1

Lesson 5 A Sticky WYG

Church announcements, upcoming events, and prayer. Last Week: “Sticky Families” | This Week: “A Sticky WYG” (Most of the content from this lesson is taken from Chapter 7 of Sticky

Faith: Youth Worker Edition)

The Big Question: What will help the Winchester Youth Group become an environment that better builds sticky faith? How can we create a stickier WYG?

Here are five ideas for a stickier WYG:

1. The WYG should be Jesus-centered.

Here’s What Jumped Out at Me As a Youth Minister: “Nearly 80 percent of high school seniors in our study cited ‘I like my youth

minister’ as the top reason for their being part of the youth ministry.” We’ll get to the rest of the list momentarily.

When it comes to the youth minister, longevity is important. “One of the themes that stood out from our interviews was the pain students felt when a youth minister moved on. In particular, kids who experienced multiple youth minister transitions during their high school years often became disillusioned and disconnected from the youth ministry.”

Full Disclosure: I do not have an exit strategy here. I have never been given a compelling reason to leave. But if I were to leave, I would want the youth ministry to carry on in a healthy way…

For this to happen, the WYG should not be centered on me or any other personality. It should be centered on Jesus. We should take a cue from John the Baptist, who said, “Jesus must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30).

2

2. The WYG should be about connecting young people with God .

The rest of the top five reasons seniors gave for being part of a youth group:2. I learn about God there.3. I feel comfortable there.4. I can really worship God there.5. I’ve always gone.

Reasons 3 and 5 hint at complacency but reasons 2 and 4 tell us that young people are involved in youth ministries because they desire to learn about and worship God.

And yet, this desire does not match up with spiritual practices in the private lives of young people, namely prayer and Bible reading. “Less than half of the surveyed students said they prayed daily, and only 83 percent claimed to pray at least once a week. Bible reading showed up even less frequently: 42 percent said they read the Bible weekly, and only 12 percent read their Bibles daily.”

Table Talk Questions: What have we been doing well in connecting young people with God? What else could we be doing to connect young people with God? What are some specific ideas for making prayer and scripture play a more central role in our youth ministry?

Encouraging News About Retreats: “Our studies found that retreat experiences (overnight, away from home) were important to faith growth for the students in our study. In fact, when analyzed across all three years of the survey, attending retreats during high school was one of the few youth group activities independently correlated with Sticky Faith.”

3. The WYG should be about connecting young people with other young people and with faithful adults.

Connections With Adults Are Important. “Looking back on their youth group, only one in five students felt, ‘My youth leaders really knew me.’” This means that more than likely, many young people in our youth ministry feel unknown by adults at church. “On the other hand, the effects of feeling known by adults during high school stretched across several years afterward.”

3

Connections With Other Young People Are Important. “Looking back a year later, the three things students remember as most significant about youth group are: (1) the adults involved, (2) the community formed, and (3) friendships.”

Table Talk Question: How can the WYG better connect young people with other young people and with faithful adults? How can we help these relationships continue after high school? Come up with some specific ideas.

4. The WYG should provide space for doubt and deep conversation about faith.

“Most kids doubt their faith in high school, but few talk about those doubts. Yet the students who feel most free to express doubts and discuss personal problems with youth leaders and their youth groups show more Sticky Faith.”

Jude 22: “Have mercy on those who doubt.”

Table Talk Question: How can the WYG intentionally create space where doubts can be shared? Come up with some practical ideas. (If people have trouble coming up with some, share from pp. 147-148 in youth worker edition.)

What did young people want to see more of in their high school ministries?1. Time for deep conversation.2. Mission trips.3. Service projects.4. Accountability.5. One-on-one time with leaders.

We’ll talk about numbers 2 & 3 when we talk about “Sticky Justice.” For now, check out numbers 1, 4, & 5.

They don’t want to play more games. Listen to this from a student: “If drawing directly from my high school ministry, I would define Christianity as being about pizza parties and entertainment alternatives.”

Overwhelmingly, high school students wanted to go deeper in relationships and conversation with adult leaders.

4

What Is Most Important In These Conversations?1. Leaders should listen.2. Leaders should help students apply faith to their everyday lives.

“Helping kids connect the dots between their faith and their everyday lives should take priority if we’re looking for long-term impact.”

5. The WYG should help students grow in leadership and competencies.

“Students who participated in leadership in their youth ministry and/or led middle school or elementary kids showed stronger faith three years later than those who didn’t.”

The book encourages us to give students authentic opportunities to lead but not to abandon them in leadership. We shouldn’t give them one more area in life in which they feel pressure to perform in a certain way.

“Research points to the importance of developing competence in teenagers’ lives. Not only does learning competence in an area promote overall thriving in kids, but it is also specifically tied to helping faith stick beyond high school. In both our study and others, giving students meaningful and skill-developing opportunities to serve their youth group and church matters—right now and for years to come.”

It’s important for us to help our young people discover the specific skills or gifts they have been by God in order to serve His kingdom.