Churches can vary greatly in the ways and times they choose to have specialized youth services.  Youth ministry is not meant to divide families; instead it should endeavor to build the relationships of the families.  Dividing teens from the adults is not for the purpose of creating their own group independent from their families or for seeing them as another “class” in our culture.  It is for the purpose of dealing appropriately with the issues which each age faces while biblically teaching them on the level of their understanding.  Using parents wisely in youth activities and receiving input from them will reinforce the focus of building families rather than dividing them.

Midweek services:

• Consider using this time as an outreach and discipleship time for teens.
• Teach practical topics which allow for discussion.
• Teach teens to pray in various ways:

1. Focus on the church’s missionaries by reading some missionary letters to the teens and by having them obtain some of the letters on their own. This allows for specific prayers and personal interest in God’s work abroad. Pray that God will send more laborers and that some may come from the youth.
2. Pray for outreach opportunities and for the friends who are being asked to youth activities. Pray for the work of God to be upon the preaching and the spirit of the activities.
3. Pray for the lost whom the teens know, including their lost family members.

• Teach teens to participate in activity planning. You may consider setting aside thirty minutes once a month for the teens to plan future activities. Specify duties.  Give teens important roles in the success of the coming event; then help them succeed.
• Teach the teens to enjoy singing. Consider having a youth choir. A youth group that is taught good songs will enjoy good songs.  Churches should be training teens to love good music and to enjoy ministering in music.