For most, the answer is no. Dustin Nickerson, one of my Re:Train cohort brothers, recently wrote an article on The Resurgence talking about Mars Hill’s move away from a big Youth Group party (with maybe a little Bible) to discipleship in small community. Challenging article and one that should be read by all Christians, but particular those in youth ministry.

“Does this church even have a youth ministry?”

I hear this question all the time, from Mars Hill members, visitors, and people who have never set foot within our doors. And the short answer to the question is “no.” At least not what most people would consider a youth ministry.

What’s really being asked is “Does this church gather all its teenagers on Wednesday nights, have monthly lock-ins, go on summer mission trips to Mexico, and have attractional, flashy, and really expensive winter and summer retreats?” The answer is a gentle, but emphatic, “no.” Not anymore. Why? Three reasons:

1. Statistically, it isn’t working.
2. Discipleship as seen in Scripture is minimal.
3. The Holy Spirit told us to do otherwise.

The Statistics Say It All

The term “working” might be a little nebulous, but youth pastors know those stats. We know that somewhere between 60–80% of teens who are active in churches stop going altogether in their twenties. Yet many churches still cling to this model created decades ago, hoping they will be the exception.

Look at the students in your chairs. If you were convinced that six out of ten were going to leave the church once they go to college, would you stick with what you’re doing? The point of all ministry is disciple-making. Ask yourself, Youth Pastor, does that happen on a Wednesday night through your games, skits, teen worship band, videos, and 20-minute message?

Discipleship Is Crucial

A little over a year ago, it became absolutely clear that I was leading a ministry that wasn’t focused on making disciples. My leaders had a heart to disciple, but how could they in 90 minutes that were filled with programming? Any disciple-making that I or my leaders were doing was extracurricular.

We had to get into the lives of our students.

Wednesday night groups were cancelled. As opposed to everyone coming together, we broke into community groups spread throughout our region and connected by gender and geography. Suddenly, our students’ “youth group” experience was 5-10 other teenagers meeting in a home with two adult leaders wrestling through the Scriptures, bearing burdens (Galatians 6:2), confessing sins and praying for each other (James 5:16), teaching and admonishing (Colossians 3:16), and rebuking one another (2 Timothy 3:16).

Suddenly, discipleship started happening—every week.

Change as the Holy Spirit Guides You

I’ve grown sick of attractional youth ministry. These ministries eat up huge chunks of the budget, their pastors are under immense pressure, and at times, their satisfaction in Jesus varies with the number of teenagers that show up on a given Wednesday night. I know because I’ve been there.

And the Holy Spirit guided us elsewhere. I can’t overstate this point. There was real conviction when I examined the ministry that God had entrusted to me. I was restless and burdened, knowing something had to change. God confirmed this in the heart of other key leaders, several parents, and my head pastor as well when I shared the burden with them.

And so we changed. But there is no perfect youth group playbook or set of procedures to follow if you want it all to “work.” The only perfect model is to walk daily in the Spirit, to be faithful to his leading in your life as a youth pastor, and to examine the Scriptures and let them be authoritative in how you decide to build your ministry.

Rehearse the Gospel Regularly
Ask your Fight Club partners or missional community to regularly restate the elements of the Gospel out loud together to see how well they’re getting it. You may have to lay it out for them a couple of times until they begin to remember it.

Here are four questions I ask to help people remember…

Who is Jesus?

• He is the perfect man who lived a perfect life fully submitted to God the Father in all things.
• He is the God-Man who is God in the flesh so that we could know what God is like and God would be near us.
• He is the Messiah sent by God to save us from our sin, death and destruction.

What Did Jesus Do?

• On the cross, he exchanged his perfect obedience (His righteousness) for our sin so that those who have faith in Jesus get Jesus’ righteousness credited to their account and their sin credited to His account.
• When he died on the cross, not only were my sins removed, but they were paid for (atoned for).
• He rose from the dead to show his power over sin and death (the wages of sin is death so Jesus’ resurrection shows the debt is paid in full).
• He ascended to the right hand of God the Father from where he sent his Spirit to bring faith and new life to us, empowering us to live lives of obedience.

