When it comes to youth ministry, most of us want certainty. We want a clear, five-step plan that works every time—a game, a teaching style, or an event that we can repeat forever. But here’s the hard truth: youth ministry is always experimental.
Yes, we have 2,000 years of church history and about 50 years of established youth ministry practices. But the reality is, students change. Culture changes. The world around us changes—fast. Which means that even the things that once worked may not work tomorrow.
And that’s uncomfortable.
The Uncomfortable Truth
If you’ve been in youth ministry for any length of time, you know what I mean. One week your students are into a game, the next week they’ve moved on. The slang changes. The attitudes shift. The events that drew crowds before don’t land the same way.
It’s tempting to cling to what feels safe and familiar. If a lesson style works, we want to keep teaching that way. If a worship set connects, we want to repeat it every week. We’re creatures of habit. But comfort can become the enemy of growth.
The truth is—youth ministry isn’t comfortable. And it’s not supposed to be.
My Lessons from YouTube
I’ve been running my YouTube channel for 15 years, and in many ways, I treat it the same way I treat youth ministry: as an experiment.
Recently, I tried a live-streaming series called Streamtember. My plan was to go live twice a week, every week, and see what happened. Here’s what happened: hardly anyone showed up. By every measurable metric, it was a failure.
But here’s the thing—it wasn’t really a failure. Because I learned something. I learned that live streaming, at least the way I did it, doesn’t connect with my audience. And that’s okay. Failure is part of the process to to getting to what work be it in Youtube or youth ministry.
Not everything will work. In fact, much of what you try will not work. That doesn’t mean you’ve failed as a youth pastor. It means you’re doing the work of experimenting, learning, and adapting.
Because here’s the reality: no method lasts forever. Students grow. Culture shifts. Trends come and go. What matters is that you don’t cling too tightly to something just because it once worked.
So What If It Doesn’t Work?
Maybe your game falls flat.
Maybe your message misses the mark.
Maybe your event gets less attendance than you hoped.
So what? Did you learn something? Did you try? Did you stretch yourself and your students into new territory? That’s the win.
Don’t take youth ministry (the program) too seriously. Don’t be afraid of failure. Instead, give yourself permission to experiment, adjust, and even laugh when things don’t go as planned.
Because the truth is, youth ministry has always been—and always will be—an experiment.
I recently watched a 1970s film called The Sunshine Boys about two old comedians. The comedians were back together for one last gig after decades of not performing together. The line that hit me was when one comedian said to the other, “You know what your problem is? You always took the jokes too seriously.”
In both YouTube and youth ministry, I can take the “jokes” too seriously. I can take myself too seriously. I get frustrated when something doesn’t work. But failure is part of experimentation.
If you're in the experimental process, don't judge yourself to harshly and don't take success or failure too seriously.
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