Welcome to part four of my series on The 5 Plans Every New Youth Pastor Needs. You can read about the first plan I think is important here.
Every new youth pastor needs a meeting plan.
When I first started planning youth meetings I was pretty gung-ho about evangelism and every meeting I had was geared around kids coming to Christ. On it’s face, there’s nothing wrong with that, but if the only tool you have is a hammer then everything become a nail.
I, eventually, learned that my kids did not need to get saved every week and I learned about how to put together meetings to help students see the big picture of Christianity and to grow in their faith. Youth Meetings are necessary, but I’d rather take students out to do the stuff I am teaching them. So, if I have to have a youth meeting, then I want to have the best youth meeting I can have.
I also learned there are seasons of youth meetings; seasons for outreach, seasons of deeper discipleship, seasons of fun and seasons of rest. Not allowing your meetings to change from season to season can prohibit your students from growing deeper and wider in their faith.
The two extremes of meeting planning are the youth pastor who says, “I’ll just let the Spirit lead” and the youth pastor who says “Every second must be accounted for.” You need a balance, but you also need a tool to help you balance that 60 or 90 minute meeting and is tool for marking the seasons.
I believe every meeting needs a purpose and the things planned for that meeting should lead to that purpose, leaving plenty of room for the Holy Spirt to move as he wishes. If you are a new youth pastor, I have put together a book of 52 meeting planning sheets, articles on putting together meetings and more and I call it: My Youth Meeting Playbook.
Each planning page contains all the critical components, I think, should go into a meeting but has enough flexibility for you to plan the way you believe God is leading. You’re not required to fill in a blank, the blanks are there in case you need them.
I believe students should help lead, it’s on the sheet.
I believe leaders (not just you) should serve, it’s on the sheet.
I believe every youth meeting should be reviewed, it’s on the sheet.
I believe every youth meeting should have a WOW! moment, it’s on the sheet.
Each sheet takes all the elements of a good youth meeting from announcement to altar time and put it right in front of you so you can work out what each element will look like.
Grab My Youth Meeting Playbook today and start creating youth meetings that matter or, if you’re a new youth pastor, get the New Youth Pastor Bundle that has My Youth Ministry Planner, My Youth Meeting Planner, 37 weeks of lessons and discipleship tools to use throughout the year.
Check out what I think the fifth plan every youth pastor should have, here