Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

Youth Ministry Audit: How Well Does Your Ministry Score Out of 10?

• Kristen Lascola • Episode 220

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Are you looking to grow the size and health of your youth ministry? Check out
GrowYourYouthMinistry.com *** Have you ever done a top to bottom audit of your youth ministry?  Are there things you need to add?  Are there things you need to remove?  Are there things you need to improve?  In this episode, we will be discussing 10 critical elements for youth ministry programs that can lead to a thriving, healthy and growing student ministry.  We will be covering everything from volunteer health to worship to student leadership teams and much, much more!  Join us as we challenge you to take these insights and commitments to elevate your youth group to new heights and be sure to tally up your score as you go along!

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You may also enjoy these episodes:

(#095) Why a Combined Middle School & High School Youth Ministry is Killing Your Growth

(Bonus) Splitting Middle School & High School Youth Ministries: Practical Tips to Make it Happen

(#040) How to Start a Student Leadership Team in Youth Ministry

(#018) Youth Ministry Room Set Up, Design and Decorating Ideas

(#071) Youth Ministry Overnighter - Fun Lock In Games & Theme Idea

(#160) Youth Pastors: Are You Challenging Your Youth Group?

(#199) 5 Tips to Build Your Youth Ministry Volunteer Dream Team

(#024) Raising Up Leaders in Student Ministry - How to Duplicate Yourself!!!

(#207) How to Build a Youth Ministry Worship Team From Scratch

(#052) Small Group Leader Training for Youth Ministry

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Speaker 1:

For me, unless all these 10 elements were present, I would have a hard time moving forward into anything else. What we're gonna talk about today holds the structure for everything else we do. Today we're gonna challenge you to a youth ministry audit. We're gonna talk about 10 points of health, so get out a scorecard and see how you do.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we bring you weekly tips and tactics to help you fast-track the growth and health of your youth ministry. My name is Jeff Laskola and this is Kristen Laskola.

Speaker 1:

And today we're going to do a little youth ministry audit, yikes. So get out a score sheet or something and see how you do out of 10. These are questions. I guess that if I were going to assess any youth ministry and maybe coach someone individually, I would ask if all of these 10 elements are present. I think this is to me sort of the skeletal system of a youth ministry. I just feel like until for me, these are just my opinion. For me, unless all of these 10 elements were present, I would have a hard time moving forward into anything else. I think what we're going to talk about today holds the structure for everything else we do, and so, yeah, see how you do.

Speaker 2:

So number one, I don't want to say it Dramatic pause.

Speaker 1:

Because I don't want to say it. We've said it a million times. If you listen to our podcast, so you probably aren't surprised. Split junior high and high school yeah if you haven't already make plans to do so. So even if you are planning to give yourself a point, if you're uh, in the works of it, you know we have other episodes thought crossed your mind.

Speaker 1:

If you think you might someday do this and I know it's hard, I'm not pretending this is an easy move to make, but in my opinion it just is the most healthy scenario. Now. Do we do things out of necessity, sometimes for a season? Sure, so that might be the season you're in right now of having to keep junior, high and high school together for a particular reason. I would just like to challenge you to make plans for that to be your goal for the future, and if you're in a place where you can do it, why not? It's maybe gonna be harder work for you in the short run, but long-term it is the most healthy scenario for a lot of reasons that we've talked about before, but I'll give you the quick snapshot.

Speaker 1:

Number one high schoolers don't want to hang out with junior hires, and I know that is not like a earth shattering truth for you. That is very obvious. Secondly, middle school parents really don't want their middle schooler to hang out with high schoolers and be in the same like discipleship group as them. I heard a funny, funny, sketchy story this weekend. I just got back from a leader retreat and it was so much fun. I took my leaders up to the mountains and we frolicked in the forest together and it was very fun. And I was talking to this lady and she said oh yeah, my youth ministry was combined.

Speaker 1:

You know, when I was in youth ministry and I was in seventh grade and this senior boy was hitting on me and blah blah and I'm like exactly now, what is that? Like that happens every day. No, but see, that's like just the waters we don't even want to tread in, and that's the parents.

Speaker 1:

One of one of the parents fears it is, and then to hear that it really happens, they're like, yeah, okay, and she's like I was just really tall for my age, you know, and I was like, but still so, you know, it's just not ideal. It is not. It doesn't set you up for maximum potential of health, um and or growth or growth. So or growth or growth. So you could stay stagnant, you could shrink a little bit, but exponential growth is very hard in that environment. So, yeah, I hopefully get the point. I know I ruffle feathers on that one and I think, no matter what, you can't convince me otherwise, and maybe I can't convince you otherwise, so maybe you just skip that point. I don't know.

