 Hi, welcome once again to the youth ministry session Doing well Let me share my screen and we'll get started All right, so just do a quick recap of what we covered in the last class We discussed the second chapter, which is youth ministry with a vision Right the importance of having a vision the profits the pros the positives of having a vision and and the negatives of not having a vision For your ministry that the impact that it can have both positive and negatively, right? So having a vision will always help you grow your ministry It will help you keep a track of your growth as well It will help your team the people that you are leading follow you better Okay, and we went on to see how We've designed the the purpose and the vision of the youth ministry at ABC the method that was used You can probably Excuse me Use use the same method for your ministry in your workplace you know to come up with a vision and a vision statement that is was used using the great commandment and great commission And breaking those two verses down we get worship ministry evangelism fellowship and discipleship Very we went through in detail the importance of all the five pillars That will help grow your ministry And how to come up with Your own mission or a vision statement the importance of it Okay, so one we learned why we need to have a vision Two if you go the next step was what will be the vision and three is how We're going to go about accomplishing that vision. Okay, so vision is the big thing You must have heard this right vision. What is the difference between a vision and a mission? Right. So for example, the vision is to win the war The mission is to take over one city at a time, right to conquer one city at a time That's the mission. Okay, or a rescue mission mission is this so in operating winning Achieving that mission solving that mission that goal small goal the short-term goal Takes you one step closer to your big vision. Okay, so that's what we kind of covered in the last class And today we look at Identifying your audience Okay, identifying your audience Sorry, I'm just having a little bit of allergies Okay, identifying your audience and I want you to kind of talk with me guys. So What does this mean to you? What you know, what is the importance? Why do we need to identify our audience? What would what would you have to say? Why is it important to identify? Our audience the people that you are serving why is it Come on speak to me Dave cannot We must speak things according to our audience We must speak things according to our audience. Okay making plans for a specific group would be easier They're making plans for specific group would be easier easier in what they And kind of nice when you say we must speak things according to our audience. Could you also elaborate on that? To relate to them emotionally spiritually. Okay Yeah, I think I mean, that's those are simple ways to put it right put it across making plans for a specific group would be easier to relate to them Okay, you see how that continues be easier to relate to them emotionally spiritually So the important part there is being able to relate with our audience Is it and then the audience to be able to relate with us? So it's not just one way traffic. It's both ways Right, so you should be able to relate to them And they should be able to relate to you and that is why it's important to identify The people that you are ministering to right to who your audience are Yeah, for example in the context of leading worship Uh If I'm going to say for example to a Methodist church Uh, I have to do my research my study on okay. What is the background and How the people the congregation of a Methodist church is like and what kind of songs can I do that? Right. I I can't go to uh, you know, like a more traditional set of church who Uh, who do a lot of hymns And they start doing some full-on hill song or planet shakers kind of the thing and so they come on come on jump with me You know, that's not gonna happen, right? So I failed in identifying my audience. So that's very important and crucial to serve Your people better to serve your congregation better. It's very important for us to identify Who your audience? Okay, so First step in that is identifying the commitment levels So one program can't effectively fulfill all the five purposes, which is evangelism worship fellowship discipleship or ministry right What primary purpose Does this program fulfill? So you need to ask yourself when you're doing your When you're planning a program or a youth meeting whatever You are trying to focus. Okay. What purpose is this program going to fulfill? And then you go to talk choose the topic that you want to do Etc. Right and then the next big question. Who are we trying to target with this program? And who are we trying to target with this program? Okay Once again coming back to the point one program can't effectively target all youth One program can't effectively target all the youth. What do you mean all youth? Why can't it target all of them? Everybody's Youth are you right? What's the big deal, you know? Okay, maybe different but then if you look at the The passage below There are at least I'm saying at least five types of youths. Okay, the list doesn't end there Okay, I can go on but just a few examples So they can be a youth who is not a Christian or they can be a youth who is new Christian Right, or they can be a youth who knows a great deal about the Bible But is ascetic about most things we do Uh, it's like, okay. I know a lot of this thing in the Bible, but Okay, uh, the growing student or the spiritual leader who's like, you know full on committed and whatnot, right? There could be a youth who is Forced to attend the attend the youth meeting because their parents are told that you to attend Okay, so you you see, right? That's just a few examples of how the