How Home Groups help your Student Ministry Grow

Over the course of the past few years we have noticed a few trends in our student ministry. Big events were still very effective. Students loved coming to events where they had fun and got to hear about Christ. The bigger the event the better the turnout. However, we also started noticing that “traditional” youth group night wasn’t working as much. No matter what we tried we just couldn’t get a crowd to come out. For the record, when referencing “traditional” youth group that consists of some worship, a mixer and/or few games and a message about God or Christ. Whenever we did this type of gathering, turnout was really low.

However, there was another positive trend that we were noticing. While traditional youth group night was becoming less and less effective, we did also notice that home groups were becoming more effective as we sought to reach more students regardless of where they stood with Christ.

Home Groups act similarly to traditional youth group where there was an element of fun and Bible teaching. However, where it differs was there was dinner served and it was in someones home, not a Church building. Also, worship was optional, but not many of our home groups involved worship. Home groups are also designed to serve a smaller number of students so we have multiple home groups going on which was great for us to connect different students from different schools (our church serves 4 high schools in our area).

What we saw in our Student Ministry was that students who wouldn’t come back to Church Sunday night (or any other night) for youth group would make their way to home groups regularly. The attendance wasn’t as high as if we did a special event, but it was a tremendous uptick from doing traditional youth group. Why is that?  For us it was simple. Home groups are about community. They are less structured and more relational. Youth Group, on the other hand, was just another Church service but at home groups students connected in a powerful way.

Teens are craving community. Sure, they can find and do find it in a Church building, but a home offers a different environment for teens to come to and experience a warm, safe environment. A home of a trusted family in your Church community is often a safe place. And, when there is that warm place to go to, often times with a home cooked meal, caring adult leaders and other teens there it is a very inviting place for any teen to come to.

So how did this help grow our ministry and how will it help grow yours?

• Community happens. As mentioned above, teens feel comfortable and a sense of community in a home and will likely return more often week after week.
• Adult leaders have a more targeted group of students they can follow up with. We have specific leaders at specific groups and these leaders now have a mini-youth group that they can best pray for, reach out to and minster to. Small groups can even develop sooner from a home group environment as students become more comfortable with each other.
• Teens engage in more meaningful conversation. When teaching to a bigger group, you can’t have a ton of meaningful interaction during the message. You are sharing a group message to a bigger group. In a home group setting our teaching is more discussion based where we are all looking into the passage together and discussing it.
• We still do big group gatherings. Community is important with a big group and home group. We want our students connecting with each other as a whole Church community. That is why we continue to do strategic events together once a month to let them see the bigger community of teens learning about life and God together.

Conclusion

Traditional youth group still works well in different contexts. However, it wasn’t working for our student ministry. Once we went all in on home groups and eliminated traditional youth group, we have seen growth unmatched over the past few years. Teens are connecting with other teens and adult leaders, they are growing in their faith and keep coming back regularly. Doing traditional youth group wasn’t helping that happen. Home Groups are and we are excited to see how many more groups we can start so even more teens can come and experience Christ in a real and relevant way.

What do you think? What has been your experiences with home groups?  Share them below or on social media using #ymsidekick when you share.

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