How do your mission statement and programming inform each other?

While there are many spontaneous moments in youth ministry, much of the design of our program is based on a detailed outline of what we’ve deemed important for each of our kids to get before they graduate out of the youth group. I learned a long time ago that knowing why you do something is as important as, if not more important than, what it is you actually do. Begin with the mission and let it inform the program. Programming not rooted in mission is like chaperoning recess. There might be benefits to it, but it’s really just a break from the regular class, and heaven forbid we let the place our kids learn how to navigate life be anywhere other than one that teaches kingdom principles.

Of course, to carry out any mission there need to be regular, all-community events like weekly Bible studies, camps, mission trips, informal and formal outings and conferences, but I’ve learned that it is the smaller, less magnified activities that allow the real-life application to happen. Things like, we require the youth to keep the youth room clean, give offerings to help fund special projects, cook their own contributions to the missions dinners, find scriptures in the Bible rather than depending on the screen projections, practice conflict resolution, and discuss current events in light of scripture. Why? 1. Because they can. 2. Because we have to provide them with ample opportunities to do and become what they are being taught.

Throughout the years, I’ve had run-ins with young adults who were part of the ministry, and they enthusiastically recall episodes and occasions when we did this or that. Some of the remembrances are around Bible study and high spiritual moments, but just as many are not. Inevitably, these funny and reflective moments turn the corner, and former students standing before me start to tell how it was in one of those moments that they truly discovered something that impacted and shaped their faith foundation. Something organic and in the moment that made all the difference despite all the programs set in place to accomplish that same resolve. Little did they know that things like “develop faith in community” and “create opportunities for life application” are written in the program’s mission.

As a young woman in ministry, I asked veteran youth pastors if I could see their ministry outlines. For whatever reason, many treated it like it was some highly guarded secret. Maybe it is, but I don’t mind sharing. Here’s the Roadside short outline.
Purpose/Mission: To nurture and release righteous, respectable, and responsible citizens of the kingdom into the world.
Projects & Programs: Weekly group, campus outreach, special events, service and mission works, cross-generational mentoring.
Points of Focus: Salvation, discipleship, worship, service, and community.
Plan: Consistent and transformingly good programs, activities, relationships, and teaching.
If you have more questions, I’d love to discuss it with you.

3) Our programming is about people. Programs are only as effective as they are devoted to the people they involve. Programs are merely portals into the hearts of students. Sunday school, small group, retreats, special events, etc., are about nothing more than connecting with people and guiding them into spiritual formation for the sake of the world.

So, to our question, how do mission statements and programs inform each other? First, your mission is the purpose for your programming and the kind of programing you shepherd. Therefore, the mission informs why you would program anything in the first place.

Second, your mission is what keeps your programs from drifting off into irrelevance and insignificance. It keeps you on track and informs your programs with measurable tools.

Third, your mission provides your team, whether volunteer or paid, with a reason to engage through the hard and challenging times of working with teens. When volunteers ask, “Why am I doing this” or, “Am I even making a difference?” or, “Why do I do this to myself?” they’ll have a reason that brings them back to sanity and courage.

Fourth, mission statements allow you to recruit fellow ministers to a purpose or vision rather than a glaring hole or gap in your ministry. Many youth workers recruit by making people feel guilty for not helping to meet the needs of the church. This does not last. Mission informs vision, and vision informs programming.

Finally, mission statements—to be frank—keep your boss off your back. Seriously, committing to a shared mission with your supervisor provides an opportunity for you and your team of ministers to keep your conversations on the things that really matter—people. Also, mission informs the budget for your programs, which can also be a reason for conflict at times, as I am sure you are already well aware of.

Mission statements are critical but only if they emerge out of God’s mission. God’s mission, to say it one way, is to make the world whole again. God invites us into God’s mission as agents of God’s love and restoration. As youth workers, one way we do this is through meaningful and relevant programs that are concerned with people. Programs embedded with God’s mission give us a reason to gather and guide students into spiritual formation for the sake of the world.

That church was similar to many out there: We had a mission statement and a vision statement, and while they both looked great on paper, that was about it. If you asked any of our church members, they probably wouldn't have been able to tell you much about the content of either statements, and our ministries were not necessarily connected to them.

Then we went through another process to come up with a core values statement. Not surprisingly, some folks were a bit skeptical of all the time and effort going into the process because they assumed we would end up with another well-crafted statement that didn't have any impact on our ministries. However, we kept trusting the process, and after a few months, came up with our core values statement: Centered in Jesus Christ, we grow in faith, celebrate community, and serve others with love. Pretty simple. Pretty straightforward. And to be honest, it wasn't a lot different from one of the other statements we already had. But this time, almost all the congregation had been involved, and there was a great sense of ownership.

Then we decided to make it count, to really live into the values. We publicized it extensively. We repeated it over and over and over again. We incorporated it into our sermons. We also met with everyone who led the various groups and ministries of our church and decided that, from this point forward, any new events, any big projects that seemed like great ideas, would have to be filtered through the core values statement. If the idea didn't help us grow in faith, celebrate community, or serve others with love, it didn't make the cut.

And the difference with this approach was that every ministry began to own these core values. The youth ministry didn't need to come up with its own mission statement; we now had one because we were part of the greater church. This meant that we always found ways to incorporate the core values statement into our program and into the activities we did. When we met together prior to going on a mission trip, we were able to not only talk about how important it is to serve others but to connect the trip to all the specific elements of our statement.

This also helped communicate that what we were doing on mission trips wasn't just part of our youth ministry but was really a part of the ministry of the greater church. This aspect was really important to me because, after the youth graduate from our program, they know they can be a part of a faith community because they have that connection. Part of the problem of so many youth ministries is that they tend to be disconnected from the larger church, and the youth don't exactly know where to go after graduating from high school.

There are many ways that your programming can be directly connected to your mission statement, and it's important that the connection is made. It also makes you think a lot harder about the different events and activities that might get added to your program and helps give you a framework for deciding what's important, what's worth investing in, and what will contribute most to the spiritual formation of your youth.