Question: How do you select and sustain motivation for ongoing service ministry at home?
Answer: I don’t.
I used to. I’d plan monthly projects in an effort to teach students the importance of service. The students usually stepped up. We had some good times raising money for our local food pantry, fixing up homes, etc.
But I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was missing the mark. What was I REALLY teaching my students? Was it the importance of showing up to support a service project when the opportunity arises? I think it probably was.
What it finally boiled down to is this: I want my students to be aware of the world around them. To be dissatisfied with the things they see and feel the desire to affect change.
Last September I spent some time with high school students figuring out what it was that they couldn’t stand.
We went through a series of questions to figure out what it was that bothers us the most. Then we talked about how overwhelming it can be when you see a problem like the water crisis. What in the world can one high school student do? We talked about some of the great examples of change (Zach Hunter, Ryan Hreljac and others). Then we talked about what we CAN change right away. If our “cause” is illiteracy, how can we start to get involved and affect change? Maybe something as simple as volunteering with a local literacy program and then recruit others to do the same.
When we were finished with our discussions I challenged the students to select and coordinate our service projects for the year. They didn’t all step up but some of them did. It’s amazing how the other students in the ministry respond to these young leaders.
We are just finishing a project making and distributing blankets in our community that has been completely organized and led by a student. Another student is putting together an event modeled after the “Walk their Walk” event in California. That particular student has also joined the church’s missions committee.
I’m still there in an advisory role. I’ve been meeting with the students going over their plans, answering questions and offering suggestions here and there but when announcements need to be made in church or something needs to presented to a committee about the projects, it’s the students who do it. Not me.
I’m excited to do this again in the fall. Who knows what the students will come up with. It’s so exciting to watch them come to the realization that GOD gives them these feelings of discontent and calls them to do something about it.
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Sara Eden Williams is the Director of Youth and Children’s Ministry at the First United Methodist Church of Williamson in Williamson, NY.
Blog: http://saredn.wordpress.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/saraeden
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That is a really great point. Although I have not seen it on the service side, I did related to evangelism.
We had done special evangelistic outreach events to reach kids around us and saw very limited results. Basically a hand full of kids would come if any and it did not seem to matter how we advertised. We developed this outreach called Spanky O'mally's (which means nothing) where we set up a frame work for the night and had the kids actually plan the night. It was an activity night for the most part, along with music and a speaker.
We had the kids plan the music and activities and get the speaker (which usually ended up being an older youth). As youth leaders our job was to make sure they were staying on track with planning it. With a group of 15 kids we would see 50-80 kids come out to attend the special event.
What we found was that because they were taking ownership in what was going on, they naturally told their friends about it because they were a part of it.
Matt Howland
Christ Community Church, Clyde, NY
I should have included this in the post: What I use to get things rolling is a discussion based on "Finding Your Holy Discontent" and "Feeding Your Holy Discontent" … both can be found here: http://www.myholydiscontent.org/index.cfm/pageID/...
Great post! I have been struggling with the same things you have been through! This post gave me some great insights into helping our students become missionaries in their own context! thanks!