We can't just come to a youth meeting thing. Okay youth meeting all the ages are from 17 to 43. They are all, you know youth they're all in the same stage and like no Out of out of the 50 people that come to your youth meeting There could be all these people in the different categories, right? And so who do we care to do This youth meeting I'm going to focus on the spiritual leaders On how I'm going to equip them even more. Okay, so that could be the topic can be a little bit more Theologically heavy slightly, right? You can talk a more advanced topic Or the non-christian You can have like an evangelical Uh youth meeting. Okay, so I'm going to talk about the love of Jesus Etc. The new christian you can talk on the discipleship topic that how they can grow in their journey as a new christian Etc. Etc. Right, so You know your audience you kind of have an idea of who you have And then, you know, you start planning the events like you start doing it backwards. Okay, so Uh identifying coming back to the point of identifying your audience Uh, now this is a very popular, uh, you know Diagram so to speak image That tells us usually where Your congregation is Okay, uh, so you have the core people Okay, like they are part of your core team. They are there, you know, they're like They are part of all the decision-making And then you have those in the committed circle Can you have your volunteers who are committed? Okay, they will come they will Sunday after Sunday You know, they will set the stage. They will set the chairs. They will clean the chairs. They will sweep the church Clean the church, et cetera, et cetera. They are committed people. They are part of a life group, whatnot, et cetera And then you have those in the congregation Uh, who will faithfully come Sunday after Sunday, uh, you know, and But that's about it. And then the circle keeps getting bigger And then you have the crowd These are the kind of people, okay Even before the pastor says the benediction escaped Okay, you don't want to meet people. They don't want to have anything to do Uh, they just want to put an attendance once again, you know, I was like, okay I'm here because my parents wanted me to go here. I'm here. I came I listened to the message Even before the benediction is done. They're out of there and then they'll come you like the others are too Who don't just don't care So you have all these people Right, and now we have to identify like who's in our audience. So, um, The goal is although, uh, this is relevant This can be relevant to most of the churches congregations in the west and whatnot at apc In according to my observation, not all of them are relevant. Uh, you know We I could I'm based on the observation we could relate to crowd the congregation Community and the core But these were the five audiences that we could observe and uh and identify They're only three the crowd and congregation and kind of bring them emerging them together Okay, so what do they mean? Um The crowd and the congregation people they attend church They may or may not have given their lives to jesus Uh, they are shy and introverts Right, they just escape after service. They don't want to meet with people talk to people. They don't want to have coffee hang around And whatnot. Okay, so you get what I'm talking about, right guys? I hope you are So they are the people in the outer circle, right? The crowd and the congregation circle, right? They attend church or good But they're not committed yet. That's where community comes in And now the circle is getting a little bit smaller. There are there is a bunch of people There's a group of people Not only attend church, but they are committed to growing spiritually And they also volunteer in different ministries Okay, and then not necessarily proactive, but definitely interested in growing what do I mean by that point I'm not necessarily proactive means they don't necessarily Take the make the first move and say like, uh, can I help in this? I want to do this. Can I do this? Can I help now? That's being proactive, right? But Every time you approach them To help you They will always be ready to help you Okay, so they are the audience in the community circle and finally you have those in the core So They're not just attend church Not only are they committed to growing spiritually not not only do they volunteer in different ministries, but they are proactive They make the initiator. They take the initiative. Okay. Hey, where can I have what are we going to do about this? Can we do this? Can we do that? Right? They're committed to doing ministry It is these kind of people who go on to become Life group leaders or youth core team leaders and then from there on you see so many youth core leaders grow into You know at different levels of ministry in church. Okay so This is what we call it as a circle of commitment Okay, this is the circles of commitment. So as the Circle becomes smaller and smaller Right, the commitment level increases but the people decrease Why because the commitment is a lot? Right, uh, and actually I would recommend this book called the power of commitment from It's an apc publication which you can download it from our website apc .org slash books It's a small 30 pages book. I would Encourage you to read that book and also possible you can teach that book You know into your church numbers your youth leaders and what what it teaches the importance of commitment right who The characteristics of an individual with who is committed Okay, so each group size will decrease as commitment increases The circles of commitment reminders of our potential audience. Okay. That's why we learned about that circle the circle of commitment Will show us our potential audiences who are who's in the audience Okay, so note that we identify. Okay. So, you know, let's say you have 50 youth in your church And you go