In youth ministry it is important that you set milestones for you to reach and then gather youth ministry resources, plan events, cast a vision, etc., that help you work to reach those milestones. This is because it is important for us to be working towards a goal because it not only helps us remain focused and work harder but it also makes our expectations for our students clearer to them.
Of course our major milestones in our lives are to follow the Great Commandment and to fulfill the great commission. The great commandment is when Jesus was asked what the two greatest commandments are and He said to love God and love your neighbor. He then basically says that everything gets summed up in these two things. So all of our lives should be devoted to loving God and loving people. A big part of doing that is fulfilling the great commission. These is when Jesus commissioned His followers then and in the future to go out and make disciples. So everything we do should also keep this goal in mind. But there are specific milestones we can set for ourselves along the way that will help us work towards these primary purposes laid out for us in scripture.
I can remember one that we set for ourselves was to run over 100 at our midweek service. At the time when we began to dream about this we were only running about 30. We have since met that milestone and now have surpassed it. This milestone and ones like it are not about the numbers and bragging. What is about though is saying that God has placed a calling on our lives and we need to work hard to fulfill that calling. And goals like this one help us get there. Because what happened a long the way was we began to pray harder. We began to get a feel for the pulse of student culture in our community and what their needs were. We began to push our students harder to go out and reach their friends. And along the way more students felt loved, God was honored, and disciples were made.
I share all of this because I know sometimes we get afraid to set milestones like this in our lives because maybe we are afraid we might fail or we do not want to get caught up in numbers and other worldly things. But while it is good to proceed with a sense of awareness to ensure that we do not fall into the trap of focusing on worldly things, we should not be afraid of setting and reaching goals. Because we have not been given a spirit of timidity or fear and we should not limit what God can and wants to do in our ministries. Maybe you set a milestone like we did for your midweek service. Maybe it is just to have a growing ministry on a high school campus or maybe it is to make sure that all of your students are in a discipleship relationship with someone. You know your ministry and what your next steps need to be or at least need to pray and ask God what those next steps are. Then formulate and cast the needed vision to reach those milestones and do not stop until you do reach them.
Of course our major milestones in our lives are to follow the Great Commandment and to fulfill the great commission. The great commandment is when Jesus was asked what the two greatest commandments are and He said to love God and love your neighbor. He then basically says that everything gets summed up in these two things. So all of our lives should be devoted to loving God and loving people. A big part of doing that is fulfilling the great commission. These is when Jesus commissioned His followers then and in the future to go out and make disciples. So everything we do should also keep this goal in mind. But there are specific milestones we can set for ourselves along the way that will help us work towards these primary purposes laid out for us in scripture.
I can remember one that we set for ourselves was to run over 100 at our midweek service. At the time when we began to dream about this we were only running about 30. We have since met that milestone and now have surpassed it. This milestone and ones like it are not about the numbers and bragging. What is about though is saying that God has placed a calling on our lives and we need to work hard to fulfill that calling. And goals like this one help us get there. Because what happened a long the way was we began to pray harder. We began to get a feel for the pulse of student culture in our community and what their needs were. We began to push our students harder to go out and reach their friends. And along the way more students felt loved, God was honored, and disciples were made.
I share all of this because I know sometimes we get afraid to set milestones like this in our lives because maybe we are afraid we might fail or we do not want to get caught up in numbers and other worldly things. But while it is good to proceed with a sense of awareness to ensure that we do not fall into the trap of focusing on worldly things, we should not be afraid of setting and reaching goals. Because we have not been given a spirit of timidity or fear and we should not limit what God can and wants to do in our ministries. Maybe you set a milestone like we did for your midweek service. Maybe it is just to have a growing ministry on a high school campus or maybe it is to make sure that all of your students are in a discipleship relationship with someone. You know your ministry and what your next steps need to be or at least need to pray and ask God what those next steps are. Then formulate and cast the needed vision to reach those milestones and do not stop until you do reach them.
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