By Brian Seidel

We have seen God work in some amazing ways in the past few years in our church as well as in our youth ministry. One of the most notable successes has been our Sunday morning program Youth Café. This new means to reach teens has really produced some significant results.

About four years ago, after realizing that our youth Sunday school was no longer effective, we took the bold step of ending it with the school year. We used that summer to re-evaluate, pray, and seek the Lord’s leading. We had come to realize that both our Sunday school and youth small groups were designed for committed Christian teens to learn and grow. Our small groups were successful; our Sunday school wasn’t. We just weren’t reaching the youth that came on Sunday mornings.

Once we understood the weakness in our youth ministry, all the youth staff put our heads together to design a new program. In September 2005, Youth Café was launched.

The program itself is quite simple and informal. We start with just hanging out, listening to music, and eating donuts. Then we play an interactive game for about twenty minutes and then split into junior-high tables and senior-high tables for discussion. Each table has a leader who guides them through the material for the day, which is based on some type of media—a Hollywood movie, a YouTube video, or current news story. The idea is to use something a non-Christian teen is already familiar with and expose them to God. Two of my favorite resources for material are www.ministryandmedia.com and www.movieministry.com.

Youth Café was a success from the very first Sunday. Our Sunday school had dwindled to just a handful before we finally called it quits. Attendance increased by 1,000 percent on the first Sunday of Youth Café!

There were a few parents resistant to the idea of ending Sunday school for their teens. However, because we had spent a great deal of time evaluating and planning for the best way to meet the needs of our teens, it was easy to explain to our reasoning. Once the parents understood that small groups would continue to provide the depth of teaching for discipleship, they were no longer concerned and became supportive of the new program.

Attendance is the easiest way to gauge success in the church, but it is not the biggest success of Youth Café. Once it was up and running, we noticed how it improved our entire ministry. We had created a bridge for the students to move from “forced to be here with my family on Sunday mornings” to truly getting involved in church. After only a few months, we saw how attendance at Youth Café guided them toward deeper relationships and eventually to deeper discipleship.

We found that our regular attendees were more likely to invite their unchurched friends to Youth Café. It is easier for them to invite a friend when they know they will not be sitting and listening to someone talk for an hour. We now have new visitors every week.

One other benefit is that Youth Café has provided the perfect place for our student leaders to truly lead. Currently, our student leaders have a major role in the week-to-week operation. They serve as greeters and also lead junior-high discussion tables. These young leaders are an important part of its success.

With all this talk about programs, let me close by saying that youth ministry is not about programs. Programs are a means to an end, not the end themselves. Youth Café would have been an experiment that failed if it hadn’t fit into the bigger picture of our ministry and filled the gap God revealed to us. The goal is healthy committed Christians, not successful programs. Seek God for his leading, evaluate your entire ministry often, hold programs with open arms, and let God do his work.

Brian Seidel is the youth pastor for the Cloverdale Church of God in Boise, ID