Environments Matter in Student Ministry
A. INTRO.
1. Environments matter because it is the message before the message!
2. Would you rather go to a restaurant that is clean, smells good, and is taken care of, or would you rather go to a restaurant that is trashed, smells like a chicken farm after it rains, and the paint is peeling off the walls?
3. It always amazes me how so many student pastors think how something looks does not matter. The truth is, every single first time guest & lost person who walks through your doors thinks your environment is important! It is because of these observations that the way your Student Ministry looks is crucial for you having a home base that people want to stay in for a couple hours plus each week.
4. So here is the dilemma, if people who attend our experiences think environments need to be great, why are very few of us actually executing that idea? Maybe your response is time, staffing, lack of resources, or maybe you have never thought your environment and the way it is kept up sends a message.
5. Andy Stanley, Lead & Founding Pastor of Northpoint Church, says this about environments, “environments are the messages before the message.”[1] He follows up by saying, “if you create an appealing setting for my middle school student, I will have a much easier time believing that you will present content that is relevant to his stage of life. Design, décor, and attention to detail communicate whom you value.”[2]
6. QUESTION: HOW CAN I COMMUNICATE I CARE ABOUT MY MY ENVIRONMENT ON A CHEAP OR NON-EXISTENT BUDGET?
7.Here are 4 specifics that every single student ministry can execute in their environments no matter the logistical problems.
B. Environments MUST BE Clean!
1. The size of your church has no logistical barriers to cleanliness. Floors can be mopped, walls can be painted, trash can be taken out, supplies can be stored neatly or out of sight, and etc.
2. This may be trivial to some, but there are plenty of student ministry environments that students and parents have looked at and have never come back to because the message that was being sent through an unclean room was “you don’t care.”
3. EXAMPLE PLAYED OUT:
a. Smells Nice | No Trash on Floor | Bathrooms Clean | Walls Painted
b. ORGANIZED
c. EX: When Guests Come Over- WE CLEAN UP= DO THE SAME.
4. How Do I do this on a low Budget?
a. Find A Volunteer / Build A Team
b. Do It Yourself
c. HireSomone- 5 Hours A Week
C. Environments MUST CREATE A SAFE PLACE.
1. We must create that kind of Student Ministries that show students will be safe when they attend our “thing”: Physically & Relationally
2. Physcial Example
a. Personal Example: WHAT WE DO every time our students meet for their service experience I have a group of volunteers whose job it is to make sure our students are safe while on our property. Why? Because parents have entrusted me with their students and at the very least, it is my responsibility to make sure they are safe while in our Student Ministries care.
1. What Communicates to Parents
2. What Communicates to Students.
b. YOU: safety may have everything to do with ceiling tiles falling down, or sharp objects protruding, or maybe you have a sink hole in your parking lot like my church facility is starting to get. It does not matter what your “thing(s)” are, but what does matter is that you provide a safe environment.
c. BAD EXAMPLE
3. Relational Safety
a. Small Group Culture that Creates A Safe Place
1. How: Paves a Path of Honest, Trust, Etc
2. Present in Students Lives
3. LEAD SMALL (BOOK- EXPLAIN)
b. Student Leader Team (Explain)
D. Environments MUST BE FUN.
1. No matter the budget, size, or space, your environment must be a place where fun is had.
2. A Student Ministry that has fun creates a better environment and helps your students learn and practice a holistic kind of faith- one that sees the presence of God in everything.
3. You may not have the LED’s you want or the flat screen TVs the church down the street has, but when your environment allows students and your leaders to have fun, that is a much bigger win/success.
4. CHURCH: Bad Reputation for being boring, stuffy, plain, & outdated. The days of having a drummer, guitar, and minute to win it games do not make you fun. Doing what the church down the street is doing does not make you fun or authentic.
5. What makes your ministry the place to be is defined by how much fun you have and here’s why. Students do not stay at a place they are not enjoying. 60%+ of your student ministry right now does not stay b/c they love Jesus and can’t wait to hear you preach… they stay because they enjoy some aspect of your ministry better than others in your town.
6. QUESTION: If You Were A Student in Your Ministry, Would You call What You Do Fun? Would A Complete Stranger?
a. If it is then you are on the right track on this one
b. If Not then there are some ways to change your environment
7. For Example:
a. EVENTS; Break Dancers (Free) | DJ (Free) | IN-N-OUT (1/2 off) | Mechanical Bull | Black Lights |Glow Sticks | Huge Overnight Prizepack (parent paid for it)
b. Weekly: Tonight Show Jimmy Fallon | Slime Trivia | Cover Songs
8. Your ministry is perfectly designed to achieve the results you are currently getting
9. You Wanna Grow Your Ministry: Make It an Experience that makes it easy for people to stay & invite others.
10. Engage +Involve + Challenge = STUDENT EXPERIENCE
E. Your environment MUST BE SIMPLE.
1. Aesthetically:
a. My Environment
a. Pallets | Oil Barrels | Stage | Projector Screens | Fresh Paint
b. I can’t buy new stage designs… etc all the time
2. Keep the main thing the main thing: JESUS IS ENOUGH!
a. THIS IS HARD: In Student Ministry, everyone wants to be the trendsetters, the visionaries, the benchmark for success, but sometime HUGE & INTRICATE just isn’t possible.
b. STUDENT PASTORS: constantly fight the temptation to make it bigger and better.
1. Do a few things with excellence instead of many things that are barely average!
2. Here is a great way to save money in your ministry: Don’t try and do EVERYTHING!
c. 2 Things I’m Focusing On: First Impressions (meaning when students arrive) / Follow ups (meaning once its over)
3. While I, like many of you, want overcomplicated production packages, the newest and latest lighting models, and an experience that makes my whole community buzz, not everything always needs to look like the Mega-Church you admire or even compare your ministry to. To be matter of fact, it’s actually better if you cannot always do these things because it forces all of us as leaders to find our own DNA and rhythm in the student ministries we lead. So for example, pick the things you can excel at that are not ridiculously time consuming and overcomplicated and do those things really well. Maybe you can’t completely redo your stage, but what you can do is make sure it is clean, free of debris, wires are taped down / hidden, and instruments/stands are organized. This may sound bizarre, but simple keeps you from doing a thousand complicated items that in the end may just turn into frustrations.
F. HOW CAN I DO THIS BETTER?
1. How Can I Do This Better:
a. Research
1. Get Perspective (Others Churches)
b. Don’t Be the Most Creative Person in the Room Ever (If you are, find others).
c. Talk with other people who are smarter then you and devise a solution.
[1] Stanley, Andy. Deep & Wide. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012. Print.
[2] Ibid, 170.