How To Engage The Youth Within Your Church

The youth in your church is the future of your church. They are going to replace the current church deacons, elders, and leadership. This means you need to pay attention to the youth in your church.

While many churches know this, they struggle with engaging and keeping youth in their church. The church has seen far too many young people step away from the church and faith.

The youth are the future of your church

Photo by Jed Villejo

But there are things you can do to engage the youth in your church…

How To Engage The Youth Within Your Church

You know you have to. Without youth, your church will continue to dwindle in size. Eventually dissolving because your older congregants have passed away, your youth have left, and no one else has taken their place.

So, what do you do? To engage the youth and get them excited about church, try the following:

1. Stop separating youth from adult church:

Over and over we see this church mistake. You believe giving your youth group a separate facility, away from your main church building, is awesome! Your youth have their own space. They can feel at home there and like they’re not in church.

Uh oh… Did you read those last couple of words? Like they’re not in church

Should you really be trying to get your youth to feel like they’re not in church? Or should you try to get them to feel like they’re a part of the church?

Separating your youth facility may be cool. But this coolness is hurting the relationships your youth could have with adults in your church.

Your youth need to feel like they belong in the church. They need to know the church is a place they can go when they’re hurting. By separating them from the main church body, you’re doing them an injustice.

2. Get your elders, deacons, and church leaders involved with the youth group:

One of the biggest reasons young people leave the church is because they have no connections with anyone in the church other than those in the youth group. As their friends go off to college or take jobs outside of the state, they have no friendships with anyone else in the church.

All of the adults seem stuffy and uptight. They haven’t had a chance to get to know the people of the church. They only know the youth pastor and youth leaders.

Begin to integrate key leaders of the church into the youth group. Now, don’t take this as you need to take over the youth group. No, you need to have key church leaders building relationships with the teens in your church.

You can take this one step further. You can ask your older congregates… the grandparents, childless couples, and those who have deep roots… to be a part of the youth group.

Encourage these people to build relationships with the students. Help the students to realize it’s not only the youth pastor and leaders who care about them. The whole church cares for and loves them.

3. Give your youth a WHY:

I’ve read a lot of books. And one of my favorite books is Simon Sinek’s Start With Why. His book shares the secret behind great organizations. And this book can help you engage the youth at your church.

The reason great organizations thrive is that their leaders share the why. They reiterate why the organization is doing what they’re doing. They explain the benefits of the work being done and the people being reached.

Can you imagine what would happen if the church began to share the true why behind the church? Begin sharing the why of your church: To reach the lost and save them from an eternity separated from God.

Question: What other ways can a church engage their youth? Let me know your ideas in the comment section below.

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