A Philosophy of Ministry
For Abide Student Ministries
Introduction:
Churches everywhere are grappling with the question, “how are we going to reach and engage students in our community?” There has been much time, money, resources, and effort devoted to this question, sometimes with little results. Students have changed over the last few decades and with this change comes new challenges and difficulties. Amid this struggle and change it may be more important than ever to understand and value a ministry’s philosophy.
What is a philosophy of ministry? It’s a statement that identifies the core values and beliefs of a ministry. It informs what the ministry believes and emphasizes. These statements can come in all shapes and sizes depending on the ministry context. Abide Student Ministries desires that this document would represent its mission statement, and remind leaders, parents, and students of its goals, and priorities.
Our Mission:
Our mission begins by understanding the mission statement of our church. Grandview Baptist Church exists for the sole purpose of glorifying God through Christ. We strive to fulfill our purpose through evangelizing the community, edifying His people, and exalting God. As the youth ministry of Grandview Baptist Church, we fall under this same banner, and we strive to fulfill the same purpose. However, since our ministry is focused on serving students and their parents we’ve found it helpful to further define the mission and priorities of our ministry.
What is our mission? Abide student ministries exists to help students abide in Christ through Biblical teaching, creative discipleship, and partnership with parents. Each part of our mission statement is important as it represents an aspect of our ministry we want to emphasize. The goal is for students to abide in Christ, but how we achieve that goal are through teaching, discipleship, and partnership with parents. The rest of this philosophy of ministry will explain our goal and how we achieve this goal.
Why Abide?
The word Abide comes from the Greek word “meno”. It means to remain, to exist, or to persist. The Apostle John loved this word and used a total of 68x in his writing. This word pictures a close communion or relationship with the Lord, yet we should be careful to understand that “Abide” does not denote some special mystic of Christian experience but rather it’s the experience of all believers. When we are saved, we abide in Christ as He abides in us. This relationship continues throughout our Christian experience.
Jesus uses a powerful illustration to explain what it means to abide in Christ. It is found in John 15:1-17. He reminds His disciples that they are connected to the vine for the purpose of bearing fruit. Those who bear fruit remain connected to the vine while those who bear no fruit are pruned away. The question then becomes, “How are believers connected to the vine?” Christ answers this question in verse 4, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” Notice the closeness between Christ and His disciples as they abide. This leads to fruitfulness in the life of believers.
Abiding in Christ begins at salvation. John explains this in 1 John 4:15, “Whoever confesses Jesus to be the son of God, God abides in him and he in God.” This is where the relationship begins. No one can abide in Christ apart from salvation, and all those who are truly saved abide in Christ. It is our prayer that Abide Student Ministries would be used by the Lord to help students who don’t know the Lord coming to a saving knowledge of His son Jesus Christ. This is how they can initially “abide”.
Abiding in Christ does not end at salvation, but it continues throughout the Christian life. It involves living the Christian life as scripture instructs us. 1 John 2:6 says, “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which we walked.” This involves living like Christ in our lifestyle. It involves reading and applying God’s word as Jesus instructs in John 5:37-38. Abiding in Christ means keeping God’s commandments (John 15:10) and renouncing sin (1 John 3:6). Abiding in Christ means understanding and believing sound doctrine (2 John 9).
All these practices are part of abiding in Christ and display the life a believer should live. This is so that we can reflect Christ on earth and be prepared when He returns. John encourages believers in 1 John 2:28 with these words, “And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.” Abiding in Christ ultimately prepares us for the experience of heaven where we enjoy perfect fellowship of Christ forever.
How Can We Encourage Teens to Abide?
As we recognize our goal in ministry to teens is to help them abide in Christ, the question remains, “how is this accomplished”? We understand the challenges mentioned at the beginning of this statement and that teens are increasingly walking away from faith and the church. We ultimately trust the Lord and the power of His spirit to work in the hearts of teens. We also believe that there are three components to our youth ministry that are vital in our work to help teens abide in Christ. Each of these will be discussed below.
Biblical Teaching
Biblical teaching is at the heart of gospel centered youth ministry. The gospel is the message that flows from the pages of scripture, and students will only understand the gospel by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). Biblical teaching also helps encourage students in their relationship with the Lord. This is part of how students continue to abide after they are saved: they grow in their knowledge and application of God’s Word.
In Abide Student Ministries we have several avenues for Biblical teaching. We have Wednesday Night lessons in which we aim to help students learn how to study the Bible, how to understand doctrine, and how to live the Christian life. We have Sunday School lessons which aim to help students understand the storyline of the Bible. Then beyond formal teaching we have small groups which aim to help students dig deeper into the lessons and into each other’s lives and we attend special events that have Biblical teaching like camps, conferences, youth rallies, etc.
Creative Discipleship
“Creative Discipleship” is intentionally named as such because it acknowledges that discipleship takes place in many forms and fashions. The goal of youth ministry is to Abide in Christ and discipleship is God’s plan to help them achieve this goal. This is why the central command of Christ’s Great Commission is to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19-20). Creative discipleship can take many different forms, but it should always involve helping students abide in Christ.
This is why in Abide Student Ministries we carefully select and train leaders working with students. We believe that our youth leaders should be men and women who evidence a clear testimony of salvation, agree with our church’s doctrine, statement of faith, and our philosophy of ministry. We believe creative discipleship can take place in formal settings such as small groups and one on one discipleship, but it can also take place informally through games and events. Sometimes this takes place by supporting youth in their sporting events, plays, concerts, and other activities. In addition to youth leadership, we also want to encourage students to not only grow as a disciple but also to be involved in evangelism, discipleship, and service. We believe opportunities for students to serve the body of Christ are essential to their growth as a believer.
Partnership with Parents
Finally, we believe partnership with parents is essential to our ministry’s goal of helping students abide in Christ. We believe that God instructs parents to faithfully instruct and disciple their children (Deut. 6:1-7). Parents often have the most opportunity to interact and instruct their children daily rather than once a week at student ministries. We desire to both reinforce Biblical truths being taught in students’ homes and aid parents as they disciple their children.
This partnership takes place first by communication. We use text, email, Facebook, announcements, planning center messages and verbal communication to keep parents in the loop on what events and activities are taking place. We also want to communicate with parents on any issues their children are having at home or in student ministry. This secondly takes place at parent meetings where we communicate new information but also desire to hear feedback and equip parents for any issues they are facing. Finally, we seek to equip parents with good resources. Currently, we attach a parent’s resource page to our newsletter with different articles and books parents might find useful in discipling their children.
Conclusion:
The goal of our ministry is to help students abide in Christ through Biblical teaching, creative discipleship and partnership with parents. As we work for the Lord, we trust in the power of the Spirit which we know transforms the hearts of students. We trust that God is working in the hearts of teens, and we desire to see teens transformed in our community through Abide Student Ministries.
