Quality v. Quantity
I have admitted to a couple of people lately that one of my largest fears in my job is that the church is growing and as it does, the youth group will too. And I don't really know what to do with large groups. I am a small group person. Those moments when I just get to hang out with youth remind me why I do this job. And the bigger the youth ministry gets, the less connected I am able to be because, let's face it, I am only one person. And my job cannot become my entire life.
I was reading You Lost Me, which I have mentioned before, again this morning. The chapter was about shallow faith, and Kinnaman talked about several causes of shallow faith that I think are really important, like that we attempt to mass produce disciples, we lack rituals that really matter, our expectations are too low, and we value quantity over quality. I think there is truth in all of these, but I struggle with how to change them. One thing that rings true to me first off is that shallowness of faith is not a youth ministry problem, it's a church problem as a whole. We all need to find ways to go deeper in our faith.
Today I'd like to focus on this idea of quality v. quantity. I already mentioned my fears as the youth group becomes bigger. How do I allow room for the youth group to grow, while also maintaining space for the youth themselves to grow? Because of those 2 things, I will freely admit the youth themselves growing is considerably more important to me. I don't want a large shallow youth group. So how do I set the foundation to prepare for the large groups of kids who will be entering the youth group in the next few years?
These are the questions that are on my mind this morning. And now it is time to go to work and attempt to actually work on some of these things rather than just thinking about them.
I was reading You Lost Me, which I have mentioned before, again this morning. The chapter was about shallow faith, and Kinnaman talked about several causes of shallow faith that I think are really important, like that we attempt to mass produce disciples, we lack rituals that really matter, our expectations are too low, and we value quantity over quality. I think there is truth in all of these, but I struggle with how to change them. One thing that rings true to me first off is that shallowness of faith is not a youth ministry problem, it's a church problem as a whole. We all need to find ways to go deeper in our faith.
Today I'd like to focus on this idea of quality v. quantity. I already mentioned my fears as the youth group becomes bigger. How do I allow room for the youth group to grow, while also maintaining space for the youth themselves to grow? Because of those 2 things, I will freely admit the youth themselves growing is considerably more important to me. I don't want a large shallow youth group. So how do I set the foundation to prepare for the large groups of kids who will be entering the youth group in the next few years?
These are the questions that are on my mind this morning. And now it is time to go to work and attempt to actually work on some of these things rather than just thinking about them.
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