How to Start a Youth Group: 4 Foundations for Lasting Discipleship

Which social media platforms should we use? What is a catchy name? Where do we stand on audio/visual equipment? Where’s a good location to meet? Who can we get to help out? How many people do we hope will show up?

These are very good questions that my friends who run youth basketball clubs ask. Unfortunately, these same questions tend to be ones that my friends who start youth ministries begin with too.

It might sound blunt and obvious, but it must be stated explicitly: There must be differences between starting a secular and a sacred group.

Starting a youth ministry is less like launching an event and more like laying a foundation. Clarity early on can prevent confusion later. To start a youth ministry, you must:

• begin with Jesus Christ,
• understand youth and discern your context,
• clarify your specific ministerial context, and
• start in a strategic way.

Understanding youth ministry

Before we do that, we must answer two basic questions:

What is youth ministry?

Youth ministry has three components.

First, it’s Christian. The word “ministry” can be used broadly. It is derived from Latin ministrare, which means “to serve” or “attend.” In certain parts of the world, you can have a Ministry of Finance or a Prime Minister. But, and as we will see below, the type of youth work we have in mind for youth ministry is Christian youth ministry, that is, ministry through and for Jesus Christ (Col 1:16).

Second, it focuses on young people. This shouldn’t be rushed over too quickly, as we will see below.

Third, it’s the church’s work carried out in the power of the Holy Spirit. Youth ministry, like all ministry, is a work of the church—a visible, communal manifestation of the Holy Spirit, formed and animated by the Spirit’s presence and power (Acts 2:1–4, 42–47).

Put together, youth ministry is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit through the church which is attentive to the distinctives of young people made through and for Jesus Christ. Pretty quickly, this doesn’t sound like a basketball league.

Why start a youth ministry?

You don’t need to start a youth ministry. But it might be a good idea.

The Lord has always been faithful to people of all ages. There is no need to look back at the book of Acts or a medieval church in search for a precedent for a Wednesday-night teenage pizza party and Bible study. Meanwhile, there is no need to blindly scrutinize what youth groups do today just because these outward ministry practices are relatively recent and continue to change.

Why, then, start a youth ministry? After considering the advice below, prayerful and thoughtful Christians should consider starting a youth ministry today because society and culture have segmented our families and communities—and this is not going to change overnight.¹ No church or family must embrace youth ministry—the most natural place for youth ministry is the Sunday worship service and the home—yet youth ministry serves a purpose in our era. Youth ministry as we know it could, and perhaps should, fade away. But for now, it fills a need in our disordered environment.

Starting a youth ministry

Let’s consider four essential steps to starting a youth ministry.

1. Begin with Christ, not activities

Before you build a calendar, build a theology. And this theology, like all theology, must be centered on Jesus Christ.

The cultural forces pulling youth ministry away from its proper center, Jesus Christ, are persistent and astonishingly strong. Many such cultural forces begin with younger people. Meanwhile, younger people are often the least able to resist these forces and, to exacerbate this dynamic, many of the leaders within youth ministry are young themselves.

All ministries must be centered in Christ. Given these forces, it may be necessary to remind youth ministry of this more than any other ministry. Youth ministry must constantly ask: How does each component of our youth ministry relate to the fact that all things are from and for Jesus Christ (Col 1:16)? If you don’t ask this question frequently, your youth ministry will quietly drift away from being Christ-centered.

Youth ministry must constantly ask: How does each component of our youth ministry relate to the fact that all things are from and for Jesus Christ?

One thing that is incredibly freeing about this is that two youth ministries may look completely different externally while sharing the same mission. What matters is if the components are prayerfully and wisely developed to point to Jesus Christ.

2. Understand youth before trying to reach them

Once we understand this purpose of ministry, we need to understand the people being ministered to.

Young people in the age range of youth ministry are experiencing some of the most significant changes they will undergo in their entire lives. Wise youth ministry will educate and adjust to these realities.

When the Word became flesh, the Son took on humanity. An implication of this truth is often overlooked by youth ministry: Our Lord was just as much a teenager as any teenager we’ve ever met. Luke helps us understand that, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). This means that Jesus, like all humans, grew in at least four ways: biologically, intellectually, relationally, and spiritually. Youth ministries must be attuned to all four aspects of our humanity.

Biological

Teenagers naturally undergo physical development, energy shifts, and changes in their need for sleep amid new levels of stress and excitement in school, family, friends, and activities. Youth ministries that treat students like ten-year-olds or thirty-year-olds aren’t comprehending who is actually in front of them.

Intellectual

Naturally connected to the biological development teenagers experience is the neurological and intellectual. Questions become deeper. Students challenge assumptions. Meanwhile, what to do with these newfound curiosities and choices is fogged by the delayed “control” capacity as the prefrontal cortex lags behind other emerging capacities. This makes for a wild ride, like a race car with a very loose steering wheel.