through them list by list. Okay name by name. Okay. This guy. Okay. Joseph. Okay. Joshua Yeah, Joshua is in the outer circle Okay, um, and then you have let's say you make a list of these people according to their commitment levels Now that you identified them, it doesn't stop there. Right. You don't just identify and not do anything about it. Okay Yeah, they are in the circle circle What is the next step? What's the next plan? Okay, the goal once again going back to the vision should be okay How can I bring these people who are in the outer circles to the inner circle? Now not necessarily all of them have to become core leaders. That's not the goal per se But how do you get them to become more connected? Right. At least that should be the goal. So bring the outer ones to the inner ones Okay to the inner circle So let's take a look at a few examples, right? So reaching and keeping crowd and congregation How can we do this? How do we reach out to the crowd? And the congregation you're not just reaching out to them. How do we keep them? Because they're in the outer circle. It is very easy for them to just slip out of the circle and be lost and be gone forever Isn't Right. So because they are there. They're so vulnerable in the outer circle. It's very easy to lose them That's why we have to ask this question. How do we reach out to them and how do we keep them? Okay, so make sure you have a program to which your regular students can feel comfortable inviting their community friends Okay, make sure you have a program to which your regular students can feel comfortable inviting their community friends This service will have Christians and non christians Don't limit worship just to music attempt to have praying singing giving testifying thanking and listening to God's word, etc Create a positive atmosphere of fun student involvement, but with a clear message Simplify your message Okay, this is one way of planning for that Okay, small groups are a great way to nurture the student who has graduated from the crowd. Okay This is amazing. So small groups are a great way to nurture the student Okay, because they are comfortable. They will, you know, most of these introverts or shy people They open up and talk when the group is small Right, they're not Too hesitant to speak up, right small groups should provide more personal attention than larger programs But they provide a sense of belonging in the crowd you share the gospel, right? Remember guys, so people who are in the outer circle the crowd the congregation Remember, there can be youths who are safe or non-save or not safe or they can be a new christian Right who just started their journey. So in the crowd Because you want to make them stronger you share the gospel you share the goodness, right? In small groups you share your lives So in a bigger in a bigger program where you have 50 people In the program like that you share the gospel When it becomes smaller you share your lives Right saying, okay, this is how Jesus touched me. This is what he's done for me Right and and you tell a little bit more about yourself. This is who I am I was I'm sinner saved by grace Right. I wasn't this so so so and so But you know just reading the bible every day helped me etc etc Right you guys with me And I'm talking too much Well, I hope you guys are with me Okay, yeah, thanks Okay, then we have preparing community youths Okay, so remember this the first one is point was about how do we reach and keep the crowd and congregation? Okay, it's all about reaching out to them and keeping them The next thing the people in the next inner circle is the community, isn't it? So preparing community youths we now prepare them to for what? Let's take a look at it Encourage spiritual habits through the small groups of the congregation Okay, encourage spiritual habits through the small groups of the congregation have Consistent time with God through prayer and Bible Have an accountable relationship with another Christian Having to encourage them to find a mentor understand the participate Understand participate in giving and in tithing Memorizing scripture studying the bible communicate ministry messages Etc help students discover the spiritual gifts Okay, so here we are preparing the community youths to become the core youths members Okay, you're mulling them. You're encouraging your training and equipping them And then finally the core team members. We don't really have much but to just challenge them more Okay, challenge them to do more If you know if they're not leading a life group yet, you tell them, okay start Why don't you start a life group by yourself? Right, et cetera, et cetera. So those are the simple ways of identifying your audience And not just identifying them. How do you, you know, reach out to them? What do you do? To To keep them and to prepare them Right, so that's that's just a simple chapter three Okay, at this point, do you have any questions anything that you would like to share Thomas sit down to see if you're done Any questions All right, I'll take that as I know Great. So let's move on to the next chapter chapter four This is youth ministry in the local church And we're going to learn about the organizational aspects Okay, okay the organizational aspects of how you go about organizing the ministry administering the ministry The more particular Okay, uh, the rates are set at apc is I have the senior pastor of the architecture and the youth pastor Uh, I report to the senior pastor directly And then we have the core team members My core team members and we have five locations at apc one is central and then we have north south east and west So we have core team members from each of those locations to serve that location. Okay So That's again, let's look at the role of the pastor Is it senior pastor, right? The pastor is the one who is ultimately responsible to