Speaker 2:

And we have a couple episodes that we've done on that. One is kind of all the reasons why we go in depth about that, and then the second one is kind of like steps to take to be able to transition and make it into a split ministries, yeah, and I think. Just one more thing to say before we move on to number two I think you're probably more ready and able to do it than you think.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it sounds a lot scarier than it is. I think it's such a big change. People probably put it off, but you know, we were talking to some friends tonight and they're in ministry and the fact that people don't do that shocked them yeah they're like no way people do that. And I'm like most, most churches combine junior, high and high school and they're like I don't, like they didn't even believe us no, that couldn't possibly be.

Speaker 1:

So it's also like the dna, or like where what church you grew up in, where, what church you work at, what's normal you know, because for this couple it wasn't normal where they were used to being in church. For us it's not really normal. So on us, the other side, it's like yeah right.

Speaker 1:

People don't actually do that and then, if that's how you grew up, you're like what, what church? Actually has a person or a ministry just to do junior high, just to do high school. So I challenge you to kind of see it as like do I think this is so far-fetched and so difficult because this is just how I've always seen ministry? Well, realize there's a whole other camp of people who can't believe that it is that way because they've never like no way.

Speaker 2:

I think most youth pastors would probably say they want to split. It's just they can list all the reasons why they can't, but make sure you check out that episode. We did kind of the practical steps on being able to, like I said I think you're. I think you're closer than you think you might be.

Speaker 1:

You can do it, we believe in you. All right, number two audit question score yourself on this. You have a student leadership team, very, very, very, very important. The student leadership team in a sense is my student small group. Like, I don't lead a small group on our youth group night, which is Tuesday nights, but I lead our student leadership team and those are the kids I really take under my wing and challenge because I view them as culture setters in our youth ministry. You know, obviously we are adult volunteers and we're going to talk more about that in a later audit point, but the students are extremely powerful in setting the culture and you, as the youth pastor, empowering them to do so is huge.

Speaker 1:

So, like, student leaders need to be challenged on leadership skills, learn how to be miniature leaders, because it's we were talking about this at the retreat this weekend. It's one thing for a student to look up to an adult and say I want to be that someday. It's another powerful concept for them to look at someone who is in their stage of life and say I don't have to wait to be. You know, brandon, I can. I can be him today and watching people their own age engage in ministry and serving and leadership and influence is completely powerful and it changes the entire dynamic of your youth ministry.

Speaker 1:

And another reason to have it and again we have a whole episode on this which we can link down below would be I got a really cool email from a mom this week and she said thank you so much, for our student leadership team is called SOS. She said I love SOS. I was looking at the homework that you sent home and it is so cool, like like they're a really hardcore, involved, christian, committed family, that there's something for someone at that level Like your, your committed youth group kid that needs to be challenged, that wants to be challenged, that is ready to go deeper, that is ready to kind of like go to new frontiers in their faith and their character and their skills. You wouldn't get that just attending youth group, because nobody's like literally challenging you like hey, like next time you see a new person, here's what you could do, or this is what godly leadership looks like. How can we start using this? That doesn't happen, just like in small groups because that's such an eclectic, like.

Speaker 1:

It's such a mix of people, you know, but these are students that are signing up like, yes, I want to go further, I want to go deeper, I want to be challenged, I want to learn more.

Speaker 1:

So what you start to create is a program for the core yeah and it draws them in because they're like, yeah, I've been waiting for something like that. And she said I'm so thankful that there's something for kids who really want to be challenged. So don't like, if you, if you haven't started one, watch the episode on that, because it really can transform your youth ministry, and I would not sleep on it If you don't. If you don't have one, that is it's time to launch it, and it's pretty easy to launch.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it's not that you're not challenging the rest of your youth ministry. This is kind of just taking it. You know, a designated spot for junior high and high school.

Speaker 1:

That would be in a dream world. If it's just a youth space that is shared, great, we'll take it Meaning that you have a spot in your church where students come and they can look around and realize this room was designed for me. It not on loan, and when it's on loan, we treat it very differently and it's like almost sends this message of like, don't you touch or ruin anything because we are just lucky to be using this room, instead of like, hey, come in, put your feet up and enjoy, because this space was made for you, and so maybe you do have a space specifically for youth in your church, but it can definitely use some TLC, you know, a little makeover, a little glow up. And so look around the room and say, does this scream students, welcome here, we were expecting you. Or is it like, well, you're allowed to be here.