What Must We Do?

• Repent — Have a change of mind about who God is around here.
• Believe — By faith, put our trust in Who Jesus Is and What He Has Done, believing it was accomplished for us.
• Be Baptized — Publicly express our faith that our lives are now united and identified with God in Christ.

What Happens to Us?

• We are forgiven and cleansed of our sins.
• We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
• We are included in the forever Family of God.
• We are commissioned to Make Disciples of Jesus.

From JT Caldwell at GospelCenteredDiscipleship.com

1. Strengths for Success
   • Make your fight clubs relationally driven not programmatic.
   • Reinforce the necessity of gospel-centered DNA as many ways as possible (sermons, articles, blogs, www.gospelcentereddiscipleship.com, tweets, trainings).
   • Groups that meet regularly experience much deeper gospel change (At least every other week is key)  .
   • Address fight club pitfalls regularly from pulpit/seminars. They can turn into gossip clubs, cheap grace clubs, legalism clubs, non-existent clubs. Show how and why the gospel leads to different, better groups.
   • Talk about fight clubs as an integral part of your church, i.e. Our church is about Sundays, City Groups, and Fight Clubs.
   • Do Fight Club stories from the front, where people share how the gospel has shaped them in community.
2. Challenges We Face
   • Default mode of the heart (legalism and license). Pastor, teach, pray, equip for gospel-centered living. Never weary of it. It is your life calling.
   • It gets messy when people are getting that deep and close. Be prepared for a spike in counseling support.
   • People tend to slip off from making Text-Theology-Life central in FC meetings, which is how you keep the gospel central. Otherwise, you end up relying on second-hand gospel sayings and old Bible verses, not fresh words from the Spirit and promises from God. When this happens, the gospel loses its center of gravity and discipleship its joy. When people start, not with how the Spirit is changing them through the Word, but how they are struggling in life, they inevitably begin to leave the gospel to end, displacing it from the center. Start with the Word, keep it central, and allow it to shape your time, not your life experience to shape your time.
   • Infrequency of meeting lead to loss of value, gospel-centrality, and godly discipleship.
3. Indefinite Duration of Groups
   • Indefinite because they are based on friendships not community. They are selective relationships of trust, gathered around Jesus that should endure.
   • If a group must break apart, honesty, confession, repentance, and encouragement should all inform that process, those relationships. Running away from people who are different is running towards convenience not Christ.

From Justin at GopspelCenteredDiscipleship.com

• They proclaimed an exclusive gospel. (1 Cor 1:23, Acts 4:12, John 14:6, Acts 20:21, John 3 & John 4/Acts 8, Acts 17 & Acts 10)
• They were intentional in sharing the gospel. (John 4)
• They were Spirit-led. (Acts 1:8, Acts 8:4-8, Acts 8:26, Acts 8:29, Acts 10:19-20)
• They understood the importance of culture. (Acts 17:22, Acts 17:28-29, Acts 26:1)
• They were flexible to the context.
• They began where people were in their spiritual journeys.
  Since Nicodemus believed that his genealogical account was sufficient to earn God’s favor, Jesus spoke of being “born again” (John 3:3).  Philip did not begin sharing with the Ethiopian a discourse about Adam and Eve, but rather started preaching from the passage about which the man had questions (Acts 8:35).
• They were sensitive to the fears, hurts, and concerns of others while speaking the truth in love.
  Though Jesus could have spent much time speaking about the evils of adultery and fornication to the Samaritan woman, He acknowledged her wickedness and continued on in the conversation (John 4:17-18).  Jesus could have scolded and severely rebuked Zacchaeus for having wicked business practices (Luke 19:7).  He decided, however, to stay at his house, bring salvation (Luke 19:9), and gain the reputation as a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Luke 7:34).  Jesus and the Apostolic Church never denied wickedness.  They always called people to repentance out of love (Mark 10:21), even when they spoke to the self-righteous.
• They were post-conversion oriented.
  Their practice was to make disciples, not converts.  A simple reading of the book of Acts and the Epistles reveals that the new believers were gathered together in new churches.  Paul followed up with the new believers through visits, letters, and messengers.  Church planting was (and still is) a major part of fulfilling the Great Commission.

