12 Ways to keep your Teens Involved in Ministry/Church
Getting your teens involved in ministry is one of the best gifts you can give your teens and your church.
Teenagers are a tricky bunch, they say.
They are on the verge of adulthood, but they are still young.
It can become difficult to stay involved and consistent when practicing their faith because of the many obstacles that are thrown their way.
They're not children anymore but can still feel lost and alone.
It's difficult to find ways to get them engaged; frankly, many churches and ministries don't do enough to help teens be a part of the church and youth ministry.
Fortunately, turning this around is very easy, and you don’t need a lot of resources or money to get started.
Getting teens involved in ministry step-by-step
Before we get into how you can keep your teens involved in ministry, let’s first take care of some housekeeping issues.
Many churches operate under a strict framework, and everything the church does has to fall within that framework; otherwise, it’s going nowhere.
However, for this to work, the church must be more flexible. So, instead of telling the teens what to do and what type of ministry they need to be involved in, you must ask them what they want to do.
Allow the teens to develop their ministry ideas and then help or guide them to implement them.
The church should be a place where people can grow their passions and talents; our duty is to help cultivate those ideas.
How can your church engage with teens?
To get started, here are some misconceptions many adults have about the teens in the church.
- Many times, teens don't want to participate in church activities.
- Teens don’t want to be in church; they want to go out and do anything but church!
- It is tough to get them to shut off their phones and stop talking to their friends while the church is in progress.
If you are a parent looking for ways to get your teens involved in the church, then this article is for you. And if you find this information helpful, send it to your teens to read it for themselves.
If you are a teen or young adult looking for ways to do more for and at your church, please read. I hope you find some great ideas of what you can do to get involved.
This list is not extensive; we did not cover everything possible because we intend to get you to think outside the box.
How to get Teens involved in ministry
As a teenager, it may be difficult to stay on track when it comes to church.
With so many obstacles that are thrown your way, along with personal struggles, it can become difficult to stay involved and consistent when practicing your faith.
On top of schoolwork, your social life, and possibly the responsibility of a job, it can feel as though you stray away from church without even meaning to.
An easy way to stay strong in your faith is to become more involved within your church community in a way that can fuel your social life.
Here are just a few super easy ways to become involved in the ministry within your community that will feel more like fun than a chore.
1. Get involved in Teaching
The best way to learn something is to be able to teach it!
One way to get teens involved in ministry is to teach a class or young ones. I know that many churches have a planned lesson study for the kids, but that shouldn’t stop you.
When I was a teen, I used to love drawing. I would draw every chance, and many kids loved seeing me draw. One day I decided to bring a few extra pencils and paper to church, and in no time, I had over ten kids learning how to draw with me.
Do you have something you want to teach the kids? If so, talk to the leaders at the church and ask about planning a lesson to teach.
This allows you to dive deep into something you already know or wish to know more about. You can also come up with fun activities to pair with your lesson.
Maybe giving a lesson to peers strikes your interest, or perhaps sharing the gospel with younger children seems more exciting. Either way, it’ll get you involved and motivated in your church’s ministry.
It also gives a sense of responsibility and leadership, which are terrific life skills. It sounds like a win-win!
2. Tutoring or study groups
Everyone struggles at some point in their lives, whether it be in school or faith.
A good way to become involved in the church community is to start a tutoring program.
One of the most common topics all parents can agree on is how hard their child’s homework is. This is not to say that parents don’t know, but that most parents never learned what you guys are learning now.
To make matters worse, most parents have never seen the inside of a classroom in years, and they must learn the homework to help their child.
If you’ve ever heard of the phrase, “Tell me who you walk with, and I’ll tell you who you are,” you know that who you surround yourself with greatly changes you.
Offering your knowledge and time to serve others in your church family is a wonderful way to integrate further into the ministry.
It’s important to have friends who are also strong in their faith, and if you can grow those friendships while getting some school work or Bible study done, even better!
As the program starts to grow, open it up to the community. It’s a wonderful and helpful way to spread the gospel and make people feel welcome.
3. Organize community events
You may think that you don't influence your community much, but that's far from the truth.
As a teenager, you are quite literally the future, and your influence now can create a domino effect to greatness!
You can get your peers and other families from the community involved in your church in so many ways.
Use your favorite hobby, and get others involved! Plan a community movie night at your church or an art class, bake sale, sport event, water day, etc. It’s guaranteed fun for everyone, and it creates a strong bond within the community as well.
If you're a teen today, the chances are that you have Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, or all of the above.
Why not use your social media platform to promote and provide information about your church? Even creating and running a separate page for your church could help church leaders and is a great way to spread the word!
4. Social Media
If you're a teen today, the chances are that you have Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Tiktok, or all of the above.
On top of that, doing photo shoots at the church or at church events, services, and performances will double as awesome posts and awesome memories.
This is a great way to get your friends involved and spread the love while spicing up your photography skills. As a bonus, volunteering looks great on your resume.
On top of that, doing photo shoots at the church or at church events, services, and performances will double as awesome posts and awesome memories.
This is a great way to get your friends involved and spread the love while spicing up your photography skills.
