Letās just admit it: Sometimes student ministry is overwhelming. It can feel like there are a million things to do and never enough time to do them. Then, when you add in big events on top of the regular weekly rhythms, youth ministry starts to feel truly overwhelming.
One thing that helps me in the midst of those impossible weeks and seasons is my network. I live in Arvada, Colorado, and we have about five to ten churches that are part of our area network. A Gospel Advancing network is simply a group of Gospel Advancing ministry leaders or youth leaders working together to mobilize teens to reach every teen in their community.
Our network connects once a month to encourage one another, pray for the teens in our area, and coordinate one or two events a year together. One of these regular events that we host as a network is called Dare 2 Share LIVE.
A Great Event to Start With
Dare 2 Share LIVE is an ideal event to kick-start a network or simply to invite other churches to join you. The amazing thing about this event is that itās completely free and really easy to host for your own groupāno matter the size or location.
This event will catalyze your students to begin to reach their schools, neighborhoods, families, and friends for Christ. Once you register, Dare 2 Share provides training videos, a suggested outline for the event, graphics, and more!
This will be our second year hosting this event as a network. Sometimes working with others can be tricky, especially if youāre coming from different types of churches. So here are four practical tips to follow if youāre trying to rally your networkāor start a networkāfor this event.
1. Know your purpose.
Whether or not youāre part of a network, every event should have a purpose or goal. For us, our goal is to reach the 14,000 students in the Arvada area. We focus our network and any network events on those 14,000 students, making this the central purpose for our collaboration. (If you want to learn more about how to develop a great goal for your network, check out this article.)
2. Prepare well.
If you have a network, this starts by simply inviting those churches to join you. If you donāt have a network, this is a great time to launch a network of churches as you collaborate on your first event together.
Again, the amazing thing about Dare 2 Share LIVE is that the resources are free! Once you register, youāll have access to everything you need to prepare well for this event.
Here are a few practical preparation tips as you connect with other churches:
- Designate a point person to keep people organized and take notes at meetings (this might be you).
- Divide the tasks among people based on their gifts and the resources available to them at their church.
- Meet regularlyāat least twiceābefore the event to talk about details.
- Ask each church to be responsible for their own transportation, permission forms, and adult leaders.
3. Participate and plan.
Participation doesnāt mean just showing up for the event. It also means collaborating with others about the details of the event preparation, execution, and cleanup. For my network, weāve decided to have two churches host this event each year, one for the morning sessions and the second for outreach afterward. This allows multiple churches, worship teams, and staff teams to get involved, and it removes the pressure for one church to host everyone.
As you participate and plan with other churches, here are some questions to consider:
- Who will host the event? Will we move from church to church or stay in one location?
- Will there be food? If so, do we all need to charge the same amount to cover food? Who will be responsible for this?
- Will there be worship? If so, who will lead it? Do we need to talk about types of worship songs?
- What will the outreach portion look like? Will we do the same thing or all do our own thing?
- How can we demonstrate to students that our churches are not competing but collaborating? (For example, one way to show collaboration and not competition is to avoid planning any competitions or games against one another.)
4. Pray about it.
Just as we teach our students about the importance of PrayerĀ āĀ CareĀ āĀ Share, we need to also demonstrate this in preparation for this event. My network spends time praying for this event each time we gather, and several have an alarm set for 11:09 a.m.āsince the event is on November 9āas a reminder to pray about it daily.
A Word of Encouragement
My biggest encouragement for you, especially if you havenāt participated in a network-type event together, is to just try it! Yes, it will be bumpy. And, yes, there may be miscommunications and mistakes. But itās worth it!
Itās worth it for your students to see you collaborate with other youth leaders, demonstrating that youāre all on the same team. It hasnāt been easy for us, and our network has taken several years to get it to this point, but the effort has paid off every time.