Speaker 1:

Well, I even think of like some kind of like multi-purpose room or something where it's like you guys, a lot of this stuff is off limits to you but, you're allowed, we'll allow it, today we can be in this portion of the room. Don't touch that stuff, yeah, which don't even look at it, don't even breathe on it to say don't go in the sound booth, stuff like that there can be limits, but just that you walk in and the room is like, oh, this is for kids this is for students.

Speaker 1:

This is something fun. So maybe you want to either get that space created or, as it kind of nears the end of the year, you can say what is one cool thing I want to add this year, like when I look at a room, like, okay for Christmas, with what's left of my budget, I'm going to get the students a switch. Or I'm going to repaint this wall or redesign some logos or get new chairs or get some comfy couches, get some fun neon sign off Amazon, which that's what we did last year we put our ministry name in neon lights and it was like just the simple thing that made the room like so cool Hang market lights easy, Go to Home Depot.

Speaker 1:

You can be done by the end of today. I couldn't, but somebody could.

Speaker 1:

If you're handy like that, not me. One thing we did is we put a countdown clock in our room for camp. Just these little elements that like start to create this culture of like. We value youth. There's an emphasis on youth. We were expecting you. We've created a space just for you, and that does communicate a lot. I think with everything in youth ministry, start to analyze what you're communicating verbally and what you're communicating through, what you just simply do. So you wouldn't have to say our church values youth and. But it would be like well, what do they do for us? Do they create a space? Do they? Are they expectant of us? Are they making us comfortable? Are they thinking of things we would enjoy? You know like you think of it like a kid's bedroom versus a parent's bedroom. It's not just like, well, you can sleep in here, but this isn't yours.

Speaker 1:

You know you never want something in the church to feel like it's on loan to somebody else, but that it is theirs, because it is the house of God for the family of God. Like, let them feel like family there, not that they're like oh, don't touch that precious heirloom or something, but it's like no, your family, this is your room. So that's a great analogy.

Speaker 2:

There you go. I kind of just came up with it.

Speaker 1:

Maybe it was the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 2:

If you're interested in like the countdown clock or the neon sign.

Speaker 1:

We'll link it in the description below.

Speaker 2:

What is number four?

Speaker 1:

Number four Okay, this one you might not like me on either, sorry. Number four Okay, this one you might not like me on either. Sorry, but you should offer youth services at all of your weekend services.

Speaker 2:

And for those of you that have one service you're good to go.

Speaker 1:

We used to only have one and I loved it.

Speaker 2:

I was one and done.

Speaker 1:

So here's what I noticed a lot of churches doing is, let's say they have two or three services for the weekend. One of those, which one? The magic one? You have to guess which one guests visitors, which one has junior, high and high school guests, which one only has high school? Guess which one doesn't have children. It's like, please stop, can you please offer all ministries at all services? Again, you are serving the people who are going to attend your church, but we are not attracting anybody new by, like, having some mysterious schedule that they have to like, ah, can you figure out the secret schedule for when you can bring your child who's 12? But what if you also have a child who's 17? Can they both come? But oh, like that is such a turnoff. Like, please offer everything for everyone at all services. Because, again, going back to the point we were talking about before, what are we communicating when we like we're communicating. Well, if you're on the inside, you would have known that.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

Like it is perfectly reasonable to think you should be able to show up to an 11 o'clock service and have somewhere for your three year old, nine year old and 11 year old to go, or your nine year old, 11 year old and 17 year old to go. It is perfectly reasonable old 11 year old and 17 year old to go. It is perfectly reasonable.

Speaker 1:

And if they're stopped and it's like, oh see, you should have come right at the nine o'clock, because then it's like and how can you even invite people to a schedule like that, like, come to my church, wait. What are the ages of your?

Speaker 2:

kids, oh, they can't come to that.

Speaker 1:

Hold on so you want to make sure you come to this. It's like just offer everything all the time and it even, believe it or not, serves the people who already come to your church well too. There's so many people who it's like oh, I couldn't come to nine, let's go to 11. Oh, this day, you know, and or they're inviting a friend and that friend can only come to 11 because they have a baseball game or something like that. It's just smart.

Speaker 1:

It's just simple and smart. I think churches need to make sure they're not overcomplicating schedules so that you have to be on the core inside to decode what's going on. Like simple, straightforward. I always tell people if you wonder if we're going to have youth group on Tuesday, we do. If you wonder if what the time is for youth group on Tuesday, it's always the same 630 to 830.

