Time to Change

Change is inevitable.  All around us our world is changing.  It seems to me that our world is changing at a faster rate than the old days.  It took a long time to go from the bag phone to the big giant military walkie talkie size hand-held cell phone.  Now they change the style and size of cell phones almost on  monthly basis.  Information travels faster then ever.  The Internet brings on a whole different realm of change.  A few weeks ago our small church Ustreamed a worship gathering on the Internet and literally thousands have viewed the gathering.  

I have noticed changes in the approach of youth ministry over the past 15 years.  Face it we have to change as a church, as a youth ministry, or we are no longer relevant and we no longer have an effective impact on our community.  Change is not easy on most of us, we don't like change, we like things to stay the same.  The question is are we going to change with the times or be stuck in  rut.  I was in a church foyer once thumbing through their tract rack and found a gospel tract that was obviously old, it was black and white and printed in the '50's.  They obviously didn't understand change and the need for it.  Most humans are creatures of habits, just like holstein cows.  We must change our approach, our methods, our systems but we can't change our message.  

Every now and then you will notice it is time to tweak a youth ministry.  How is the best way to handle the change?

• Pray for wisdom
• Plan out the change well.  (Purpose of the change, timing, system changes, etc.)
• Don't spring the surprise on everyone at the same time
• Inform church leadership of the coming change
• Inform the youth ministry team of the changes (if possible have them help formulate the change. this could be the hard part for some of us.  you may even want to bring some of the core students in for input)
• Inform parents of the upcoming change
• Look for natural times of change; beginning of the school year, summer, in between semesters, etc.
• Present the change to the students
• Present the change to the church (however your church handles business like that.  thankfully at NHC we don't vote on everything and we don't have a committee we have to pass through for approval to do ministry and serve others)

Wonder why I'm thinking about change right now?  I'm at step one now, soon I'll be meeting with the youth ministry team to work on step two.  Change is on the horizon!  Change for the better, change that will better meet the needs of students.