There is a difference between natural and supernatural results in Youth Ministry. If you’ve experienced this, you already know what I’m talking about. When God moves in ways that can only be described as supernatural, it surpasses anything we can accomplish on our own.
Let me encourage you to live and lead with desperation in your ministry leadership. Whether you lead a small group or oversee an entire ministry, the principles are the same regardless of the size of the ministry. Operating in the ‘miracle zone’ of ministry is something we all want. Yet the operating system required for this is rarely implemented. And it boils down to one simple thing.
NATURAL VS SUPERNATURAL MINISTRY
Here’s the difference between natural and supernatural ministry results:
NATURAL SUPERNATURAL
attendance growth attendance explosion
students inviting friends to your ministry students leading their friends to Christ
student participation when asked student initiative without being asked
fun moments powerful moments
prayer requests prayer miracles
You get the picture.
THE ONE THING THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
So what can we do to make this a reality in our ministry? One simple word: PRAYER.
Prayer is the conduit into supernatural ministry. Let me share some practical ideas not just to include prayer but to implement prayer into every facet of your ministry.
- Include teaching content on prayer regularly
You don’t have to do an entire message or series on prayer, although you could. But a more effective way might be to include little nuggets on prayer here and there in your teaching content. Include stories, practical tips, and even ‘learning lab’ moments where you show them how to do it.
- Integrate prayer structurally in your ministry
Have a prayer team that meets before youth group or during the week. Have a structured prayer time in your youth group meetings. Have missional goals and priorities and pray for them.
*At NTS Camp, we pray over every name and every chair before the first session of camp. And we meet for prayer before every session. It makes a huge difference.
- Provide special opportunities for prayer
Believe it or not, students are hungry to pray if you frame it correctly for them. Recently we had a student-led Claim Your Campus prayer group tell us that they had 52 students show up at their school to pray. Students want this. If you don’t believe they do, you won’t see this in your ministry. If you do believe this, you will see things like this happen. It begins with your expectation.
*I took a group of student leaders, and together, we decided to pray that our youth group would be actively sharing their faith. We met as leaders weekly for 6 weeks. In that 40-day period, 24 of their friends gave their lives to Christ!
NO GO ZONE
I’m an amateur land sailer. I have what is called a land yacht, and it is a small framed kart with wheels and a 12’ sail. The principles of sailing are fascinating, and I’m still learning about them. One basic rule in sailing is that you cannot sail directly INTO the wind or about 30 degrees on either side of a headwind. If you sail perpendicular to the wind or downwind, you can really move. It’s all in how you set your sail that determines your speed and direction.
This is what prayer does: it sets our sail in a way that adjusts to where and how God is moving around us. When you pray, one of the things that happen is you adjust your thoughts, motives, words, and actions to the ‘wind’ of God in your midst. When you catch this wind, you sail at speeds not possible without that external force called the wind.
Get your team together, decide to make prayer a priority, put this into practice, and watch what only God can do!
Geoff Eckart
CEO & Founder
Never The Same
P.S .Get your students involved in Claim Your Campus. Started by a handful of students in my youth group from East Kentwood High School in 2003, this student-led prayer movement has had tens of thousands of participants and is currently active in 48 states in America. Learn more by going to claimyourcampus.com and downloading the CYC prayer app.
Photo by: Improve Sailing