1. Parents must have confidence in the youth leader. To gain that confidence, a youth leader needs to:

• Keep parents informed.
• Get the teens home early.
• Do not exclude parents; get them involved.
• Ask parents their goals.
• Teach parents.

2. Be dependable. Never cancel an activity or meeting, especially after it has been announced.
3. Show teens a genuine love and concern. Give them:

Time  •  Total attention  • Touch (appropriate)  •  Talk

4. Never cut down adults in any way in order to build up the teens.
5. Youth must be involved in many but not all decisions. They may contribute activity ideas but not make final decisions.
6. There must be a proper mixture of fun, excitement, adventure, Bible teaching, and spiritual exercise in the youth group program.
7. To build a solid group for the future, concentrate on keeping and training the seventh and eighth graders (see “Characteristics of Youth” for more information).
8. As much as is practical, coordinate the youth program with the Sunday school program and the Christian day school so that they can complement each other in teaching, activities, and personnel. Cooperate; do not compete.
9. The key to the teenager is the family.

• Study diligently what the Bible says about family, children, and youth.
• There is no greater influence on children than their family.

10. Have something for everyone (varied interests).

• Give them a menu of choices.
• Realize young people have busy, full schedules.
• Do not expect any youth to be at everything except church services.

11. Increased attendance will usually result when food is served . . . something salty, something sweet, and something wet. Experience says food is worth 15% in attendance.

• Announce ahead of time that there will be food.
• Plan this fellowship time.

12. Because the youth are part of the church, the pastor of the church will generally set the tone for the youth group. Follow the pastor’s lead, and do not try to make the youth group the “conscience” of the church.
13. Consistency in leadership is an absolute essential. One teaches by example.  (This consistency should be evident among the teenage leaders as well as the adult leaders.)

• Learn how to lead others.
• Learn how to manage others.
• Know the difference.
• Teach and exemplify servant leadership.

14. Build your program to reach, hold, and develop boys; girls will be drawn by boys. Be sure to teach and set an example for male leadership.
15. Develop an esprit de corps through projects, group accomplishment, group pride, theme song, special meeting place, youth night, etc.
16. Create as much involvement from the parents and church members as possible, but never have any adult or sponsor doing more than one or two activities per month.

• Protect your volunteers from burnout on youth activities.
• Bring them along slowly into more and more responsible positions.

17. Standards + teaching + discipline = convictions.

• Know what your standards are based on.
• Be honest.
• Precept comes from principle. Principle comes from the person of God.

18. Youth are happiest when they have definite boundaries for behavior.

• Be consistent in discipline.
• Be fair in application.
• Be in charge; a youth group is not a democracy.

19. The youth director should show an interest in the hobbies and interests of his teens. They are real people and should be treated like it.

20. Divide your group into junior high, senior high, and college.

• Tailor your activities and teaching to age group needs.
• We lose the majority of kids between grades seven and nine.

21. Variety is extremely important. The youth director should find a good source of new ideas.
22. Combine the junior and senior high groups every two or three months for special, “big-event” activities to give a feeling of size. Consider combining with another church for one of these activities and for holding a youth rally.
23. Know your teenagers’ current problems and help them solve them through practical application of the Bible to their lives.

• Secular surveys are usually accurate to within five percent when applied to church kids.
• Conduct your own surveys with youth and with parents—puberty, sex, substance abuse, independence, authority, parents, etc.
• Design lessons which teach the biblical foundation for dealing with their problems; do not just “preach” about their problems.

24. Set definite goals for the year, month, week, day, and for each activity. Why are you doing what you are doing?

• There should be a four-way balance in our focus (Luke 2:52).
• Write down your goals. Publish them in the church.  Evaluate your success by these goals.

25. Involve your youth group in regular camp and retreat programs. Camps and retreats will function as a springboard for the youth group for the next several months.

• Be sure the camp will reinforce what you do and teach in the youth group.
• Be sure you let the camp leaders know what you would like to see accomplished at each camp and retreat.
• Camp is the youth group’s equivalent to a revival in the church and basically functions as an “evangelist” for the local church.
• Youth director and sponsors should attend camp with their teens. This will provide an opportunity for a closer relationship with teens and also provide the youth leaders a firsthand knowledge of what spiritual progress was made at camp, thus better enabling them to keep the ball rolling when back at home.
• Check out the great variety of youth-related retreats at fundamental Christian camps during the school year.

26. Develop a plan to get your kids involved in regular spiritual renewal.

• Daily Bible reading
• Thinking about the Word of God (meditation)
• Praying—weekly volunteer prayer meetings for youth

Note:  Be sure none of these are tied in any way to fulfilling homework requirements for a Christian school Bible class; assignments should always be separate from personal time with God.

27. Remember each teen is at a different level in his spiritual growth.

• Identify where he is.
• Help him take the next step in spiritual growth.
• Refer to “The Spiritual Ladder”.

28. Stay put in your leadership. Young people thrive on consistent leadership.

• It takes at least seven years to see the fruit of a youth ministry.
• The grass is not greener.
• Solve problems. We all have problems, big problems.

29. Keep learning about how to do it better. You will be doing the same thing—stuck in the same rut—five years from now except for the people you meet, question, and learn from and for the books you read and find a seed-thought idea from.  How much is one good idea worth to you?  To me it was worth $25.00.
30. “Men ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).

• Pray, pray, pray, . . . pray.
• Do not faint—quit, cave in, or give up.