Introducing Tansquared Youth Ministry EBook.

Welcome Back Hannah; Tansquared Youth Ministry!

Hello friends! Hannah here from the blog Tansquared Youth Ministry. Carmen has welcomed me back to her blog to share with you all again today! This time I’m sharing some thoughts around vision. I’m sharing from a Youth Ministry point of view but you can adapt this to suit your ministry, whether that looks like blogging or homemaking or a different church-based ministry.

Without vision people perish. – Proverbs 29:18

I was quite young when I first heard this scripture, and I didn’t really ‘get’ it. It was in the context of church, and at the time I wasn’t really involved in a ministry. But as I’ve grown up and matured I’ve learned that it is a truth for all areas of our lives! From the ‘big’ things such as marriage and career, to the obvious ones such as ministry and business, right down to the little things such as planning your day and food choices. Without a clear vision in each of these areas we’re bound to make some poor decisions along the way.

My husband and I had the privilege of starting a Youth Ministry from scratch at our church, two years ago. It can be slightly daunting or intimidating starting something from scratch, and especially a ministry. But that’s why vision is so important- it’s God showing you the path for your ministry to take, and pairing that with your passion helps to keep you focused. So here’s 3 things we learned about vision and starting a ministry:

1. Pray.

Scripture says, ‘commit to the Lord all that you do and He will establish your plans’ (Proverbs 16:3). Before you start planning, pray. Prayer gets your focus right. Ask God what His plan is for your ministry and how He wants you to use your strengths and passions. Pray for wisdom and protection as you move forward.

Many people I know have a scripture as part of the vision for their ministry. I love this! Scripture is the Word of God and it’s so powerful to be able to pray that over and into your ministry too.

2. What’s your church vision?

If your ministry is church-based, a good starting point here is to see what the vision is that your Senior Pastors have for your church. Make sure that whatever you do aligns with this vision. What you do in your ministry should add to your church and not create division. We are many parts, but one body (1 Corinthians 12:20).

For church-based ministry it’s also important to connect with your Senior Pastors. Get to know your Senior Pastors and have them get to know you. YOU are running a ministry in the church THEY have been entrusted with. You have to work on that relationship with them, and align your vision with their vision

3. Well rounded vision.

It’s important that your vision isn’t only short-term focused or only long-term focused. We need to plan for the future, so what we do now must support that. We also need to be present now, but we can’t be so narrow focused that we don’t consider where people might move on to after they’ve been through our ministries. Does that make sense?

For example, when we began our Youth ministry the short-term vision we had was to see our group of teens want to hang out together. The long-term vision was to create a place where any teen felt they could belong. This aligned with our church’s vision of valuing people and developing the God-dream in them. We saw these short-term goals met in the first three months, and our long-term ones are ongoing.

Like I mentioned before, my husband and I had the privilege of starting a Youth Ministry from scratch. We started out with only a handful of students, and it was so great! I’ve written an ebook about our adventures in getting started with the hope of encouraging others that are getting started, too. 30 Days To Start A Rockin’ Youth Ministry also comes with a 16 page printable workbook to help you plan. You can purchase your copy here, and for readers of Married By His Grace you can use the code FRIENDSOFMBHG10 to get 10% off.