5 Youth Ministry Myths Busted

In this episode, Nick busts these 5 youth ministry myths:

• Spiritual growth just happens over time. 
• Every event has the top the last one.
• I just need more volunteers.
• Wednesday night (or Sunday) is the ministry.
• If students drift away after graduation, your youth ministry failed.

He doesn’t just challenge these ideas - he unpacks the truth behind each one.

Plus, he dives into two bonus myths that 99% of youth ministry leaders widely accept!

Want more? Check out Nick’s YouTube Shorts for more youth ministry myths - busted. Or check them out on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok.

Shop our Ministry to Youth store. Check out our huge collection of youth ministry bundles, teaching series, one year curriculums, Bible studies, games and more.

Transcript

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Five youth ministry myths busted. Here we go. Myth number one, spiritual growth just happens over time. Just because students show up to everything doesn't mean that they're growing closer to Jesus or becoming more like him. The truth, growth isn't automatic. Shepherds build the clear discipleship pathway. Small groups need to be a priority, led by leaders who intentionally shepherd students, not just facilitate discussion. Those groups have clear goals that support spiritual growth, recognizing that it isn't a one-size-fits-all process. Leaders know their students well and understand what they need to take the next step. So that's myth number one. And this is actually sort of a repeat of a bunch of myths that we've posted on social media YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. If you want to follow us in any of those places, just check out the show notes and we have links to all of that because we're actually just going to continue to put one of these out every single day, which is pretty exciting. And what I'm sharing with you today is the top ones that just seem to be most interesting to people as we've posted them on social media. So here we go. Myth number two every event has to top the last one. I remember there was this one event where we would typically have 30 or 40 students show up, and this time we had 80 show up, right? Because we were trying to like come up with like the best event ever and trying to top the one before. And we did it. But the problem was we only had maybe three leaders in addition to me. So tops four. And this is younger, like this is middle school, junior high. And honestly, we were way outnumbered. Everything in my mind was a flop. Like all the events that we had planned, totally a bomb. We only had a maybe a 500 square foot youth room at the time. So we're trying to eat pizza in this youth room, and it like students were sitting on top of each other. It was a nightmare. Literally, I went home like super anxious and depressed and like ready to quit. And I was like, I don't even want to show my face on Sunday. But I did. I did indeed. And when I did, I was talking to students, and the truth is they all had a great time. They brought a bunch of friends, which is why we had, you know, double the amount that we normally had. And that's when it dawned upon me that the truth is you're not building hype, you're building community. And it doesn't matter if the event is the best event ever. It's all about building a community where a safe place where students are known, seen, heard, and feel safe to, you know, ask questions about Jesus and uh build relationships with other students and with leaders. Okay? So that's the truth. You're not building hype, you're building community. Myth number three, I just need more volunteers. If you keep adding people without empowering them, you're not actually building a stronger ministry, you're just building a bigger one. The truth is you don't need more bodies, you need better built shepherds. Because one shepherd who knows students, loves them well, and points them to Jesus will impact far more than 10 volunteers who are just filling spots. So build shepherds and real discipleship starts to happen. Myth number four Wednesday night or Sunday is the ministry. I remember there was a student in my small group who, after summer camp, came up and we just chatted, and he was talking about all the amazing things that God had done in his life at summer camp and all the stuff that he continued to do since summer camp. And I was like, dude, that's such an amazing story. Like, I want to hear more about it. Like, let's meet up and grab a bite to eat uh one day after church or something. And so we did, and at that time he just, you know, shared all the great stuff that God was doing in his life. But then he started to open up about some of the struggles that he was experiencing. And he had never really shared that with anyone else before. And he also expressed like a sincere desire to want to grow closer to Jesus despite these struggles. And he he wanted to have some other friends who just weren't in the small group, but that were like-minded like him, who really wanted to support each other and go deeper in their relationship with Jesus. So, because of that conversation, that started a small group, like another discipleship group that I did with a few of those students. And all of the students in that group had expressed to me either one-on-one while we were hanging out or just in church, that they wanted that. And all of those relationships were a result of you know me showing up to Sunday and Wednesdays and it flowing out of that. So here's the truth Wednesday night or Sunday is the gathering. Shepherding happens all week long, right? The gathering exists so you can build a relationship with students and then shepherd them. The priority is shepherding students, not the gathering. And finally, myth number five: if students drift away after graduation, your youth ministry failed. I can think of students in my youth group who after graduation became missionaries later in life. Or one in particular who later became the lead pastor at the church that I was once on staff at for nine years. The truth, pointing students to Jesus is your responsibility. Their lifelong choices are not. Yes, we hope and pray that students become lifelong followers of Jesus. But at the end of the day, all we can do is be faithful to what God calls us to do, which is to plant seeds and let God do the growing. If we do that, we're successful. So there you have it. Five myths, but wait, we have two bonus myths. So exciting, and we're just gonna roll right into them. So here we go. Bonus myth number one a healthy youth ministry is a growing youth ministry. We've been told over and over that healthy things grow. If attendance is up, that means God is moving and you're doing something right. But here's the problem: you can pack a room and no one knows a single student's story. You can high-five a hundred kids and not shepherd any of them. Numbers are not the scoreboard. Shepherding is. The truth, attendance measures activity. Shepherd, shepherding measures transformation. A healthy youth ministry is one where students are being transformed by the love and power of God. They're pursuing Jesus and making a positive difference in the lives of those around them. And we actually did a whole podcast episode on this topic. So if you want sort of maybe a deeper dive on that, then you can check out our podcast. And the best way to do that is to go to ministry to youth.com forward slash stories on our website. There, we have all of those episodes posted. So uh, or you can just check us out on Spotify, YouTube, or um or wherever you listen to podcasts and check that out. I'm not exactly sure what episode number that is, but uh I think it is episode 11. Actually, it is episode 11. So yeah, we did like a whole 30-minute deep dive on that particular myth. Okay, so the last bonus myth. Number two, students need to prioritize youth group over sports and other activities. Sounds right, because we all want students to show up to youth group. I mean, after all, that's where they're gonna grow closer to Jesus and build relationships with students and leaders. And we don't want them to miss out on that. But here's the problem: some of the best opportunities to shepherd students don't happen at youth group. The truth, your ability to shepherd students is not dependent on them showing up to youth group. The best shepherding moments happen one-on-one while grabbing a burger with a student or on the sidelines after a basketball game. Those moments happen when you enter their world and consistently show up in their lives. So there you have it, folks. Five youth ministry myths and two bonus myths. Be sure to check us out on social media, and you know, you can just see all the different myths that we're putting out. It's a 30-day thing. So for 30 days, we're putting out uh a new myth every day, and that's gonna be our theme. As you can see, there's some very consistent things about this theme. It's less about uh our youth ministry role, it's less about programs and more about shepherding students. So that's the theme uh of these youth ministry myths over the next 30 days, and after that, we'll do another theme and keep them going. So thanks for listening to today's episode. And if you're looking for youth ministry curriculum, be sure to check us out online at ministry to youth.com. The big thing that separates us from everyone else is that we do bundles. We have one-year bundles and sometimes we have limited edition two-year bundles and uh different bundles that are seasonal as well. And you can also get individual series, so just be sure to check us out online. We have over 15 years of youth ministry curriculum, so we have teaching series, Bible studies, and uh and event packs and game packs, and we also have junior high specific curriculums, so check us out online. Be sure to do that. Ministry2yout.com.