Tag: Youth

Why a parachurch may get more young people than your church

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In a recent post I wrote about the 10% limit to the size of any youth group compared to the Sunday congregation.  But I bet that some of you know a youth ministry that breaks that 10% rule.  What I have discovered is that some parachurch groups are able to recruit far more members than the 10% limit.  Having worked in and with parachurch groups, there are a few key factors which enable them to reach more young people than a local church can.

Firstly what do I mean by a parachurch group?  In this context I am talking about any agency within the Church that has a specific mission to minister only to young people.  Put it another way I am talking about ministries that don’t belong to “full service” local churches.  These parachurch groups have the specific mission of meeting the needs of young people and usually they have a particular style.  These groups are a valuable part of our Church; they have a specific Charism to a specific group of people.

A few examples might be:

  1. Charismatic prayer groups
  2. Campus based ministries
  3. Market place ministries, some that meet in Pubs
  4. Social Justice groups

So why are some parachurch groups able to recruit more members than many local churches? Here are four reasons that a parachurch group might be able to get more young people than you.

  1. Narrow the focus – many parachurch groups are able to focus on one or two key activities and do them well.  When a ministry only has few things to focus on they are able to tailor everything in the ministry to these one or two activities.  In contrast a full service local church has about 20-30 groups and ministries running.  Often the resources of a local church are spread thinly across a wide range of activities.
  2. Like-minded people – there is an old saying that like attracts like; a parachurch can attract young people with a common interest.  It is easier to attract a group of like-minded people than it is to keep the interest of everyone.  Often the local church is trying to cater to the needs of everyone in their community.
  3. Independence brings freedom – many parachurch groups are able to stay independent of the mechanics of regular church councils and committees.  I was once part of a parachurch group that met every Monday night and we could plan what we wanted with the leaders whenever we needed.  In contrast when I was part of full service local church the parish council met monthly and you needed a months’ notice to get an agenda item on there, meaning it could be two months before we could make a decision.
  4. Larger drawing area – usually a parachurch will draw members from a bigger geographical area than the local suburban church.  A parachurch might host an event for 100 young people that come from 10 suburbs where as you are trying to host an event for the young people in your suburb.

Before finishing I want to add that I am not against parachurch groups, they are vital part of the Body of Christ.  Given that I have been a part of both parachurch groups and local churches, I wanted to pass on some of the reasons why the parachurch groups might get more young people than you can get at your local church.

There are many positives of connecting young people to a local church; the main reason is that the local church is intergenerational.  In a local church young people learn to connect with a wider experience of the Body of Christ.

The real lesson for both parachurch groups and local churches is to focus on what God has called them to do rather than comparing each other.  I hope this helps you in your situation.

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Is your Youth Ministry limited to 10% of Sunday attendance?

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Whilst it has been popular over the past 20 years to say “it is not about the numbers”, many of us still measure our success in terms of attendance.   In a previous post I wrote about the difference between attendance and commitment so I know that attendance can be deceptive.  However many of us are judged by others based on how many people we get to our events, so let’s take a deeper look at attendance numbers.

What attendance number are you aiming at in your youth ministry?  How big would your ministry have to be to think it is successful?  Pick a number:

  1. A youth ministry will only grow to about 10% of your Sunday congregation (see Mark DeVries below).  Does the number in your head now look small, achievable or unrealistic?  A church with an average weekend attendance of 500 people should have a youth ministry of up to 50 young people.  But if your weekend church attendance is only 150 then perhaps you should be aiming to reach 15 young people.   So when you compare the size of your ministry to the youth ministry in another church, we all do this, you should compare the two groups as a percentage of the Sunday attendance.
  2. Successful youth ministries come from successful churches.  On the flip side there aren’t many weak churches that have strong youth ministries.  Perhaps your ministry is growing or not growing because of issues in the Sunday congregation.  If you find it hard to grow your youth ministry this may not be because of the issues in your youth ministry.  Check the health of your Sunday congregation to see if this is effecting the health of your youth ministry.  For example if your Sunday congregations don’t volunteer, then that may explain why you find it hard to recruit volunteers.
  3. In the post Christian era, young people are the first group to leave a struggling church and the last group to return to a growing church.  Often when the teenagers stop coming to church because it is “boring”, the parents stop coming as well.  Perhaps the reason that you are not growing is that the young people have sensed that the church is going nowhere.  Many churches that struggle for some time lose all their young people.  It can be difficult for these churches to win back the teenagers and they can’t grow a youth ministry until the children in the kids ministry grow into the youth ministry.

Mark DeVries in his book Sustainable Youth Ministry outlines five key “normal” indicators that he has discovered from his Youth Ministry consultancy with hundreds of churches in the US:

  1. A youth ministry will settle at 10% of the worshiping congregation
  2. The Youth Ministry budget should be $1000-$1500 per young person
  3. There should be one full time staff person for every fifty youth
  4. There should be one adult volunteer leader for every five youth
  5. Even with significant investment a youth ministry has a ceiling of 20% of the congregation

What is a realistic attendance target?

Whilst it is hard to translate these “normal” indicators into what is achievable in Australia, we do know that many of the bigger youth ministries come from bigger churches.  I think the most realistic target for you to aim at in your church is:

  1. Start with at least one male and one female leader then add another male and female volunteer leader for every 10 young people.
  2. Aim for 10% of your Sunday congregation, when your church grows so will your youth ministry.

Hopefully our youth ministries can lead the growth of our churches, but don’t be disappointed if you reach a 10% ceiling, you are doing well.

Please leave a comment about what indicators are normal in your setting.

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