god for the church too So every ministry team comes under his pastor will oversight Under his supervision in other words, okay, so he provides general vision He provides direction and motivation He shares his gospel He shares his goals for youth ministry, right through the youth pastor. So, uh, you know I would every time we have meeting with the senior pastor of us They will give us a you know, what would you want? Would like to see it happen And then he will share as the okay I would like to see youth ministry the youth reach out to the city more Reach out to the youth in the city more Etc Yes, so he will share his goal. He will share his vision. He will share his heart Etc Whatever be his role And then now another we've seen the role of the pastor. What is the role of the youth pastor? He just a few couple of things So posturing itself is can be intimidating You're most of us in the youth. It can be very challenging But it doesn't have to be Pasturing is related to the word shepherd It means to guide To provide To protect and care for others through the empowerment of the holy spirit Okay We learn to care we learn to guide we learn to protect for others through the empowerment of the holy spirit So how then do we take care of the teams and congregations that we are interested in? How do we do that? Okay, uh some key points that we can look at And I cannot emphasize enough on this point. Yes, it's make relationship central Okay emphasize our personal relationship on building wrap Pastors have to have a lot to keep a track of And if we are not careful we can't become too focused on the planning of an event An execution of an event rather than the well-being Of the core team members and the youth Okay You see this is absolutely crucial We can we can get so busy in just planning for a program For an event and whatnot and then completely lose track a vision Of being able to care for the core team members and the youth Okay, so although completing tasks are an important part of the process It is secondary to relationship Right first with god and secondly with each other Okay, once again, do you see how it is in line with uh, what we get from the the great commandment that jesus said Love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength. Okay, make me make sure your relationship with him is right Okay, your life is a lifestyle of worship and then it leads to the next part of the commandment Love your neighbor as yourself Okay, first with god and secondly with each other and james chapter two, uh, he says this is a royal command, isn't it? So if we miss this We miss everything Okay, you miss that point you miss everything And the second part is in line with the first one that when your relationship is central You will need your people with care Okay, uh and in a simple old quote it says The youth Don't care how much you know Until they know how much you care Okay, the youth don't know how much you know until they know how much you care Okay, so as a youth pastor or as a church leader or whatnot Uh You can have all the degree in the world you can be a master and so and so Etc etc. All of that will really not matter Right, like I said, the youth care about how authentic you are your life is how genuine you are Right about their well-being Right, so, uh If they if they see and if they know that you don't just care you don't care about their well-being, uh Anything you say will not matter to them Okay, so that's why making a relationship central is is crucial is essential That will help you and enable and empower you to need and care for your youth Okay And finally rely upon god Right rely upon god, it's important at all times to maintain a posture of humility Okay relying upon god Is a posture is a sign Is saying It's a beautiful posture of humility. You're saying you're independent on your world Okay, relying being dependent on god for every decision you make is crucial It's easy to become dependent on your talents and gifts Or be overconfident because you've done something well in the past Okay Actually forgetting that it was god who helped you do something well before Right. How many of us have been there? I've been there Oh, wow, we did this last year and it it was great. It was an amazing success. So let's do that again Same thing here this year Nothing wrong with the method But being dependent and going before him and saying well, this is what you want us to do now I can't be currently cannot do this on our own. We need you Right. So that is relying upon god in and I have learned that personally in leading the youth ministry is It's the same with any ministry But Anytime you go before him and saying Father, I don't know what to do I don't know what to do this year What would you want me to do? What do you want me to do? And you come before him in humility and then he He starts unveiling his plan It's his vision. He starts revealing his heart for the year ahead and so That's crucial, isn't Um, so the first three points of all of the youth pastor make the relationship central And then the events and everything secondary Because you cannot do events without the people Who has to help you in doing those events You need to care for the people who are volunteering who are giving their time their energy their you know everything In in helping you, uh, you know, do that Right. So it's not like you're being sly and using them. Okay. Let me just do this so that I can use them to get this done thing done You need to check the intentions and the motivations of your heart, isn't it? Uh, right. We we don't use them or abuse Abuse any individual when they're volunteering right You are genuinely interested in their life right and then you and you see god, uh Genuinely to help you in your journey in your work in your ministry Okay, so that is the role of the youth pastor And uh, some and some of the things