Perhaps one of the biggest challenges in ministry is getting people involved. Speaking from my own experience as a youth minister, I have found myself many times struggling to get our group to jump in and be involved. These challenges often come from a simple scheduling issue, where the majority of our group have other events or activities planned that ultimately keeps them from being able to attend our youth group related events. Because of all these different schedules, a lot of times we will only have a handful of teens at our events.
If I’m being perfectly honest, this is something I have gotten very frustrated by over the past few months. I’ve questioned myself whether I’m working hard enough to get everyone involved. I’ve doubted my abilities to carry out this ministry well. At times, I’ve even gotten angry about how few we have involved. I’ve told myself that a successful ministry comes down to how many you have in attendance—if I only have one or two show up then I have failed. Over time, however, I’ve started asking myself some hard questions: Which is more valuable to this ministry—the many? Or the few? Who should I put more of my effort toward—the many? Or the few?
The answer: BOTH! With all of this on my mind, I’ve had to push myself to see the bigger picture. The truth is, each and every individual is important, regardless of how many or few there are. Our problem often lies in the numbers—how many members do we have? How many teens do we have at our youth events? How many baptisms have we had over the past year? We play a comparison game with each other or with other congregations that ultimately drives us to focus more on numerical growth than on SPIRITUAL growth. Please don’t hear me wrong—we should have a desire for our congregations to grow in numbers! In my ministry, I would love to have the classroom full every week. I would love to have 30 teens at every event. I hope and pray that our group can grow! However, we can’t look at our work in the church as just a numbers game.
Regardless of how many or how few we may have involved, we should still work to put in our maximum effort. If we have twenty or just two show up, they deserve the best we can give. Think about Jesus for a moment. There were days He would be with hundreds, even thousands, of people. Other times He would be surrounded by just a select few. Did He favor the many more than the few? Did He put more effort into the larger crowds than He did just with His disciples? No! Instead, He was the same toward everyone He came into contact with. The same should apply to us. If we have a huge group or even just one person attending, we need to remember each and every one is a soul that God loves and desires to have a relationship with. Attendance may ebb and flow, but our effort to help the spiritual growth of those around us should never change. This is the reminder I have needed to hear. Maybe you are in a similar situation yourself. I hope this has given you some encouragement!
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