Don't just create consumers in your youth group. Learn to empower students to become full circle followers of Jesus.
Talking Points:
- The “Big Win” of youth ministry is creating full circle students (see image below). Matthew 28:19-20
- Midweek, missions trips, and other events support the “big win” – they don’t replace it.
- Leaders should start the same way you’ll ask students to start – pick a handful of leaders and use the 3 E’s.
- Engage: Start talking about life and faith using the conversation starters in one of the student category pages.
- Establish: When the group is ready, start “The Pursuit” (Student Edition). Think of this as the 12-week “graduation” track.
- Empower: Once you’ve completed “The Pursuit,” they’re ready to start helping others pursue God – using the same 3E process. 2 Timothy 2:2
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Discussion Questions
- What is your initial reaction to this topic? What jumped out at you?
- What is a word that a youth group leader would use to describe your youth ministry right now? What is one word a student would use to describe your youth ministry? What word do you hope describes your ministry?
- Describe your current strategy for helping students to trust in Jesus for salvation? Describe your current strategy for how you’re encouraging students to live to honor God?
- Read Matthew 28:19-20. Rate yourself on how you are doing at training your students to “Go”. What strategies do you currently have in place for training your students to help others?
- Define the “wins” of your midweek service. What are some “losses”? How could a mentoring culture help to mitigate some of the losses?
- Review the 3 E’s. Who are some key students that you or your adult leaders could start engaging in a mentoring relationship? How could the pursuit help you to really establish students in their faith?
- What happens if you don’t ever get to the empowering phase with students?
- How would adding student groups change your youth group?
- As a leader, what are practical ways to connect kids into mentoring groups? How would this work in your youth group?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
Find this topic in this category.
