One Stage At A Time

The Diocesan Ministry Council recently received a report from a Youth Ministry consultation process with Tim Hawkins. The report has been made public now and so I am free to talk about it.

If and when the recommendations of the consultation are adopted there will be much to talk about in relation to how Connections can join in with the Diocesan youth strategy - in particular with regard to any regional youth coordinators that may eventuate.

In this article, however, I don't want to unpack possible futures but have a look at some of Tim's insights - in particular with regard to a recommendation surrounding a "20 year strategy for every Anglican Church that wants to grow."

The strategy revolves around the fact that "to have a growing and lasting youth ministry in your church you ideally need a few other key age groups." In particular, the 35-50 year age group who are the parents of teenagers, the 0-11 year age group in a children's ministry who will feed into a youth ministry, and the parents of the 0-11 year group - aged 20-35 years. Tim offers a diagram something like this:

Parents aged 35-50	→	Teenagers 11-18
		↑
Parents aged 20-35	→	Children 0-11

He then proposes a 20 year strategy that would provide a step-by-step set of "stages" for building a church that contains all age groups. The beauty of his suggestion is that it is incremental, and therefore in the reach of pretty much any church that has the desire to grow and the inclination to incorporate the necessary changes.

The strategy is simple - it begins with outreach to young parents and children, and slowly builds up through junior high ministry and high school ministry, aided by the parents and children who are growing older and entering into the subsequent age areas. In summary it goes like this:

Stage 1	The first 2 years	Reach out to 20-35 yr olds
Stage 2	The first 5 years	Build a children's ministry
Stage 3	5-10 years	Reach out to 30-40 yr olds
Stage 4	5-10 years	Build a junior high ministry
Stage 5	10-15 years	Build a high school ministry
Stage 6	15-20 years	Build a young adult's ministry

This isn't anything particularly complicated - which is how most strategy's of merit are! And it is interesting to note that it maps a path that Connections has been on over the last three and a half years and continues to be on.

We are at about stage 3, moving into stage 4. Our 0-11 year olds that joined us with their parents in their 20's and 30's are quickly becoming junior high youth. And we are also beginning to pick up youth of that age as newcomers with their parents in their 30's and 40's. And so we are in the process of looking to begin and budget for a junior high youth ministry.

We also need to shore up our children's ministry - to bolster "stage 2" in this model (again we are looking at some plans and budgets for this). And of course, we need to continue to care for parents of all ages - and everybody else who are with us whatever stage of life they are in.

Tim's analysis should encourage us - including an encouragement to pray as we make that next step with our youth.