Staying Creative

A lot of what we do in Church is pretty predictable. There’s worship, a sermon an offering some announcements.. You get the idea. One of the greatest things about youth ministry is the fact that we can be a bit more flexible and creative in what we do. But even in youth ministry there’s a tendency to get stuck, or fall back to the same old routine, and before you know it your youth ministry just becomes a routine of the same stuff every week.

Most youth leaders want their youth to be excited at every moment of their youth ministry life, but why would we expect someone to be excited about the same exact thing every week?

Creativity is something that has to be cultivated and worked at with your team. Here’s 4 practical things you can do to keep things creative and fresh in your youth ministry.

Set a creative schedule

Creativity is usually less spontaneous than it appears. If things aren’t creative on their own, set a schedule! Agree on a certain week to have a video clip and then get a team to think about what that can be; set a certain week where you want a game in your service and pull some people together to brainstorm. A creative schedule helps to focus in brainstorming and planning sessions and usually ends up generating better ideas.

Don’t do everything yourself

I’m most creative when I have space to think and observe. If I’m going to be spontaneous in my youth service, I can’t be the one thinking about the sound, lights, ushers, chairs, ice breaker, offering, etc etc. When you begin to delegate some of the busyness it frees you up to function more creatively as a pastor or leader.

Be clear about your purpose

If you don’t know what you want, then you’ll probably never get it. Truly creative programs are birthed out of clear purpose. What is it that you want to be creative in–an activity for your youth? an outreach? a leader’s meeting? If you can clearly define the purpose then you’ll know what you’re trying to accomplish and which ideas take you off track.

Use extended campaigns

Campaigns are a great way to stir creativity. We’ve had campaigns talking about outreach, campaigns to encourage Bible reading, campaigns to push discipleship. When you set a campaign theme that will run over 4 weeks or more, then you and your team can start to dream of ways to support that theme. Some of our best resources, videos, skits and creative ideas were birthed out of a desire to move things forward through a campaign.