*In his book Crossing Over, author and pastor Paul Scanlon challenges his readers to identify what they don’t want before considering what they do want. After observing our youth ministry and other youth ministries around us I came up with a list of seven things I didn’t want our youth ministry to be. I follow each observation with a statement of what I do want to see.

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For the past week or so I have been writing about what kind of youth ministry I don’t want. It’s great to be able to sit down and think through what God has called me to do. It’s helped me dream about the future God has for our ministry.

I hope in some way this series of posts helps you as well. Answering the question, “What Don’t You Want?” will help reveal vision and goals that God has for your life as well.

Observation #5
I don’t want the kind of Youth Church where parents bring their students to “try it out.”

My Response:
…the Youth Church I see is full of students who have been changed by God and in turn are dragging their families to church with them on Sunday. I see a youth church that helps grow the ministry at NWLife Church. Innovation and creativity are keys to achieving this. Additionally, we strive for excellence in all we do.

We’ve started to see this at our church. I’ve had several parents say that their son or daughter told us to come check out the church.

How cool is that?

I love that our students are dragging their parents along.

Our youth ministry exists to build the church as a whole not just it’s own little kingdom. We want to connect students to God, His people, and His Church.

I serve my Pastor best when our youth ministry attracts new students that in turn reach their parents for Christ.

One way we try to make this happen is by being creative and innovative. We want our ministry to have a different feel than church as usual.

We love to try new things. Some have really worked well, others haven’t. The point is, we are attempting creative approaches to all that we do.

As for striving for excellence, what else should we be striving for?

Yeah, truth is we rarely have a flawless night. There will always be something that could have been done better.

I would rather have us do our best to be excellent than set the bar at mediocrity. Can’t you just feel the inspiration in that pre-service prayer time? “Alright team, let’s go out there and be AVERAGE.”

Point is, we won’t always achieve it, but we’re always shooting for excellence.