Effective Youth Ministry Strategies: Fun
In Springtide’s site visits for our What’s Working project, leaders shared their wisdom and insights from years of experience in youth ministry. Five themes—fun, purpose, inclusivity, integrity, and adaptability—shaped our inquiries during these visits. While these are universal concepts, each manifested differently in both theory and practice, providing a rich landscape of best practices in youth ministry.
While youth ministry’s main aim is to help young people grow spiritually, all the leaders we interviewed agree on this one tenet: youth ministry should be fun. Yet, leaders also expressed anxiety when it comes to fun, especially the pressures of needing to create it and competing with programs that may have more of it. Perhaps even more daunting is the fact that what is fun isn’t always obvious. What may look intense in the moment could later be deemed enjoyable. This reality makes it harder to know what exactly is fun and how to infuse it into future offerings.
Ideally, youth ministry programs carefully combine the gravity of theological education and faith development with the lightheartedness and fun that come with being young. The leaders we interviewed say it takes time, and perhaps some trial and error, to find that balance, but the inclusion of fun is a worthy pursuit.
Even difficult things can be fun in the right environment. In her work at First Presbyterian Church of Ft. Lauderdale, Chandler Gelb believes that sometimes what makes a space fun is the ability to have deep conversations and acknowledge difficult experiences in a space that at its core has light and joy.
“I feel like fun has turned into a dirty word in ministry, and I don’t know why,” Chandler says. “I think that doing life together should be fun. I think we can have very serious, deep, meaningful conversations that don’t have to be overly heavy, that can have a lighter nature in it … life is really hard sometimes, and I think we discount what teenagers go through and just because we’re looking at their lives going, ‘Gosh, I had it harder’ or ‘I have it harder now as an adult’ doesn’t mean that what they’re experiencing isn’t difficult. We all need some good old-fashioned fun. And I think that if you’re doing ministry or life that isn’t fun, you might want to reevaluate what it is that you’re doing, because it should be enjoyable.”
Photos from Springtide’s site visit of SD United.
In creating the approach for SD United, Melissa Tucker and Marshela Salgado-Solorio knew they wanted three elements: inclusivity; a focus on the messages of justice, love and compassion that Jesus’ life and teaching reflect; and fun.
“We [both] remember youth group being so fun and just being a space where you were not with your parents, but you were still with cool adults,” Melissa says. “It was just kind of a place to be zany, and you didn’t have to feel like you had to be cool, like maybe you did at school. And so, we were like, if it’s not fun and it doesn’t feel fun, we’re not going to continue. We have to figure out how to nail that. And so it’s still to this day, just the weaving of those three, inclusivity, justice in the way of Jesus, and fun. And that really does kind of help us navigate what we choose to incorporate.”
On its face, gathering to read the Bible at 6:30 a.m. may not meet a teenager’s definition of fun. Yet, Pastor Eric Barnes believes infusing a sense of playfulness into their Tuesday Morning Bible Reading sessions adds an important levity that’s necessary for exploring scripture at that age. He thinks that lightheartedness is one of the key reasons young people return week after week.
“I also have the sense of faith in this lifelong journey,” Eric says. “[Later in life, I want these teens to be able to say] my childhood connection to church was one where I was involved. I was given ownership, people knew my name and I was able to play. I just think some of the trappings as a teenager [are] trying to explore what faith means. If it’s been all rigid and serious in my estimation, it’s so much easier to take a different turn versus if I was able to be playful with it.”
Photos from Springtide’s site visit of Tuesday Morning Bible Reading.
For young people in these ministries, it’s the level of connection to others that initiates fun. Liv, who drives almost an hour just to attend SD United, says the group is definitely fun.
“It’s always a good time when I come here, there’s so much to talk about because we don’t know each other outside of here, so we really share a lot in this one hour that we get every other Thursday. And it really feels like being able to open up to people and they’ll still be there for you the next time that you come back, they have more [gossip] and I have more stuff to talk about and things like that. When we do kids camp, it’s always a good time and we’re all there for one common goal—to have fun, but also to worship God and to find ourselves.”
Maya, who serves on the leadership team at The Place, says fun comes from the connection with people from her childhood.
“Because we were called youth leaders when we were at our old church growing up, being able to connect in that same way as adults [at The Place] is what makes it fun,” Maya says. “I think because we went to different high schools, we went to different colleges, we all went our separate ways and then we kind of all came back and just reconnected in that same way that we felt in high school and in middle school. I think that’s what’s the most fun out of it is just being able to connect with them again.”
Emily says coming into community with others who have similar interests and values creates fun.
“We’re all kind of church nerds, but also we love history and movies and art,” Emily says. “And so being here means that there’s always someone who’s willing to come with me to the art museum or someone who wants to go out and see a movie or to a street fair and look at local artisan stuff. So yeah, I feel like I’m never alone, and that’s very joyful. But it can also be challenging. But I find that Servant Year is really fun if you’re the kind of person that finds making church happen fun.”
