Can you be too big or too small for student ministry?
That is a great question. I have a ton of thoughts on this but, before I write about them, I wanted to hear what you had to say.
Check out THIS article in Outreach Magazine. Being a middle school guy I found Andy’s answer to the second question interesting.
Read it and then let me know your thoughts on these questions.
1. Andy alludes to the idea that in order for students to want to come…students have to be there. What’s too big? What’s too small?
2. Can you have an effective ministry if middle school kids and high school kids are in the room at the same time? If so, how do you adjust for the obvious differences?
3. How big does a church have to be to have a seperate its HS and MS ministries?
1. I don’t think there is a correct answer as to what the proper size of a ministry is. There are both positives and negatives to big and small groups with students. A large group might allow those new students to attend without such fan fare as to who they are and where they came from by their peers in order to allow them to acclimate to the group and structure around them. While this can allow them to get lost in the shuffle it can also allow other students to seek this new person out and bring them into the group. With a smaller group everyone knows a new person is there and can make them feel welcome. At times this can overwhelm the new student but it can also make them feel part of the group quicker.
2. I think you can have an effective combined ministry with students. While dealing with the challenges of the different ages and things they are dealing with you also have the ability of the older students reaching out to the younger ones and sharing experiences about things they have dealt with and how to navigate thru different problems. A kinda “pulling up” can occur where the older reach down to the younger and pull them up into a higher level of understanding.
3. This one depends a lot to me on staffing/volunteers. I don’t feel you can randomly pick a number and say at this point you must divide. You will need to have adequate leaders in order to facilitate separation. You need to know what age group the leaders feel the “most” called to as you wouldn’t want to have 15 HS leaders and 2 MS leaders because most leaders want to be with the older students. This will effect the successfulness of the ministries.
That’s all for now I guess. Great questions to get me thinking though!
J
1. Good point…for sure both have their ups and downs.
2. True…but they don’t have to be part of one ministry for that to happen. They can have two ministries focused on specific needs (as specific as that range can get) and then serve the younger kids in the other ministry.
3. Lots to consider for sure…but I think a church that wants to do it separately is big enough….no matter how big they are.
Thoughts?