Youth Ministry in Small Churches and a Small Town

What can you do when you have a few teenagers, but no volunteers who feel skilled enough to lead a youth group and too small of a church to afford a paid youth minister? That concern has been on my mind and in my prayers for the year I've been pastoring at Bethel Baptist.

God has begun to work to answer our prayers. No, we haven't suddenly had a large infusion of money to be able to hire a youth worker. We haven't had a sudden influx of people wanting to become youth leaders. What we have had is a coming-together of a few pastors and a Canadian Sunday School Mission missionary to pray, talk, and dream. Three evangelical pastors meeting together monthly for encouragement and prayer were joined one month by Debbie, the CSSM missionary. Debbie and an advisory board working with youth in a neighbouring town had a desire to reach out to teens in our town's high school. With the support of the pastors, Debbie got going.

All of this led to several teens and adults from four churches coming together for prayer and planning over several weeks. So far this has resulted in the first joint Christian youth get-together in our town in a long time. The plan is to develop a core group of teens who love the Lord to reach out to youth in their school.

My role is not hands-on. Some good people have come forward from the churches to be on the front lines. I see myself as more of a cheerleader and interceder and if necessary, a resource person. But this is definitely one of the things I like about this small town. It is awesome to see Bible-believing churches and people coming together to serve the Lord and our youth! I'm pretty sure Jesus loves it too.

Dave