Speaker 1:

If you wonder where we're meeting, it's at the church, like, you don't have to ask me, I'll put out a calendar and I'll email you on Mondays and I'll post it on Instagram. But if you wonder if we're meeting unless it's Christmas, yes, we are, we are there and wonder no more. So I think that's really important to have all offerings, or all age group offerings, at every single service, a very big passion of mine. That, again, I realize is not as common as I thought. It was Like the way I grew up and the way we did ministry from the jump, like when I first started. It's like I mean, it startled me almost when I heard that church is like, oh no, like junior high doesn't meet this time.

Speaker 1:

I'm like you're allowed to not have junior high ministry. Like we aren't allowed to not do it, Like we will always have something for that aid group all the time. It is a like law, Like that's how it feels to me. Like that's a that's a church law, isn't it? You're allowed to not do that. It's shocking. Um, anyways, number five do one event per month and two camps per year. I think that's a really great place to start.

Speaker 2:

And camps count as event.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh yes, I do not do an event plus a camp in the same month. I mean, if you do that, that is just whoo, you'll be exhausted. But yeah, like a winter camp and a summer camp and then one event per month. I think that's a really great system, for, oh, how many special events should we do? Or what do I do besides youth group? One event a month once you come up with your 12. Okay, camp camp, so now you only have to come up with 10, and if you watch some of our episodes, I hand you some very easy ones to do a glover nighter and all over nighter, some beach days and voila, you're halfway there.

Speaker 2:

They don't all have to be extravagant. Some of them can be pretty simple.

Speaker 1:

No themed nights, competition series, just cool stuff. You just want to keep things interesting and exciting. So it is at the time of this recording November, which is a great time to start thinking about the next calendar year. Hey, let's get our events on the calendar for next year and actually start doing some cool stuff. So I think that's sort of a non-negotiable and youth ministry. That's what I would ask a youth pastor. What does your event calendar look like? Are you doing things to keep it fresh and fun and exciting?

Speaker 1:

And one really great strategic benefit to events is a lot of times that's where new kids will come and people will invite their friends too, so they'll be like if we do an all-overnighter all of a sudden these random kids are coming out of the woodwork, where I'm, like you look familiar, but you heard this was happening and you didn't want to miss it.

Speaker 1:

That might be the catalyst to draw them back in totally you know, because youth group like your core and committed kids are probably very excited for that. But like a random junior hire who knows your youth group kids, here's that their youth group is doing an all-overnighter and you have a pretty good shot of getting them to sign up and trying to capture them to re-enter community.

Speaker 1:

And well, you should come on tuesdays. Then if you oh yeah, I remember you, oh, yeah, I remember you, or oh, who's your friend? You know there's just opportunity to capture new students that way and it's just fun and it just pumps life and energy to have fun, like shared fun experiences. Hence why I did my leader retreat this weekend. I just was telling them like guys, like we love our students but we love each other, and how fun to do ministry with people that you just consider friends, like everyone, is like 10 out of 10. It is unreal, you know I was just looking around the room like it is so fun to do ministry with these people. So do that with for your students having shared positive, fun, energetic experiences. You know that breathes life into people Like I.

Speaker 1:

I kind of was involved in the youth group and then we went on this fun event and I sat next to this kid on the bus and then we were like playing dodgeball on this trampoline together and then we all went and got a snack and got a slurpee and then we were, you know, we played a trick on this, trick on this like I don't, I just feel like.

Speaker 1:

There's all these memories, what we played a trick on someone and then we laughed, old man and he fell and, oh man, you had to be there like they just do little cute pranks and like they just make these memories and it just gives you the warm fuzzies and you just want to like keep doing life with these people, you know. But sometimes you need to break them out of the routine of just small groups and just you know, like do something fun together.

Speaker 2:

Right, and just to add this in really quick, the events don't have to be different than your normal week or normal midweek program night yeah. Most of them actually, I think actually happen on the night.

Speaker 1:

you'd normally have youth group anyways, so it's not in addition to, you know, adding another day but it doesn't always have to be like you could do a percentage of them like okay, this was a weekend event like the Glover night or all overnighter, but then, yeah, it could be the competition series on a week night that you already meet. So, anyways. Number six is about your teaching. So an audit here is am I teaching slightly above grade level for my students? And the reason I love to do that is because students need to come in and like especially your committed kids that come a lot. They're going to be like I've already heard this, I already know the story, and they tune out because they're like I already know the answer and church just pretty much tells you the same thing over and over and over again. So that's how I used to feel. I used to be like yep, uh-huh.

