Building Community in a Youth Group

I am a member of an online community of youth leaders, this community is iyouthministry.com and is open to anyone that leads in youth ministry in their local church whether on staff or volunteer.  It's a great place to get some ideas and resources.  

The following is a blog I posted t iyouthministry recently:

Years ago I realized our mid-week youth group was doing absolutely nothing to build community.  Students would show up right at 7 or just a few minutes before and we would dive right in.  Our church doesn't have Sunday School or small groups at that time, so this was our one shot to for students to build some meaningful relationships with other students and with their leaders.

We introduced "Hang Time".  We gave students the option to show up at 6 for an hour of just chilling and hanging out together.  No real organization to it.  Throw out some snacks, have some table and video games available and a ball or two, crank up the music videos and Hang Time had its birth.  Fun brings people together, unless the individual has a crusty personality.

Hang Time has become one of our favorite time as a youth group for both students and leaders.

Some thoughts on building community:

1.  Look for something you already do as a youth group that could be tweaked to build community

2.  Provide opportunity for students and volunteers to just hang out together.  Buy a bunch of table games/card games and turn them loose to have some fun.

3.  If you use a worship service type of youth group meeting time then mix it up.  Have students sit at tables with a volunteer and mix in some discussion and prayer time into your weekly lesson.  Sitting in rows doesn't build community, but gathered around a table discussing together does build community.

4.  Start a (or some) small group(s) that meet in homes.

5.  Find  some mission or local community service projects you can do on a quarterly basis together.

Community is a huge part of Christianity and students and adults alike all have a longing to belong.