Dealing with Apathy in Youth Ministry

Now that most youth ministries have kicked-off for the fall and the  regular routine of youth meetings, bible studies, Sunday School, and other activities are in full swing, how do you deal with those students that don’t seem to care?

Apathetic students can come in all shapes and sizes, however, it has been my experience that a large percentage of these students are those that we have deemed, “church kids”. You know what I’m talkin about. The Elder’s son or daughter that has grown up in the church, received Christ at the age of 3, and now is bored with Church because all they here is about is asking Christ to come into their lives for the past 10 years.

What can we do? Here are some ways to help, “redeem the church kid”.

Prayer - Spend some time yourself and with your staff praying about this situation. This would be a great time to talk about your vision and focus.

Truth - Begin focusing your meetings on truth to restore conviction. Provide opportunities for accoutability to take place. Begin exposing areas that God calls us to be faithful in.

Sin - Teach about repentance through examples, tradgedies, Preaching and Worship. Restore a sense that SIN is a big deal to God (plenty of Biblical examples - one that comes to mind is Achan that stole gold and silver after Joshua and the people took Jericho - Achan was stoned-rocks that is).

DeSaturize - It’s time now to focus on the following things: Solitude, Wilderness, Spiritual disciplines, fasting, and reprioritizing life. We live in a culture that promotes busyness, but I’ve seen that busyness=dizziness. Time to cut off some things and figure out what we want to let into our lives.

A pratical way to begin this in your youth ministry is by reading my article on Concert of Prayer.

Any other ideas to add?