Speaker 2:

Yep, I knew that.

Speaker 1:

So when you teach slightly above their grade level, I think you challenge their thinking a little bit more. And, to be honest, I teach to adults almost the same way I teach to students. Like I change some of the examples and subject matter, obviously, but I don't water it down at all for the students. And, yeah, like you have to communicate differently to a junior, higher than you do to an adult, but the sentiment is like this is heavy truth and this is real truth, this is tangible truth, this is transformative truth. And so you always want to make a beeline to the gospel. And I learned that later on in youth ministry that you know we're not just telling a story of, like Jonah and the whale, right, but we're telling what does this tell us about Jesus? What does this tell us about the gospel? Because every story is a part of the larger narrative. So we want students to not just know about Jonah and the whale, so that they know some moral of the story.

Speaker 1:

So when God says, do something, make sure you do it because, he gets the final word, Like that's not necessarily the point of Jonah and the whale, so you have to point them to. This shows us who God is. I mean, and even Jonah's mentioned, you know, in the new Testament and it's a foreshadowing of. You know, Jesus and his death and three days later, like rising from the dead and all of that. But every single story you tell should you should have a direct line to what does this tell us about Jesus and our relationship to him and what this larger narrative is? Because we don't want students to ever walk away thinking that the Bible is a book of fables with a moral at the end of every single one, and every moral is different.

Speaker 1:

so what's the moral of this story? Like, uh, don't sell your birthright for soup, you know? Like it's just no. What is this telling us about the gospel itself? Because the gospel is taught a million different ways and a million different chapters and verses and stories, and all points to Jesus, but it it's like Larry, our one of our pastors describes it as like a diamond. The gospel is like this huge diamond and every time you turn it in the light it's the same diamond, but you see a different facet of it and a different angle of it.

Speaker 1:

And I feel like when we walk students through the narratives of the Bible, it's like now you see the gospel like this, don't you Like? Now, did you see the way that God interacted with people back then? Now turn it here. Now you can see how he interacts with us today. Now turn it here. Why do you think he said that to them? Turn it here. What do you think this says in the terms of redemption? What I'm trying to communicate is get them to think bigger, Like they. We've got to move beyond morality with students or Christianity will be just white noise in the midst of like life philosophy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And they have to know that there's power behind this. This is gospel. This is like a turn a tourney a tourney, a tourney. Chris, the last school attorney at law. Eternity is at stake here, and it's not just like let's just be nice, good people you know, be good club.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's really how I used to treat church as a kid is like this is the be good club, where you're going to tell me don't say any bad words, share my stuff and be generally a nice person, but we've got to move them beyond. This is not a philosophy for living Like that could that could mean anything like where's the power and so that's where you hold the gospel as this diamond and you turn it every week for them. Now let's look at the gospel through the lens of Jacob.

Speaker 1:

And now let's look at the gospel through the lens of you know, we did a whole thing on the forefathers and like that could be so boring, but like whoa, this is a setup, like something is coming. This is, this is part of the drama, and let me show you why this is pointing to the future and what God is telling his people right here and you know. So get deeper into that. Start to teach your students how to think biblically about everything, and not just simply what to think and not just behavior modification. So that's what I would ask hey, what is your? Is your teaching on par with that? Or are you still just kind of doing story moral style? Or are you still just kind of doing story moral style teaching? Very simplistic, it's just not powerful.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know for a student who is asking big questions and is on the brink of adolescence, adulthood, young adulthood, you know we've got to give them more than that. Okay. So is your teaching in line with that? Number seven you have a dynamic volunteer staff and culture. Just like I was saying with the retreat this weekend, like running alongside the right people, do you have a thriving and dynamic volunteer staff?

Speaker 1:

You cannot do ministry by yourself. You can't do ministry for long by yourself. So making sure not only do we have great people, but are you continuing to foster a great culture within those people? You're not going to be able to minister to every student, just a handful, mostly your student leaders. That's kind of you know where most of my energy goes. So you need you need to disciple leaders, so that leaders can disciple students, and we've talked a ton ton about that. So grade yourself on that one. How are you doing there? It's a huge piece of your ministry. Number eight this is along the same lines, but are you developing and producing leaders? So the developing leaders is giving people opportunities to lead and to do things, develop their character and all of that. But I would take it a step further and say what is your ministry producing, like our leaders coming out of your ministry, are they equipped to fly?