From Cornerstone Church

1. Give God verbal declarations of praise (Rev. 4:8-9).
2. Live a life of noticeable piety (Matt. 5:16; James 1:27; 1 Peter 2:12).
3. Ask God for things in Jesus’ name (John 14:13).
4. Bear fruit and show yourself to be a disciple of Jesus (John 15:8).
5. Declare the truth about Jesus (John 16:14).
6. Love your life less than God (John 21:19; 1 Peter 1:7; 4:16).
7. Worship God as God (Rom. 1:21).
8. Live a life of sexual purity (1 Cor. 6:20).
9. Live a life of generosity (2 Cor. 9:13).
10. Rejoice in God’s glory displayed in creation (Psalm 19:1).
11. Do the works of faith (2 Thess. 1:12).
12. Use your gifts in God’s strength (1 Peter 4:11).
13. Make sure everyone knows you’re not God (Acts 12:23).
14. Live a life of gratitude (Psalm 50:23; 2 Cor. 4:15).
15. In matters of liberty, seek the good of others (1 Cor 10:31).
16. Extend grace to sinners (2 Cor. 8:19).
17. Be a part of a local church (2 Cor. 8:23; Eph. 3:20-21).
18. Tell God you are wrong and he is right (Josh. 7:19; Jer. 13:16; Rev. 16:9).
19. Obey God (Lev. 10:3; Mal. 2:2).
20. Go from a Christ-despiser to a Christ-worshiper (Gal. 1:24).

From Kevin DeYoung, pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, MI.

I have always loved to read. In 6th grade there was a contest at school for reading and you got “book bucks” for every hundred pages you read. The bucks could then get traded in for prizes. I think I read something like 10,000 pages during the time of the contest. I can still vividly remember dropping all my book bucks on a new basketball in the cafeteria at Glenwood Elementary School in Enid, OK. I still love to read to this day and most mornings begin with reading both my Bible and, typically, a theology or church planting book.

I hope that Malachi and potentially PB and/or J also love to read and I’m excited to share with them some great books from my childhood. The sad truth of 2010, however, is that many boys don’t read and if they do it’s mostly “gross-out” books. Instead of reading, the Internet and video games consume their time. An opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal today talks about this trend. There were some very interesting statements in the article, one of which I want to highlight. The author, Thomas Spence, writes

If you keep meeting a boy where he is, he doesn’t go very far.

At face value, it’s a very true statement. I also think it’s deeper than just boys and reading. I think it’s also applicable to men and leading. Men are called to lead their homes and their families. The continual effort of the church to make herself “accessible” to men often lowers the playing field to motorcross jumps during worship and references to ultimate fighting. Instead, we should call men to more. We should call them to love their wives sacrificially, to teach and train their children patiently, and to worship God fully. We should have high expectations of our men because they are each modeled after the True Man, Jesus Christ, who lived a perfectly human, yet sinless, life. Call men to big things, like being “fishers of men”, and they will respond and in the process God is glorified and His kingdom is furthered.

