I had one of my Youtube subscribers ask this question
I was asked, if money was no option, what would we add/build to our youth ministry and why. But I haven;t been a youth pastor long enough to really know what I’ll need as we grow… we have a few meetings about the new church building we are planning to build and I am supposed to give input. I have some ideas, but I know people who have been doing this for a long time might have better insights that are more practical, including some regrets from doing things that ended up not being beneficial. I understand every group is unique, but I’d love to know from you, if you had unlimited resources, what would you do/add/buy/build to help (specifically the youth ministry) grow?
Let me start with where not to spend your money
Fads and trends. You can look at all the church youth rooms you want but they were designed with their groups in mind, not yours. Good ideas are plentiful but you must be willing to say no to good, even great ideas in order to serve not only the kids you have now, but the kids you will have in the future.
Factors you should be looking at before making a decision
The build it and they will come is over. Why? Because every thing has changed since that was building the philosophy. Teens have changed, families have changes, communities have changed, Social Media, pandemics and the culture. All of these must be weighed before you make a decision on what kind of youth room you want.
Key ingredients in making a design decision
Student Involvement
One of the most insane things I ever heard a youth pastor say to his youth group about the new youth room is, “Look what we built for you”. Why is this insane? First, because the students he was talking to will be gone in 2-3 years or sooner. Second, those students do not owe you anything for building them something.
If students don’t understand the greater purpose of their meeting space, and their part in it, you’ve missed a teachable moment. If you’ve not invited students into the process of what kind of room they want (smaller decision like color, etc.) you’ve missed the chance to disciple them.
Internal Data
Who is currently coming to your youth group? Jocks? Nerds? Average Kids? This matters. Do you live in Iowa or Kansas, college town where basketball is big, then a half basketball court makes sense. Do you have kids who like to read? Then a maybe a shelf filled with Christian books or Manga might be a thing. The problem is, groups turn over. One year you can have a ton of athletes and the next year you have none and then getting kids to play basketball or use the sand volleyball court you put in becomes a chore.
Church Data
This won’t take long. Who are the people who make up your church? Is it an older congregation? In this case you might be building an outreach center for the community vs for the kids of your own church. This goes for whether or not your church is growing, shrinking or has plateaued. Keep in mind that churches cycle through members just like youth groups. Deciding what kind of youth room or building is needed vs what you or the Lead Pastors wants should be considered or that great youth room you build could find itself near empty someday.
Community Data
Some communities change quickly and others change slowly. How is your community changing or not changing? What are your church’s demographics now and where are they heading? Are businesses moving in or moving out? Are home prices sky rocketing or are they affordable? What is your school system like? Why do any of these things matter?
Because if you are building a 100 seat youth room for your current 20 kids to fill up and families are moving out of your community because of the school system, you have a problem. Take in key data points and approach the building project with a sober perspective.
Prayer
This should be a no brainer but unfortunately people who are in charge often only look at the bottom line. In the building I helped design, I made sure to invite parents, students, board members and anyone else who was willing to come into the proposed space and pray for it and over it.
Budget
How much do you have to work with? There are plenty of church building projects that went bust because the thought the money would be there. That is assumption, not faith. There are also churches who spent to little and wished they had spent more. If you, the youth pastor have input, makes sure you understand what you are asking for and how much it will cost from the lights, to the sound system to the bathrooms. The more educated you are the more insight you can give.
A Clean Heart
Who are you building this for? For you? For them? For God? Sadly many building projects are tanked from the beginning because egos get involved. You should make sure it’s not YOUR ego that is getting in the way of progress.
Having built a youth ministry building from the ground up, here’s where I’d put my money
In todays quick changing society, I’d put my money into the areas that never change and that we can welcome students into.
Eating
Teens always want to eat so in my last youth ministry we had our own kitchen which gave me another way to involve teens. My adult volunteer who was in charge of cooking put a team of students together to help cook and serve. We set small prices which families loved because the could get a bite to eat before or after service and we used the profits of the cafe for missions.
In my current youth ministry, we don’t have those kinds of facilities but I do have a snack table where they can pick up a Pop Tart or Little Debbie before service starts. I also have a small fridge where they can get drink. This is all in my budget so everything is free.
Worship
I’m in the midst of a redesign of our youth room. I took all the poster frames with even pictures, etc off the walls and put them in the hallway and stairway leading down to our youth room (it builds anticipation) and started with the question “How will this room bring attention to why we came to the meeting in the first place?”.
We join with the adults for worship but worship isn’t just about songs set it’s about who gets attention. We plan on putting vinyl bible verses on the wall to remind students of his promises. This is a small change but where our room, previously, pointed to us as group, the room will now point to Christ.
Discipleship
How does a room or space reflect the message “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”? It could look like small group spaces or rooms. It could look like a resource center with bibles, books and highlighters. It could could look like a wall with QR codes you change out with various teaching series on Youtube. It could look like all of the above but it’s a question worth asking.
Leadership/Service
In one of my spaces I put opportunities to serve on a magnetic board that students could choose from like “play the game” “take up offering” or “do the announcements”. The board might also have opportunities to serve in the adult service of a need of someone in the church like raking leaves, etc.
Outreach
Outreach is less about the cool toys you want students to see and more about the space you are using. What if you want to play a big game but your space is too small to play it in? Will the chairs you use be ones you can fold up and put to the side or static chairs you have to stack? I chose a concrete floor over a carpeted floor because I knew there would be messes and they would be easier to clean up. Build with activities you want to have be it a Nerf Night or a Game Night. You can always go smaller but you can’t go bigger.
For more room ideas, check out my playlist that has over 45 ideas which includes tours of other church’s youth spaces.
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