‘And there were added that day about 3,000 souls’ (Acts 2.41). Very few of us have seen our youth group grow by as many as that.
After all, where would we put 3,000 people — the small groups could be quite large. But, although there were some struggles in the early church, there does seem to be a growth factor in the first century. Churches grew as the gospel was preached and we should expect the same.
Under pressure
However, numbers are sometimes used by church leaders and parents to pressure those of us who do youth ministry. Because so many young people have been lost to the church, the anxiety is to get them back and to restore our ‘numbers’. Of course we should care and try to follow up on those who go missing. But we need to look at the reason why numbers may decrease.
The seasons of the year cause fluctuations. For young people, doing examinations in the summer term would always create lower group numbers and it would be easy to get depressed when we watch over decline. But the attendance pattern needs to be observed and may explain why not so many are coming to the meetings.
Many youth leaders feel the pressure to maintain numbers particularly if they are paid money to do the job. They adopt a kind of ‘payment by results’ ideology and that any decline is a comment on their competence. Fluctuations in numbers can help us see what is going on in our group.
There may be a situation that is causing decline. Maybe a new TV series has provided the counter attraction and young people decide to meet in one of their houses to watch it rather than go to the youth group. We should look for growth as well. Recently I heard about a group which started to grow for no apparent reason until the leader discovered that the church just down the road had lost its paid youth minister through moral failure and the young people just got up and left en masse and came to his church.
Popularity contest
But, if we let numbers be the reason we do the things we do, we can easily lose our way. We start thinking about what we can do to keep them coming — we pander to popularity rather than doing things we know need to be done. Numbers may decline because we teach some ideas which young people find hard to swallow. Does that mean we should change our plans and teach something ‘nice’? I know of youth groups where parents say their most passionate desire is to keep their offspring attending the group and it is the youth minister’s job to make the meeting so attractive that the fun will keep them coming. I don’t see Jesus creating ‘laugh-a-minute’ meetings in first-century Jerusalem. I see Jesus constantly challenging people of all ages to live godly lives. That may not be popular and may create decline in your group.
Some youth leaders seem to set out to be so abrasive to their group that they become unpopular and lose some members — we should never do that. But we must maintain the courage of our convictions to ‘preach the word ... in season and out of season’ (2 Timothy 4.1). And when it comes to your evaluation, make sure your church leaders know why you are doing it. Numbers in youth groups have always gone up and down — don’t panic!!
