Including Friends of Church Youth
Encourage youth in your church to bring their friends to youth meetings and church events. Find ways to develop an outreach mentality among your youth so that they will be motivated to invite their school or community friends to youth events in their church. Assist the entire youth group to make the newcomers feel welcome and included.
BEST SUITED FOR: Any Size Congregation
WHAT'S INVOLVED?
 | Develop an outreach mentality among your youth. Discuss with the youth committee or entire youth group the desirability of becoming more open to youth whose families are not attending their church. Ask them if they have friends who might enjoy coming with them to youth events. Many will become enthusiastic about the possibility of bringing their school or neighborhood friends to youth events. |
| Discuss ways to make the newcomers feel welcome, Youth will likely have many ideas for including their friends. Together with the youth, you might come up with suggestions such as: |
- Plan a fun event (gym night, bowling) that is interactive and will allow all youth to feel comfortable with each other.
- Structure the evening in a way that the newcomers can be with their friends and also get to know others from the youth group.
- Find ways (as leaders) to be friendly without becoming overbearing or obnoxious.
- Talk about upcoming events and invite them to participate in the ones that interest them.
- Ask them about what kinds of activities and events they would like to see planned in the future.
| Maintain contact and show genuine concern. Often it is difficult to keep the interest of newcomers over a longer period of time. They may come a few times when special events have been planned, but lose interest when the more routine meetings take place. The following ideas might help to sustain interest: |
- Encourage participation in more intense events such as retreats, where deeper relationships can be established and bonding can take place.
- Invite input from these youth so that their interests will be met through the planned events.
- Be sure they are included in the "telephone tree" and are called when spontaneous or unscheduled events take place.
- When they are absent, call them to see how they are doing and let them know that they were missed.
- Meet with their parents, explain the youth program to them, and solicit their responses and concerns.
- Provide the new youth and their parents with a schedule of events, and do not rely only on their friends to tell them about upcoming meetings.
- If appropriate, give them some responsibilities on one of the committees.
DO'S AND DON'TS
| DON'T......make them feel guilty if they attend only the fun events. |
| DON'T......give undue attention to them or put them on the spot when they come. |
| DON'T......force them to interact with others if they are not ready to do so. |
RESOURCES NEEDED
| A sensitive youth leader who has a vision for outreach and an ability to involve youth in owning and implementing that vision. |
COST: Need not be any
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