Relational

Relationships and friendships take on new meanings. Belonging and identity become more central. Some teenagers find a deeper connection with the church and the ministries and people within them, while others do the opposite. This can be an extremely challenging time for Christian families who want their child to have friends in the church—but this simply cannot be forced, whether a strong youth group exists or not.

Spiritual

During this time, faith becomes increasingly personal. In earlier years, the norms of the family likely dictated the spiritual life of the young person. During the teenage years, a natural progression and cycle of moral and spiritual development occurs.

Each of these four realities about young people are not problems to be solved. They are realities to be embraced. Remember that Jesus was fully human and, as such, grew in each of these four ways. Teenage Jesus needed sleep, asked tough questions, added new friends, and grew in favor with God. Create a youth ministry where Jesus would have fit in.

3. Clarify your ministerial context

I’m a fast walker. So every time I’m at the airport, I have a decision to make when I encounter a long hallway that has a moving walkway (in the UK, they call it a travelator or a people mover, which is more fun to say). Do I get on it—accepting some delays might occur due to people obstructing my path—or just walk alongside, since I’m a fast walker? I’ve come to realize that the moving walkway is better.

When you sit down to form a youth ministry, you too have a choice. You and your team are likely gifted and capable, so you set off doing what you know best. What you may be missing is that alongside you is an externally-powered people-mover already in motion. But we are blind to see it because we have not stopped to pray and listen to the Holy Spirit and the people God has surrounded us with.

Prayer

An extended time of prayer and listening may seem to slow things down. The goal is not merely to stop and ask God to bless our plans, but to ask what God may already be doing among the young people in our church and community.

To form a youth ministry, pray.

Plan

You also ought to stop and survey what plan your church already has in place. Youth ministry should grow out of the church rather than beside it. Get answers to the following questions:

• What values already shape the church?
• What expectations and vision already exist?
• How does leadership define success?

Many youth ministry conflicts are not a result of theological disagreements but of misalignments resulting from unspoken expectations. Healthy youth ministries reflect the broader life of the church. They should not function as isolated subcultures.

To form a youth ministry, examine the church’s existing plan.

Youth ministry should grow out of the church rather than beside it. Healthy youth ministries reflect the broader life of the church. They should not function as isolated subcultures.

Praxis

Every youth ministry already has assumptions, whether acknowledged or not. This typically comes when youth ministry leaders recall with nostalgia their favorite ministry memories or when they have an impulse to adapt or mimic the latest youth ministry paradigm. These models might include attractional aspects (entertainment, production value, crowd-building), discipleship assumptions (small groups, mentorship, theological formation), or family ministry dynamics (strong parental integration or minimal parental involvement).

None of these are automatically right or wrong. But wise leaders identify ministry assumptions before unconsciously reproducing them. This is the praxis, the actual shape and ministry logic that governs how a youth ministry operates.

To form a youth ministry, define its praxis.

4. Start strategically

As we step onto the travelator to pray, evaluate plans, and consider the praxis, the final question becomes practical: Where do you actually begin?

Begin small by building relationships

Many people imagine that youth ministry begins with a large launch event, a polished room, and a crowded gathering. However, most lasting ministries begin much smaller than that, and youth ministries are no exception. The median in-person church attendance in America is seventy people. This might include zero to ten teenagers, maybe five. A difficult motto to adapt in youth ministry is “Comparison is the thief of joy.”

One of the benefits of this scale is that anyone starting a youth group can begin to pray for young people consistently by name. Youth ministries rarely begin with crowds, but they should always begin with focused name-based prayer. And prayerful engagement leads to relational and pastoral engagement. The main purpose is not “to get you to our meeting.” The main purpose of youth ministry is to minister to youth.

Consider a church that desires to start a youth ministry. It dedicates its first six months not to launching a meeting, but to praying for teenagers by name and getting to know them. Rather than asking students to come to them, they go to the students: attending games, performances, and school events, sharing meals, offering encouragement, and listening well.

Programs may attract students temporarily, but relationships often determine whether they stay connected.

Establish natural rhythms

While starting small and building relationships, you will see what type of form your youth ministry should take. It might look quite different from the one down the street.

This is where the timeless practices of the church—Scripture, prayer, meals, and worship—can be woven into the specific circumstances of your people and community, resulting in ministry rhythms synchronized with their reality, a reality you noticed and acquired prayerfully and personally.

Conclusion

There are more steps you can take, including recruiting and training youth ministry leaders as well as planning events. These are important, but what is more important is laying the proper foundation.

Share your thoughts?

What principles or practices would you add? Join us in the Word by Word group to share your thoughts.

Resources for further help

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• Does Your Church Have a Discipleship Culture? How to Cultivate It
• How the Bible Defines Discipleship: 12 Core Elements

1. The Industrial Revolution reshaped the household, the Sexual Revolution altered the relationship between sex, marriage, and childbearing, and later cultural revolutions placed greater emphasis on individual choice and personal fulfillment. For further explanation and the best history of how and why modern youth ministry arose, see: Mark H. Senter III, When God Shows Up: A History of Protestant Youth Ministry in America (Baker Academic, 2010).