Speaker 1:

Are you giving them wings and opportunities where you could launch them to another church, where you could launch them to another ministry, where you could launch them? If you were to ever leave, you know that they could take your job. You should always be able to look to your right and left and say who am I developing right now? Who's coming up in the ranks? That is the mark of a great leader and a healthy, thriving church that produces leaders constantly. Not just looking inward of like how's my leadership doing? Am I a good leader? But looking outward of like where are the leaders that I'm bringing up along with me? That is huge Number nine have worship meant for students specifically? So, like the room thing, like this space is for you All, worship is good, can't ever be anything called bad worship. Well, I don't know, every time I say stuff like that, I'm like someone's got some interpretation or technicality. They're going to call me on. I maybe I'm paranoid because I work with junior hires and they're like nah, what about?

Speaker 1:

this let's just say worship is good. If you're worshiping God, okay, the one and only true God, then worship is great. Make sure you're worshiping in their language. So, like junior hires and high schoolers have different needs for worship, which is another reason why splitting them is important. Adults and high schoolers and junior hires have different needs for worship. Now, is it all good, no matter what, yes, we're talking about.

Speaker 1:

In an ideal world, you would have worship that hit. I mean, why do we sing little kids songs to the little kids? Because that is in their language. They're still worshiping God. Why do the adults not want to sing Father Abraham?

Speaker 1:

I don't know if you can even consider that a worship song. It's more of a learning song. But those little kid songs, like an adult would be like, can you do something that hits my soul? Because my soul is advancing in a different direction. And that's the same with junior hires. Where is their soul at?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they can get on board with songs that aren't necessarily hitting them in the right spot, like you know. They could still feel the spirit, of course, but why not? Why not make it specifically for them? And how do you know? Well, we ask our students what are some of your favorite worship songs? What are the ones that just get you? We had a girl sobbing during worship on Tuesday and I wish I could remember the song it was, but she said it like it just got her, like it was this moment with the Holy Spirit and we want to set students up to worship God in their native language and that's going to probably be a little different and for junior high, like they need a couple energetic songs in there because that's where their soul is at.

Speaker 1:

High school and college. They need some more introspective, fall-on-your-knees kind of music that gets their soul in that spot. But I think the sentiment behind it is we're trying to align worship with where people are at so that they don't have to pretend to worship in a way that they don't resonate with, and that's just realistic. So if you can make worship experiences conducive to the age group you're working with, that would be ideal. Because worship, when students feel it, they unleash. You know, when we do it right, like, they'll worship no matter what. But when we hit them right where they're at, it hits different. You see them come alive, you see them connect, you see them like have a moment when we, when we foster it right around who they are, you know in this, stage.

Speaker 1:

So all right, Number 10. And finally, have small groups with consistent leaders who pour into students and discipling them. If you do not break up into small groups with consistent leaders, not just kind of like, oh, you three go there and you four go there, but like, all right, here's my boys. I have Jeff, jesse and Jed and you know that's your small group and they know they can count on you to be there every single week and you're the one who knows them and is discipling them, and really I find it interesting.

Speaker 1:

So, um, I think one of our pastors was teaching this the other day the word pastor is not in the Bible, the word shepherd is, and that's sort of where we get that role from. And our small group leaders are shepherds. They're shepherding people and I always tell them you're like the little mini pastor of your small group, that's your flock to shepherd, you're the one who's going to know them and students need to come and have an adult who knows them and is discipling them. Because program is great, it brings people in, it creates a sense of community and identity, but the discipleship is going to happen through the vehicle of small groups, not in a large group setting. So if you only have the large group setting it's going, discipleship is going to be very difficult. So that's the audit, jeff.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so if you want to go deeper on any of those topics I think we have episodes that probably cover almost all of them. We'll link them in the description below so you can check those out. And the question of the day is very simply put in the comment section below what did you rank out of 10? If you're willing to share that, how many did you check off of the 10? So put that in the comment section below. We'd love to see that. And this is the community comment of the day. This comes from Lindsey Krauss, who is answering the question of what she enjoys about this podcast, and she said the practical tips and the encouragement to keep trying and keep doing our best for the youth. So thank you, lindsay.

Speaker 1:

You appreciate that. That is basically the mission statement of this podcast.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so thank you for the comment, thank you, guys, for watching and listening and we'll see you next time. Here's the truth here Today.

Speaker 1:

We're going to do a youth ministry audit, so get out your scorecards and keep track of your points. So stupid. We're going to challenge you to a youth ministry audit. We're going to give you 10 challenges to see how you do. So let's talk about a bunch of words.