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Youth Ministry
Finding a Place

Small Group Youth Ministry at McIvor MB

How do you touch fringe kids with Christian challenge? How do you strengthen ministry to include these kids? From these issues, small group ministry was born.

Purpose

The cell group program is designed to provide personalized care and accountability for the youth. The relationship between sponsor and youth is taken to a new level – one that will never be achieved in the large group setting. It is also a forum for leadership training. Cell groups are designed for growth. If a group gets over six youth, another group is formed.

Structure

The groups each contain up to six youth and two sponsors or adult leaders. The cell group program replaces one of the big group events each month. Groups can decide themselves what the main purpose of their group should be; for example, missions, prayer, Bible study, social, or “a place to crash.”

Implementation

Make sure that you understand why you are doing this. That understanding must then be passed on to the sponsors and then to the student leaders. Once the student leaders were on board, we asked them to pass the idea around to other youth. The idea was also passed around through Bible studies, one-on-one’s, and our monthly newsletter. Sign-up is voluntary. We mixed grades and sexes. We started the idea in July and the first cell meeting was in October.

Results

Attendance

Some of the youth who signed up could have been considered “fringe kids,” but they now have a place and are being cared for. The objective was not to get them to attend youth group (youth group does not equal salvation!) but that has been a result.

Growth

Every month there is at least one new person seeking to join a group. This is done through some shoulder tapping but mostly through the comments of youth already in cell groups.

Sponsor’s Sense of Achievement

How many of us do youth ministry so we can plan a car rally? Not too many I would guess. We do it so we can contribute something to the lives of the youth. Cell groups have given us that opportunity, more so than any Bible study or large group event.

We are very excited about the potential of cell groups. The program is still very new but it is growing and becoming stronger each time we meet. If you would like to talk more about this, I would love to talk to you!

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Written by Dave Ens, pastor at McIvor MB Church. He can be reached at (204) 339-1691.
Last modified October 31, 2000.

Ideabank is a quarterly newsletter published by the Board of Christian Education Ministries, a board of the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches.

© 2000 Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches.
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