As a bonus, volunteering looks awesome on college applications!
If you want to learn more about how to use technology to help your church or ministry, here is an article, “digital evangelism methods.”
5. Influence younger kids
Whether you'd like to believe it or not, you greatly influence the younger kids around you!
Make sure you guide them in the right direction toward the Lord. As a young adult in your community, you must try to bond and connect with younger children. This reinforces the idea that they always have someone there to help.
Offer your time babysitting, reading stories, or offer to assist during children's school in your church. There's no doubt it will be greatly appreciated.
If your church is not meeting regularly and still observing the COVID-19 guidelines, you can organize a virtual children's storytime every evening.
6. Pen Pals
Writing a letter is such a simple and real way to reach out to others. Many people struggle day-to-day and need someone to reach out.
Pen pals were a big deal when I was growing up but not so much anymore. However, you can still have local pen pals that you write to, even within your church.
You can also reach out and write to someone in your community you feel the Lord is guiding you towards or even become pen pals with people in another church or community!
Being a pen pal with the younger kids in your church is always fun, too. It helps them learn, and they’ll feel they have a mentor to reach out to if they need it.
Writing letters is an enjoyable experience that everyone in your church can participate in, and it builds strong bonds within the church and the community surrounding it.
7. Fundraising
Fundraisers come in all shapes and sizes. In addition to being a good way to grow a sense of community, they can also be helpful financially.
Find something that your church needs or could need to be updated. Once you have a vision in mind, make a plan of action and set a goal.
With the help of social media and your church community, spread the word about the fundraiser and your mission.
The fundraiser itself could be anything. This includes a community garage sale, a bake sale, a car wash, an old book drive to trade them in for cash, etc. Whatever you’re most passionate about, you can do it!
8. Church Visitor Tour Guide
One of the ways that visitors can feel welcomed is by giving them a guided tour of your church facilities.
When you do so, you tell them you want them to be a part of your church family.
Even though this task is carried out by the deacons and deaconesses of the church, there are times when you have teen visitors.
Being a tour guide will help you build relationships with your church visitors.
For more information, read the Ultimate church visitor onboarding process for 2021
9. Birthday card writers
One simple way to nurture your church members is by doing something as simple as recognizing church members' birthdays.
Although sending birthday cards or greetings can be good, it can also do more damage than good if not done correctly.
It can be bad if it’s not well coordinated, especially if you only acknowledge some members and not others.
This problem occurs when the church does not update its birthday list and is most common in small or older churches.
As young people with tech knowledge, you can take up this task to update your church birthday list and ensure that every birthday is recognized and celebrated.
10. Write thank you letters to church visitors.
A few years ago, my family decided to break from the regular church routines, and so we visited the local church for the first time.
We had no intentions of frequenting that church because we already had a church that our kids loved. However, that changed when we received a personalized hand-written letter from the church.
Nowadays, where everything is electronic, it is so refreshing to receive a handwritten note. It means someone took the time to write a perfect letter that was both warm and personalized.
To cut a long story short, we ended up visiting the church again and again.
You see, writing personalized hand-written notes to your visitors is a great way to make them feel welcome.
Even though this is a job for the church leadership team, young people like you can also take this up.
To make the thank-you letters even more personal, you may include a picture or two that you took with the visitor.
11. Get teens involved in ministry through community exercise activities
It is a fact that the number of older people in the world is growing, especially in the United States.
While several seniors enjoy staying active, many others suffer from some form of disability that affects their mobility.
These disabilities include falls, joint pains, and many other factors. If keeping fit is your thing, you should consider organizing community physical activities for the elderly.
To make use of your zeal and passion, you can organize physical activities for the elderly who are confined in their homes for a long time.
Offering physical activities will create a better bonding between you and the church elders. This will lead to more love and affection towards each other.
12. Run errands for people who are not able to
Many people cannot grocery shop, get their hair done, or take out their dog for a walk because they need help getting around.
Running errands may sound like a strange service to provide, but the reality is that it can be very rewarding.
Starting this type of service is very simple. All you have to do is introduce the initiative to your church leaders, and they’ll help you identify people who need your services.
As you can see, it’s very easy to get teens involved in ministry, and the best part is that there’s no shortage of ideas.
Conclusion
While some teens might not understand why they need to be involved in church or ministry, we hope these ideas will help those questioning what they can do to be involved.
From volunteering to showing up for a service, there are many ways that teens can be involved in ministry.
We hope this blog post helps those seeking to get involved with the church understand what they can do.
Thank you for reading; we are always excited when one of our posts can provide useful information on a topic like this!
What other ways can you think of to help your church community and keep yourself involved along the way?
Please read How to Get the youth involved in Ministry for a step-by-step guide.
Some Helpful resources.
- Easy to Read Bible Summary for Teens & Adults
- Teen Life Application Study Bible
- 5 Minute Study Bible for Teen Girls
— The Action Bible
Nelson Musonda
Hi my name is Nelson Musonda, founder of delmethod.com, husband, father of 4, media designer, digital evangelism consultant, and blogger. You can follow me on twitter , instagram or facebook.
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