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BRANDING YOUR YOUTH MINISTRY: A good idea?
The Edge! The Blaze! The Surge! The Core! Remember the good old days when we just called it "youth group?" Seems like every youth ministry now has to have some name that assures interested teens that "our group isn't boring!" (e.g. We're "On Fire!" We are living on "The Edge!") And often these names are clever acronyms for an even longer name (S.T.I.N.C. - Soulful Teens In Christ...or something like that). And having a cool name generally leads to having a cool logo, which leads to having cool shirts emblazoned with the logo and a cool website...and maybe even mugs, hats, boxers, and mouse pads. All in an effort to brand the youth ministry and to give it a distinctive identity. Which, in and of itself, is not a bad thing, I guess. It's certainly very in keeping with the corporate world we live in where teens can you tell you by heart the slogan for just about every product out there (Just do it! Have it your way! Think Outside the Bun!)But it makes me wonder....With the growing consensus amongst youth ministers that we've done a pretty good job of isolating youth from the wider church, doesn't branding of a youth ministry just add to this problem? Why create an identity for your ministry that is separate and distinct from the identity of your church? What is wrong with calling yourselves "the youth ministry of First Church" (or whatever your church's name happens to be)? Why not spend more time helping youth feel a part of the wider church community of which you are a part, rather than creating a niche identity that the teens may not even associate with the sponsoring congregation?
--Brian
12 comments:
while youth ministry has seemed to drift from connection to the wider church body, i'm going to lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of the "old folks" in the church.
there are so many reasons that teens are "inconvenient" for sunday morning services and wider church events so what happens? they outsource the care of today's students: they hire a youth pastor (of which I'm one).
if i could preach a sermon to my whole church, i'd ream them for being disconnected from students and children. not just on sunday morning, but in everything.
there are so many reasons why this is wrong.
that being said, i think that it is OK for student ministries to work on branding their ministry. it creates a safe feeling for parents (especially those who don't grow up churched).
Your thoughts here are part of the reason why I really prefer familiy ministry to yout ministry. As a youth minister you get 3-5 hours a week with the teens, while they typically watch more hours of TV in single day! Providing resources and ministering to whole families, I believe, is a better approach.
Have I done that perfectly, No! Churches sometimes get stuck in the rut, they do what others churches do and stop thinking critically about things.
I don't know anyone who believes that the early church had youth programs. Services were inter-generational. I think we need to get back to that approach in mnay ways.
i'll tell you, i recently went away from "youth group" for a brand. i don't really know why, except for the fact that i wanted kids to associate a name with our particular meeting. i see the issue of separating from the church, but chose to name them so kids could identify with something that is "theirs" or particular to them at church.
i wonder, are kids from outside the church more likely to come to a "brand name" than to a church name?
what did i name our groups? Junior High "Alien Workshop" and High School "unwind."
@ramblingsofpassion I agree that the "old folks" have in a way deserted the youth. However, putting the whole blame on them is quite frankly sinful. I'm in an old church with a lot of old people who have no interest in my teens...so I go to them. We have a responsibility to get our teens in the lives of the older generations...we are their one and only bridge (in most cases). Have you ever asked an older person why they don't get involved? I have and the answer isn't because those teens are such scoundrels eww stay away...it's because they don't feel loved or welcome by us the youth pastor or by the teens.
One way God asked me to bridge this gap is to help the older folks with my leadership team of high school students to go to the nursing home and minister together to the elderly. It will look different in every church, but this is one way.
Also, with the branding issue, for me I see as a non-issue to be honest. I feel it gives a sense of ownership to the teens and if you have a good relationship with the church, it can help church folks take ownership as well. Good thoughts Brian!
great post!! amen!!
i always crack up when i meet a youth pastor and he/she boldly states: Yes I am the youth pastor for Garage student ministries.
I am like what?
I don't think having a separate name for your youth ministry sets up any major dilemma. However, that being said, I do think we should seriously consider what we put that name on, or how important it becomes. We can easily become a business without even realizing it, selling to our youth various items with the name branded on it. So you get some sweaters, and some really trendy shirts that sets your group apart from any other. Maybe your image is so well designed people wouldn't even know its for a group about God, but would of course make other youth ask "where did you get that awesome shirt"? Which inevitably leads to a conversation about the youth group you attend and sure enough in a short while your youth group is packed right? Be careful people how much stock we put on an "image" to get people interested in God. I have had those same ideas before and realized they didn't work, and any kids I got out because of a trendy name or logo ended up being christian vegetables after high school. If it is not because of the power of God our youth group grows, then i don't want growth for the sake of growth.
Excellent ideas all around. I purposely posed the title of this post as a question because, though I knew what I thought about the issue, I realize there are different sides to this. Branding can be useful --many churches as a whole work on developing a brand for themselves (my church has "branded" itself as a church focused on the arts as a way to spread the gospel) and branding a youth ministry can be a positive thing, as long as it doesn't give the impression that the youth ministry stands alone from the church (otherwise, doesn't it just become a parachurch group?).
Here's a bit of a different thought on branding:
With our younger students (7-8), they just want to get to know eachother and are frankly are not mature enough to go too deep with God. I think branding here can be a great way to draw kids in and begin to foster mentoring relationships that deepen in the future.
BUT but the time they get into grade 9 or 10 they are looking for something far different. The ministry has to speak for itself, the brand is no longer as important.
Sonrise,
Thanks for sharing. I think you are on the right track here. The branding is not so much the issue as whether or not it is being used to separate the youth ministry from the regular church (and so sending a not-so-subtle message that regular church is boring/irrelevant/uncool) ets. Branding can help add a sense of identity to a youth ministry but I agree that we still must work hard to help youth see their connection to the wider church.
This has been an issue that I've been struggling with for the last couple years. We just changed our ministry name from Crossfire Student Ministries to Sonrise SM. I kept feeling that our group was being pulled away from the church in a whole. Not because we wanted to be or that the "old folks" didn't want anything to do with us. I found that we were not trying hard enough to be a part of the church. Things just naturally seemed to drift over time and everyone seemed all right with it.
In the last month we have done several things to bridge the camp between our "two churches." I am excited to see how God has blessed this change.
I am not saying that having exciting names is a bad thing, I've just found that is was a part of us losing our focus on the church as a whole.
eb == I love your idea about writing parallel mission statements for the church and youth ministry. This would be a good way, for those who still want to do some heavy-duty branding, to still demonstrate how the youth program is part of the work of the wider church. THanks for sharing.
Love your thoughts here! I've been thinking through some similar issues while sharpening the ministry philosophy of my youth ministry so that new youth leaders can get a good idea what they're in for and what to expect. I wrestled a little with whether or not we should even have a different Mission Statement from our church, or whether or not that simply broadens the gulf that so easily comes between the church and their youth ministry. I ended up writing a mission statement that's parallel with the church's, but with different keywords.
I appreciate your encouragement here to remember that our youth ministries aren't entities in themselves.
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