uh, you know, like I mentioned we have the core team, right? So once we have the senior pastor and then the youth pastor and now we have the core team. What is their role? Right. So the core team will comprise of a few selected youth leaders from each location The core team will work with the youth pastor to plan organize and mobilize the youth to help fulfill the vision and and the mission of youth ministry at abc Court team members are requested to be regular at the at the youth court team meetings Court team members are to lead by example and serve the young people at abc Okay, and some more responsibilities Of the court team members are court team members will maintain a strong personal spiritual walk with the lord Okay, uh, court team members will see their responsibilities as ministry unto the lord Court team members will be regular in attending monthly courting meetings and court team members Who are team leaders of volunteer teams will send in regular email updates on their areas of ministry to the youth pastor Okay, so those are some of the roles and responsibilities of the court team members And uh having understood all of that, uh, now we see how some of the events of the youth meetings are organized. Okay, this is how it's planned um because at abc it's a unique situation and uh, you know, we have five different locations as I mentioned And uh, and since I am not only present I can't be at all the patients at one time We have to divide and plan, uh, you know The meetings accordingly, you know this week after week Um, so the topics will be focused on how young people can apply the word in their life The sessions will encourage group discussion in which all young people can share their views, etc And so the third sunday, uh, the youth meetings will happen at least in some simultaneously And if I'm not there one of the locations the youth leaders will, uh, you know, lead a session at at at the location And every fourth Sunday we need at the center Okay, so this is m y m simply means monthly youth meeting A pit stop is a combined youth meeting where Uh, once in two months or once in three months depending on the calendar Where all the youth from every location will meet on a Saturday At central that's what we we call that combined youth service as pit stop Okay, uh, so some of the dates that's planned, uh for the year of pit stop is this I mean with the With the topics so on jan 26 we uh We had a pit stop. It's like a youth connect. That's a it was a vision casting meet And then have another pit stop. We call it dare to share this was focused on evangelism equipping a youth on how to share the gospel Here is where we call it as dare to share uh And this the third pit stop April 25th was focused on the same lines on equipping the youth a little bit more in a apologetics way like Learning the uniqueness of Jesus so we can uh, if they come across people saying, why should I choose Jesus? Why Jesus? Uh, this topic would focus on that and then we have the youth camp and pit stop again And as you can see so that's that's how the pit stops were planned Um the combined youth service in other words and then we have the youth life groups The youth life groups are the life of youth ministry and I mentioned this is also the life of the church, right? It's small groups small house gatherings This is where relationship Discipleship spiritual nurturing care loving community and spiritual ministry will happen Okay, um, this is the way they grow and they are discipled they're equipped The youth life groups are part of apc life groups and will be under the oversight of the life group coordinator And also the new pastor Okay, so now we have separate life groups for young men And young ladies and young couples. This is how it's categorized. Okay. We have separate ng life groups for young men young women and young couples Okay, and in some life groups it could be a combination of young couples and young ladies You know it depends Youth life group leaders will report back directly to left group coordinator And we must encourage youth leaders and other young people who are mature to start new life groups Okay, so that it doesn't it doesn't just stop in having youth life groups, but we keep preparing remember going back to the audience in the community Is that you prepare them to become life group leaders you prepare them to become You know take on the responsibilities, but we become more proactive right in their journey as as leaders And then we have youth mission trips as well that we planned every once a year. We haven't done that since the pandemic Uh, but it's something that we will be looking forward to do that Okay, it's it's a perfect opportunity to be discipled and to and to serve to learn more about ministry in itself right We go most of the time some mission strips have been to north India That won't uh, we want to burn poor Orisa, etc Okay, so that's youth mission strips and then we have campus elevates where we go into schools and colleges And and share on some of the founded foundational fundamental topics Etc. Okay and Yeah, it's all in line campus groups are small groups of students gather in a coffee shop or in people's homes or on campus With the opportunity to go deeper build friendships and discuss issues relevant to them So, uh, basically this is how, uh The youth ministry, uh The organizational aspects of youth ministry. This is how the youth ministry is organized at ABC Okay, so we finished up chapter three and chapter four Uh, do you guys have any questions at all because we we will stop at this moment and continue next week Any questions any thoughts, uh, regarding youth ministry? Okay, great. Okay. Thanks. There are no questions. All right. Um, right I hope you were able to see the assignments. Uh, let me just stop the recording for now and we will continue the next, uh class Right