This comes from Fish Studios, who says thank you for doing this. I just started as a youth pastor at a church whose youth group was dying after covid. That's really common. I hear that a lot. Anyways, um, dying after covid and I had to make a youth program from scratch. Your videos have helped me tremendously while I'm trying to figure all of this out oh man, you're welcome.

Speaker 1: 22:57

Those are the ones like it was a rough season where I'm like okay, this is like hearing how much it's helping people that may like what if he decided to quit?

Speaker 2: 23:10

you know, or what if he was like?

Speaker 1: 23:11

hopefully you're still in the game fish you know, it's just like there is not a ton of help out there.

Speaker 2: 23:19

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:19

You know, and so I'm so glad Fish Studios that it's been helping. That means a lot.

Speaker 2: 23:25

Yeah, absolutely, thank you. Well, thank you guys for watching and listening.

Speaker 1: 23:29

And we'll see you next time. Do you feel like giving up in youth ministry? Do you feel like I can't not squeak Matcha powers, do you? Oh, can you say something more like blee, bleh, blue, blee, blee.