What has God done in your ministry lately? What are some wins? Whose life has He been changing? What hurdle has He helped you overcome? Where has He shown up in a leader’s life? What as He said through someone that was just what someone needed to hear? Where has He supplied exactly what was needed?
Want to listen instead of read? I have a Student Ministry Connection podcast episode all about this topic!
Click here or listen on your favorite podcast app!
It’s been a rough couple years for everyone, and for the most part, the church has not been isolated from that. I remember having conversations with student pastors who had served for over 30 years and those who had been serving for 30 days, and we all had one thing in common: we didn’t really know how to do student ministry in a global pandemic. And yet, many of us figured it out, and we saw God work.
We need to celebrate what God is doing. If not, we can easily get overwhelmed with all the negativity, hardships, and frustrations. It’s a way we can worship God for what He is doing and who He is, and it can help bring people together.
So here are 3 areas of our ministry where we can regularly celebrate:
With Students
One way to gain momentum in your student ministry is to get students sharing their stories with their peers. This can happen “up front” where they share with the entire group, or it can happen within their small groups. Either way, it’s important to give them a place to share what God is doing in their lives and the lives of those around them. We call them God-stories in our ministry.
With Leaders
Do your leaders have a place to share what God is doing with each other? We prompt them each time we meet, whether it be for our quick pre-program huddle or our monthly gathering. We also ask them to submit wins to us via email or text in between the times we are together, and then we look for ways to share that with others in creative ways. This last year, we also did a year-end party where we celebrated each of our leaders.
With Parents
It’s really easy for parents to get overwhelmed today, so we need to give them a place to share their wins too. They need to share wins with us, with each other, and they need to hear wins from us, the leaders. Too often, we come to parents with the ways their kid can improve or some way they misbehaved, but we need to share the good things with them too.
It’s so important to celebrate wins and help other celebrate the wins! So again, I’ll ask… What has God been doing lately? Maybe you can start by celebrating in the comments of this post!
Steve Cullum 