What is the key to a vibrant, growing youth ministry? Many churches assume it’s finding the right youth director and offering programming so entertaining it can compete with every other option in a teenager’s life. But Laura Heikes shares how youth ministry in her congregation has grown in a different way—not by doing more for young people, but by choosing to do ministry with them.
Growth came when we stopped asking how adults could better lead youth and started asking how youth could lead—supported by a team of adults who trust them, prepare them, and walk alongside them. The shift sounds simple, but it required a deep change in posture: less control, more collaboration; less performance, more participation.
Give the Mic Away
Our youth director and leadership team describe one of their primary roles as “handing off the mic.” Instead of adults leading worship, service projects, and small groups, leadership is intentionally handed to students.
Senior high students now plan and lead the middle school retreat. Youth staff focus on support, encouragement, and logistics—meals, transportation, and sleeping arrangements—while students teach, lead music, and design small groups. The results have been striking. Middle schoolers listen intently to peers they admire, and high school leaders deepen their own faith as they learn what it means to articulate and pass it on.
This same approach now shapes an outreach program at a local elementary school. It is youth—not adults—who show up every Monday to encourage and support their younger buddies. The students help determine pairings based on their observations and relationships. They take responsibility seriously because it is serious. Youth are not assistants; they are leaders.
Even our Youth Love Feast reflects this shift. A worship service that once included youth in carefully contained roles has become an event fully led by students—preaching, music, ushering, and liturgy. The youth director supports them behind the scenes by reviewing sermons, offering feedback, and coaching them in public speaking. But the leadership belongs to the youth; adults serve as guides.
Phones Down
One of the greatest obstacles to meaningful presence, for adults and youth alike, is carried in our pockets and purses- the phone. Our youth community has developed a shared ritual for laying phones down so they can be fully present with God and one another. Before worship, small groups, or service, phones are taken out of bags and pockets and placed together as this prayer is spoken:
We surrender our phones to acknowledge that we are not as essential as we would have ourselves believe, and to recognize how essential we are to this moment, this conversation, this process.
We put down our phones to release the false belief that we can be more places than here, doing more things than this, and to commit to being fully present, here and now.
We turn off our phones to turn toward each other and the moment at hand, with full attention, creativity, and welcome. May we receive the gifts of full presence and true connection. May God meet us in this moment. Amen.
Phones are then powered down and set aside—for hours during local gatherings or for an entire week on a mission trip. Freed from constant interruption, youth are able to notice what God is doing in, through, and among them. One student recently said, “I can’t wait to get away from my phone!” That freedom doesn’t happen by accident; it happens because a community chooses it together.
Intergenerational Teams
Our youth team regularly reminds students that young people who have five non-parental adults they can turn to are far more likely to hold onto their faith into their twenties. To support that, our youth team looks outside the typical pool of youth volunteers. Yes, we have committed parents who serve. But some of the most faithful volunteers are single adults, empty nesters, and even a spunky 73-year-old who never misses a week. Non-parental adults can be a vital part of the youth team.
It’s not biblical expertise or even an elusive “cool factor” that makes an adult volunteer ideal. Our youth team looks for a willingness to show up and the gift of listening. As our youth director often says, showing up and listening is at least 80 percent of the work.
The strength of our youth ministry doesn’t rest on a charismatic leader or a calendar of fun activities. It grows from a team-based culture that trusts young people with real responsibility, surrounds them with caring adults, and creates space for deep presence with God and one another. When we make “giving the mic away” the heart of youth ministry, we discover depth, meaning, and faith that carries our young people into adulthood.
Related Resources
- Engaging Young Adults by Beth Ludlum
- 50 Ways to Strengthen Ministry with Youth, a free Lewis Center resource
- Good Youth Ministry featuring Kristin Franke — Watch the Leading Ideas Talks podcast video | Listen to the podcast audio version | Read the transcript
- Best Practices for Reaching Young Adultsby Perry Chang
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