Most youth ministers I know don’t like feeling like “sales people,” but if we’re going to spend hours planning events for our teens then we need to spend some time publicizing the events.

Being the ridiculously cheap human being that I am, I found Doug Hall’s book, Jumpstart Your Brain, in one of those four-books-for-one-dollar deals. The cover caught my eye, so I signed up, and I’m glad I did because Doug’s humorous writing has inspired and motivated me for years.

Last year, I found another one of his books, Jumpstart Your Business Brain, in my local library. In this book he outlines the three pieces of information we should include anytime we publicize our ministry.

They are:

1. Benefit
• Keep the audience’s actual needs in mind (This happens to be very similar to my One Sentence Discription of Ministry).
• Don’t list mere features, but benefits that have pizzazz.
• Here are a few questions he suggests we ask to help identify the benefits:
• Why does this exist?
• Why is it important?
• Why is it necessary?
• Post your benefit in your most important place—your name.
2. Real Reason to Believe
• What is your credibility?
• The world is tired of sales people making promises they can’t keep. Why can our audience trust that we will actually provide the Benefit we just promised?
• The most powerful source of credibility is to tell the truth (Yet another Christian principal).
3. Dramatic Difference
• How relevant is your point of difference? Remember we are here to serve them; are we? (I love the fact that Doug Hall reiterates that we are here to serve them. There are some things that Christians can learn from capitalists.)
• Why are you the only one who can offer this?

This is a basic outline of the three points he says every publication should have. The first half of Jumpstart Your Business Brain elaborates on these points by discussing things such as the “five proven strategies for communicating Real Reason to Believe.” The second half of the book explores techniques for generating creativity in group collaborations, which is yet another important task of youth ministers.

You should definitely check your local library to see if they carry any of Doug Hall’s books. I recommend you start with Jumpstart Your Brain then read Jumpstart Your Business Brain. In the latter, Doug rescinds some if the ideas he discusses in the former, but in Jumpstart Your Brain he writes more “from the gut” so it’s more inspiring and motivating. In Jumpstart Your Business Brain he discusses the scientific research behind effective publications and collaborative creativity so it provides more logical, practical ideas.

(They’ve changed the book cover)

When I started blogging for my church, a lot of parents asked me what a blog was. I dug around on YouTube and found this video which I put under my parish blogs’ subscribe buttons. It basically explains how they can use RSS.

The easiest and most effective thing our ministry ever did was organize a Prayer Ministry. Here is why we did it, and the steps we took to get the ministry going.

I had recently listened to a talk given by Fr. Pat Martin who works with people who have various disabilities. Years ago he organized a group of business people to raise money to build a new center for his ministry. They planned some brilliant fundraisers, but each one failed because of a detrimental act of nature such as “fog as thick as pea soup” which made the state shut down several major roads and effectively canceled their fundraiser. Eventually, Fr. Pat realized they had left Christ out of their plans; they were trying to do ministry without God. Fr. Pat immediately canceled their next fundraiser and they all went on a prayer pilgrimage where they turned all their work over to God. After that, God blessed their efforts and their center was built.

The same thing happened at my church. My first couple of years here I worked between ten and twelve hours a day, planned all kinds of retreats and events, and studied tirelessly to lean how to be a better youth minister. All of my efforts resulted in a ministry that limped along. I felt like a failure, and to be completely honest, I almost quit; If I couldn’t help this ministry, I felt I should get out of the way and let someone else be in charge. And that, of course, is exactly what God wanted me to do – to get out of his way and let him be in charge.

We organized a simple prayer ministry in order to bring our ministry in alignment with God’s will, and since then, God has been honoring those prayers and blessing this church. Great leaders have shown up who are taking ownership of the ministry; Great teens have shown up who are open to God’s love. This is an exciting time to be a youth minister at this church, and the best part is it’s not about me, it’s all about God.

Finding new volunteers is usually the most difficult part of this job, but I had no trouble finding people to join our Prayer Ministry.