From Kevin DeYoung – Part 1 and Part 2. I’ve highlighted some great thoughts

1. Take advantage of opportunities to be taught by others. Get the most out of books, lectures, and special speakers in seminary, because soon you’ll be be doing all the putting out with few people to put it in to you.
2. Beware of closing your heart to people.
3. Be a pastor for the whole church, not just part of it (don’t be just one group’s champion).
4. Establish your priorities at the church early and clearly. I suggest: preach, pray, and people.
5. Work hard to foster deep spiritual fellowship with your closest leaders (e.g., staff, elders, deacons).
6. Don’t try to do too much too soon. Expect change to happen very slowly. Whenever possible, work for desired change by positive reinforcement, rather than by criticism.
7. While you shouldn’t attempt too much change right away, if you are forced to make a hard change or take a tough stand, do it decisively.
8. Expect people to leave your church when you come.  Be kind when they do.  Follow up, ask why they’re leaving, pray for them, then move on. Don’t let a few folks on the way out determine the plans for the rest of the church.
9. Be personal instead of academic. A conversation is usually better than a paper.
10. Beware of technology: wasting time on power points, frittering hours away on Facebook, getting bogged down in emails, doing all your pastoral communication by email instead of phone calls or personal visits.
11. If you are good at administration, don’t do too much.  If you are bad, get someone to help you immediately.
12. Plan for prayer days.
13. Learn to think in 5 year, 1 year, 6 months, and 1 month increments.  When you start out at a church you’ll feel three months behind everyone else; you need to be six months ahead.
14. Guard your day off and don’t let your work creep into your evenings at home.  You’ll be miserable and ineffective if your life becomes a rhythm-less mush.
15. Spend more time getting to know your people and less time trying to figure out the culture of your city.
16. Remember: you are not the only special person in the church. Don’t get offended if you’re not invited to a wedding or they ask the other guy to do the baptism. It’s silly to feel threatened when congregants are closer to another staff member or lay leader than they are to you.
17. Don’t minister just to keep people happy. Don’t be the pastor who does all the counseling, all the teaching, and all the praying because “that’s what people expect” and you “don’t want to let them down.” You’ll burn yourself out, stifle the gifts of others, and keep your church smaller than it needs to be.
18. Don’t compare. There are dozens of factors that make a church successful. Many of them are out of your control–most notably, God’s sovereignty.
19. Christian maturity entails more than theological acumen. Don’t assume the dudes reading Bavinck will be the most fruitful, faithful, and effective leaders. Could be, but that’s far from certain.
20. God opposes the proud but gives grace to humble. Pray this into your soul before and after every sermon.
21. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.  Get in touch with seminary profs.  Try to get a top notch speaker in once in awhile.  Make contact with churches your respect. Build a network and learn from others.
22. Keep reading.  Please keep reading.  Boldly ask for a book allowance. The rule is not absolute, but I question a man’s call to ministry if he does not like to read.
23. Man is not justified by preaching.  Some sermons are a home run. Other times you’re lucky to bunt your way on.
24. Don’t preach your issues from seminary. I can almost guarantee no one in your church doubts the Pauline authorship of Ephesians. It says “Paul” in their Bibles so they’re good to go.
25. Sometime in your first two years, preach about prayer, evangelism, giving, and the authority of Scripture.
26. Figure out what you believe about divorce and remarriage, and figure it out soon.
27. Build consensus whenever possible, but when you have to make an unpopular decision that will be unpopular don’t insist that everyone like it. Take your lumps and move on.
28. Be comfortable in your own shoes. Preach through your own personality. Learn from, but don’t try to clone, your heroes.
29. Accept the blessings God gives (and does not give) you. Some pastors have two talents. Some of five or ten. That’s just the way it is. Don’t be jealous of those with more or look down on those with fewer.
30. Develop warm relationship with other evangelical churches in your area. Pray for these churches. Direct people to their ministries when the situation fits. Be happy for their blessings. I realized early on I didn’t really want revival unless I was fine with it starting at the church down the street.
31. Pray that the Lord won’t give you success until you don’t want it anymore.
32. Don’t assume the worst about people, even if you’re suspicions are right. Better to be a little naive than a lot cynical.
33. Make time to make friends. In the long run neither you nor your church will regret the hours invested in personal relationships with other pastors, old friends from seminary, and kindred spirits in the congregation.
34. Have low expectations for people this year and high expectations for people in five years.
35. Figure out the membership class and member care. Set the bar high for both.
36. Train and evaluate potential leaders. You can endure a lot of hardship if you feel energized and supported by your closest leaders. Ministry will be a nightmare if your leadership team lacks unity and maturity.
37. Focus on the basics.  Don’t get distracted with the church website or the newsletter layout.  The pastor who works hard at his sermons, genuinely likes people, and really loves the Lord will be used by God.
38. Don’t expect the search committee to have any clue what they’re doing.
39. Love your wife. Spend time with your kids. Be very afraid if you no longer look forward to going home at the end of the day.
40. Be generous in giving credit to others and stingy in passing around the blame.
41. Learn to ignore some comments, some controversies, and, yes, some people.
42. Never use the pulpit to settle old scores. Do use it to honor faithful saints and co-laborers.
43. Tell your congregation you love them and are glad to be their pastor.
44. What your people need most from you is your own personal holiness. People want a pastor who has been with God.
45. Keep your passions in proportion.  Not everything matters as much as everything else. Keep the gospel front and center.

