Cool Stuff Here

While on vacation, I saw this sign, an advertisement attempting to lure passerby's into a shop because of it's “cool stuff”. Each time I passed this shop, I was struck by how much this shop's advertisement mirrors the way we so often do youth ministry.

How often do we fall prey to believing that what attracts middle school and high school students is “cool stuff”?

I know I have. Like the store attempting to attract passerby's, I, too, have dangled my ministry's “cool stuff” in front of my students, using fun events to attract kids to my church's youth ministry.

The problem is, more often than not, this approach to ministry simply doesn't work.

Sure, sometimes, our cool, fun stuff attracts kids. Yet, rarely does it make them stick.

If “cool” is what students are looking for, the church loses. Every time. We simply cannot compete (monetarily or otherwise) with the “cool” factor of other organizations, nor, I believe, should we try to do so.

Now don't get me wrong. Fun is not bad. In fact, I hope and pray that my church's youth ministry is fun. I value laughter. I value relaxation. I even value fun. I believe each of these things glorifies God.

I simply don't believe we need to use these things as bait to lure anyone into our ministries. After all, “cool stuff” is not what actually attracts students to our ministries, nor is it what gets them to stick.

Jesus does.

Genuine, caring and welcoming communities do.

Relationships do.

Deep conversations do.

These are things that in today's fast-paced world, many students lack. As a result, they crave and long for them, something that should come as no surprise to us. As people created in the image of God, we were, after all, made for these things.

That's why, as I begin planning my ministry's fall calendar, I'm spending less time trying to make our ministry look cool, and more time doing all I can to facilitate building community, relationships, and good conversations, believing that through these things, students will genuinely encounter Jesus.