• Start by praying – right now.
• Every November my parish sends out “Time, Talent, and Treasure” surveys inviting people to participate in our church’s various ministries. With my Youth Commission’s blessing, I added a category called “Prayer Ministry.” The first year we sent that survey out fifteen people signed up . . . it was that easy.
  • If you don’t have a “Time, Talent, and Treasure” survey, or don’t want to wait until next November (please, don’t wait until next November), email, call, or talk to as many parents as possible. This is such a simple ministry and almost everyone agrees in the importance of prayer, so inviting people to pray is relatively easy.
• We sent those fifteen a letter (which I will include so you can see how unimpressive it was) inviting them to a meeting at which we would organize the Prayer Ministry. Five people showed up and they were all carrying calendars – It was the perfect number and they were the perfect people for an organizational meeting.
• At the bottom of this article, I will include the agenda for our first meeting. We basically wanted to answer two questions:
  • Why we wanted to do this (our mission statement)
  • How we wanted to do this (our strategy)
• We came up with half a dozen great ideas but we all agreed to keep this as simple as possible.
• Here is what we do:
  • Once a month, 30 minutes before our first Confirmation meeting of the month, we pray the rosary for our teens in the Eucharistic chapel. . . Yep, that’s it. There are other ideas and projects in the works, but our foundation is always the rosary.
• One important thing to do is to find someone else to officially lead the ministry.
• One of those original five is the leader of our Prayer Ministry. That means once a month, about a week before the meeting, she sends out an email to people she knows, including me, which reminds me to send out an email to the parents. My job is to support, empower, and encourage her ministry. Remember our job is “to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:12).
• We’ve also set up a Google calendar and put announcements in the bulletin, but emails and personal invitations seem to be the most effective way to invite new people to pray with us.
• When necessary, the original five will stick around after the rosary to discuss other plans.

If you don’t already have people praying for your ministry, get a Prayer Ministry started today (Pray Now). Don’t plan anything, just connect with some parents, get them together, and let them plan and run the ministry. God will bless you if you humbly turn your ministry over to him.

The letter I sent:

Dear <VOLUNTEER’S NAME – with only 15 letters to write, I thought typing their individual names was worth the effort>

Thank you for your interest in joining our Youth Ministry’s Prayer Ministry.

We’re going to have our first meeting <DATE>, at <TIME>, in <LOCATION>.

Since this is a new ministry (one that is long overdue) we need to get ourselves organized. That will be the purpose of our first meeting: to decide exactly how we want to work together to pray for our youth ministry.

I have a few ideas, but I would like for you to bring ideas to the meeting as well. Here are a few questions that might help you come up with some ideas:

• Who exactly do we want to pray for (teens, volunteers, sponsors, parents, etc.)?
• How do we want to pray?
• Do we need/want to meet regularly? Should we organize a method for praying together, or on our own, or both?

I’ll serve you a delicious dinner, so if you’re going to come, please RSVP so I’ll know how much food to bring. My email is: <YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS>

If you have questions please call or email me.

Working with you in ministry,

<YOUR NAME>

First Meeting’s Agenda:

• Pray
• Food and Chat (Get to know each other.)
• Pick someone to take meeting notes.
• Brainstorm Mission Statement (Why We Are Here):
  • Our Prayer Ministry exists to pray for every person, program, and event connected to the Youth Ministry, and to invite other people to pray with us.
• Brainstorm how we want to fulfill our Mission Statement:
  • Prayer sponsors – make bookmarks/business cards/refrigerator magnets/etc. with teen’s name and give them out after masses.
  • Traveling Youth Ministry Prayer Candle.
  • Bulletin announcements
  • Pictures of Confirmation candidates
  • Monthly Rosary (This is the idea that developed into the backbone of our Prayer Ministry.
• Do we need to meet again to get organized? If so, what exactly is the goal of that meeting?
• Closing Prayer
  • Impromptu prayer by me, then I asked everyone if there was anything going on in their lives they would like us to pray for, and we closed with an Our Father.