Growing A Youth Group
It's Really About Ministry
by
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If you believe youth ministry is just about opening your church building on a Sunday evening, then your reading of this book may be a bit of a surprise to you. After reading this book, if you still believe youth ministry is just opening up your church on a Sunday evening, well, perhaps youth ministry is not for you. I want to tell you that to Grow a Youth Group, there is so much more than opening doors. If you pay attention to the knowledge, thoughts and experiences that are shared in these pages, you will have a much better perspective and appreciation of how growing a youth group really is a ministry. I am writing on this topic so that anyone can understand how it all intersects to form a vital, well-thought-out ministry for, with, and to youth we are privileged to serve in our local churches. I also hope that this book is not just read by professional people on church staffs. I know for a fact that much of what is shared in this book is not taught in seminary! This book is for everyone and anyone interested in making a difference in their youth ministry in their church. After a whole lot of decades of testing out, working through, massaging programs and ideas, what I am sharing here can be a valuable asset along with being a testimony of what youth ministry may be able to accomplish in your church. I do want you to understand that if you do not have a paid professional staff person in your church, a lot of what I share here does require someone who would be willing to oversee the entire effort - especially if you pursue matching what I did over the years. It does require a small cadre of committed people willing to put their heart and soul into youth ministry for a period of time. I only ask that you read it in its entirety so that you will discover how all of what is shared hangs together to form an interesting model for ministry with youth. In the end, you will also discover that what you are doing will affect adults in your church as well. And that’s not a bad thing. Please understand even though I have spent decades involved in youth ministry, I do not have all the answers. I would also say that this model is just one of many ways of doing youth ministry. I do know that what I did in my career was finding what worked, what clicked, what motivated young people and the church such that youth ministry blossomed and flourished. I also hope you can catch the undertones of what I have written. I am asking all of us to become real advocates for youth ministry in our churches. Are we able to demonstrate through youth ministry how to live our lives as Christians? When we gather these young people to help them grow in their faith and to be moved by the Spirit, are we helping them to become the people God wants them to be? How about ushering them into the world to do the things God is calling us all to do? Suppose this is part of the rhythm in the Christian life? I believe as youth leaders, it is the personal and social gospel of our time, and we need to be understanding and following God’s plan. So let’s get about doing it
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About the Book
Most youth ministry books tell you what a thriving youth group should look like.
This one shares what actually worked from forty-seven years of doing it.
Alan J. Kobs has spent nearly five decades working in Christian education and youth ministry in local churches, across denominational clusters, through Group Publishing workshops, and in seminary. What he learned cannot be found in a textbook. Much of it, as he will tell you plainly, is not taught in seminary at all.
Growing a Youth Group is the book he wished he had at the beginning.
It is a field-tested collection of approaches, experiences, and practical ideas drawn from a lifetime of youth ministry from recruiting and training adult volunteers to building a youth leadership team that actually leads, from planning balanced programming to creating the kind of relationships with teenagers that leave a lasting mark on their lives and faith.
Every church is different. Every youth group brings its own personality, energy, and temperament. What Alan offers here is not a formula, it is a lifetime of honest reflection on what tended to work, what did not, and why. Readers will find themselves drawing from these pages in ways that fit their own unique ministry context.
At the heart of this book is a conviction that has shaped everything Alan has done: young people can own their own program. They can lead, make decisions, serve, pray, fundraise, and reach out, when the adults around them believe in them and build the right environment for it to happen.
And across nearly five decades, the young people Alan worked with have grown into adults who still carry what they experienced in those youth group years. Something worked. Alan believes and has always believed that the Holy Spirit was at work in every one of those encounters.
This is not a book about filling seats on a Sunday evening. It is a book about building a ministry that shapes young people into the Christians and human beings, God is calling them to be.
Written for pastors, volunteer youth leaders, Christian educators, and anyone with a heart for teenagers and a willingness to do the work.
About the Author
Alan J. Kobs has devoted more than 47 years to youth ministry, serving as a youth leader, workshop facilitator, church consultant, and mission trip director. A fourth-generation Presbyterian, he led youth programs at First Presbyterian Church in Greeneville, Tennessee, where he directed 48 work camp mission trips to communities devastated by hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters from Appalachia to Alaska.
His ministry philosophy is rooted in a simple but powerful conviction: to help young people come to know, love, and follow Jesus. He has led workshops for Group Publishing and attended events and workshops led by Youth Specialties, created large-scale youth events, developed leadership training for his denomination, and served as a consultant to churches seeking to strengthen their youth programs.
He is the author of Growing a Youth Group: It's Really About Ministry (WestBow Press), a practical guide drawing on nearly five decades of hands-on experience, and The Fruits of Our Labor (2016). He currently lives in Dayton, Ohio.