Here’s the method that David Murray follows to “decrease reliance on paper in the pulpit”

1. Saturation

You must be saturated in your material. This is one of the benefits of preparing nearer the time of sermon delivery. The longer the time period between preparation and preaching, the more you will have to rely on your notes. I also find that praying over my sermon, applying each point to myself really helps to embed the sermon in the heart as well as in the head.

2. Scriptural

If your text is just a pretext for some topical sermon with little connection to your text, then you will be much more reliant on notes. But if your sermon points and material flow naturally out of Scripture, then you immediately have a huge help to reducing your reliance on notes. If you blank, as we all do, then you should be able to just look at your text for prompts to get you back on track.

3. Structure

You must have a clear structure for your sermon material. It is much easier to remember five bullet points than a five line paragraph. Use the outlining/indenting feature of your Word processor and use the same lettering/spacing standard each time to train your mind to step through the process.

4. Summarize

Try to summarize your points and sub-points, cutting the words down more and more until your main points and sub-points are no more than 3-5 words, and your explanatory sentences are no more than one line long. I would recommend that you end up with no more than one page of a summary. I’ve attached a sample below from one of my sermons. I may take this into the pulpit in my pocket or inside my Bible as a “fallback” if I blank. But if I’ve properly prepared by following the other steps outlined here, then I usually don’t need to refer to it.

5. Stress

Once you have a one page summary, stress or highlight both your structure and the main word in each point and sentence. Use a highlight marker to color the main points and sub-points. This will help “photograph” the structure into your mind.

Then, using a dark pen, underline the key word in each point, sub-point and line. This word should be one which “triggers” memory of the whole point/line. Write the first letter of each trigger word in the left hand margin. You will then have a series of letters running up and down the left side of your page. Try to memorize one main-point letter and the sub-point letters. Then see if you can recall the word and phrase or sentence related to each letter. The letter should trigger a word which triggers the point (see sample below).

6. Study

This method does not advocate memorizing the sermon word for word. Instead you are remembering the key points, sub-points and “trigger” words (the skeleton). But you will need to stock your mind with a wide vocabulary so that the “trigger” word will pull in suitable other words to speak. If you don’t you will tend to start sounding “samey.” You should read widely and constantly to build up a ready vocabulary. Read outside theological books and magazines. Read a reputable newspaper or contemporary biographies. This will keep your vocabulary fresh, contemporary, and less cliched.

7. Start

The hardest step here is simply to start. It is like learning to swim for the first time without a flotation device, or learning to ride a bike without stabilizers. It is a large psychological barrier. So, let me give you some helps to starting.

First, start small. Instead of launching out with a full sermon in your head, choose a small section which you are committed to preaching without notes and follow the procedure outlined above. Next time, do a larger section or two sections, and so on. Your mind will get into a groove and you will become gradually more confident in the method.

Second, have a back-up plan. Even though you are intending to preach a section or two extemporaneously, take your paper with you anyway so that if you do “blank,” you have your paper to fall back on. The great temptation here though is that your mind will take the easiest path and so will you. If you know there is going to be no lifebelt, you will prepare much better for the jump!

Third, don’t try to memorize Scripture references or quotations. Have these written down on a small paper so that you can read from them. That will save you a lot of mental work. Also, quotations tend to carry more authority if read rather than repeated from memory.