How Do You Encourage Your Youth Group to Serve

“…faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead”

(James 2.17)

I think most Christians realize that genuine faith results in the fruit of service. Our claim to faith in Christ is nothing if we do not actually demonstrate our faith through works in the church and community. Realize it is not the works that save us, but that true saving faith is demonstrated by our works.

As a youth ministry leader one of our primary goals is to foster genuine faith in the teens in our ministries. This means that we have to be providing them ample venues to demonstrate their faith within the church.

It’s my understanding that teens fall under the radar in many churches today. Still many others do a great job of integrating teens into the regular service in the church. Let me give you a few ideas that I’ve had—not for you to copy, but to give you ideas of your own:

1. Do you have a youth room? Who cleans it? A weekly or bi-weekly cleaning of the youth room can be a great area of service and will likely result in a cleaner room in the long run.
2. We have a youth led worship band. They lead the youth and young adult ministries in a time of worship every Wednesday night and at special events. This is a great time for the leaders to learn to lead spiritually and to practice that from within the group.
3. One of our young men has been studying purity. I’m working with him on his exegesis and teaching him to craft his study into a message which he will be presenting to the youth group in three weeks.
4. Today is Valentine’s Day! Every year our teens pitch in to serve and help in the kitchen during our yearly Valentine’s banquet.
5. Often we have office tasks that need attention, so some of the teens will step in to help in the office under the direction of our office staff.

These are just a few ways that the teens of the church can serve. Get creative. Maybe you have some teens that would be valuable on the Sunday worship team. What about running games for children’s ministry? What about cleaning the church or gardening? There are many areas that our young men and women can help to serve Christ in the church. We are doing them a great disservice if we neglect to offer service opportunities to them.

As you both encourage them to serve and provide them with the venue to serve, I pray you will soon see them growing in their faith and in their devotion to Christ.