How to lead
A Church Youth Group
How To Build A Strong Youth Ministry - Andy Gabruch
Sharing buttons:
what's up everybody jeff moors think
international I'm here with Andy
Galbraith from next generation
ministries in Canada how you doing man
I'm doing well how about you Jeff
incredible incredible glad to be here
with you guys at elevate conference the
following content is brought to you by
elevate conference a children's pre-team
and family ministry Leadership
Conference from next-gen ministries go
to elevate conference CA / think to get
access to free leadership videos and
resources now one of the things that um
that you get to do as I guess the
director of next generation ministries
is you really get to meet with a lot of
youth pastors chat with them see what's
going on what is happening with youth
ministries in Canada right now yeah so
in BC in the Yukon I oversee 205
churches 110 youth pastors about 600
liters and so the pulse on youth
ministry in Canada is to simply meet
needs where kids are at where they're at
and so the whole Christianese thing
doesn't really work in Canada as much as
it used to but to meet people's needs
where there is a long way so some ways
that we try to do that is try to meet
practical needs on campus try to be
where kids are at when it's with their
families or where they're at in their
relationships or where they're at in
purpose that's one thing that we really
want to share and someone that's always
taught me is you want to give kids a
better yes before they say no to
something and so the gospel is a great
yes so we just want to practically bring
the gospel out in fun practical ways in
in in recent years actually I guess
you'd say in past years in order to
define a successful youth ministry for a
long time it was numbers it was how big
was your youth ministry what's going on
and that really isn't the case so much
anymore so what would you say is a
successful youth ministry in Canada what
does it look like or you guy just even
say globally what do you think it looks
like yeah that's a great question Jeff
to be honest with you I think it's
building disciples disciples building
and making more disciples and so do they
love Jesus do they read their Bible are
they praying are they baptized
are they spirit filled are they willing
to go to their schools and campuses to
reach out to their friends who know
Jesus and if we look through the New
Testament church
the gospel wasn't really proclaimed
through programs or through
organizations it was through people
that's true and people are one of the
greatest I think God's greatest plan to
bring the gospel to people who don't
know Jesus and so a successful youth
ministry would be people that are making
disciples so that's creating
opportunities for them to encounter God
that's giving them practical resources
and discipleship avenues to live out
their faith in real daily life not just
on a program on a Tuesday night or
eating pizza on a Friday night and it's
also serving like serving in your campus
or serving in a local church or
throughout the world through short term
missions tends to be some of the pulses
that we see here in Canada but that's
probably one of the biggest things that
we're trying to do is make disciples
yeah and to assess that well that's so
good that's so good right now being
connected to so many youth pastors what
would you say are some of the the
biggest needs for youth pastors right
now in general yeah another great
question man I think that youth pastors
really just want to make sure that
they're doing life together like and I
think that's been on my heart is the
Philippians chapter 1 verse 5 it says
partnership of the gospel and Paul is
saying this to be thankful for a great
church called Philippi and that word
partnership means Koinonia means
fellowship it means doing life together
so actually Paul is saying hey we're
called to do mission as a family and so
I think some of the things that youth
pastors need the most is just simple
relationship to someone care for me is
someone encouraging me is someone mentor
me is someone asking those tough
questions that I need to hear but in a
safe place that we're able to grow I
also think that youth pastors especially
in our context is we have a lot of
bi-vocational or a lot of lay leaders
that work and so they're crying out for
great resources and not just resources
let's say hey go to the DA blah blah
calm is and everything's there for you
it's actually contextualized resources
so it's kind of interesting because that
only happens through a relationship so
if someone's like oh I want to get on my
campus for example I don't know how to
do that we would go in and say hey
here's some practical ways or 20 ways of
how to get in the campus if
someone's asking like hey we want to
start a program where we want it to be
the best place in our city on a Tuesday
night here at the local church how do we
do that and so we would work with them
to assess what that would look like but
really what we try to offer is just
opportunities for people to build
relationship and that we would at the
same time allow them to be challenged
and encouraged and empowered through
relationships and through networks that
really stems through the resources so I
know that's a simple answer but really
the pulse of youth pastors whether it's
full-time part-time or by vocational or
whether it's lay leader is is simply
through relationship and everything kind
of flows out of that so if I can say one
thing great ministry flows out of great
relationship that's good because a lot
of times in youth ministry youth pastors
and just pastors in general they kind of
get siloed and into their own thing and
they can really glean so much from each
other now you guys do a conference here
in Canada for youth and young adults
called history-maker can you tell me a
little bit about that what's coming up
what's going to what's going to be
happening yeah so history maker is an
annual conference that we do and it's
simply an opportunity for teens and
students and leaders alike to encounter
God so that they be encouraged powered
equipped to reach their friends for
Christ and so that's really the whole
pulse behind history maker this year
we're expecting 2,000 students to come
and each ticket that they buy is very
mission focused and so five dollars of
each ticket goes to start a new youth
ministry in our province we want to
raise $40,000 to have a campus pastor in
every school we wanted to start that
program we want to try to resource
people that don't have resources and
just say hey if you have a dream or you
you want to do something in your local
context we want to get behind you and to
try to raise money and awareness to get
there as well
and we want to partner with giving teens
and an opportunity to serve and so
whether it's short-term missions around
our province or around Canada or the
world or whether it's simply to go to
give some money to a local organization
or somewhere else to just be Jesus
that's kind of what we kind of want to
do through history make
is catalytic it's a launching pad for
teens to be who God's called them to be
and to resource that vision to reach the
1.2 million people have represent our
province there is the next generation in
the next 10 years and so this is our
first year so appreciate your prayers
Jeff of course you got so how can people
get connected to history maker
conference how can they go where's the
information history maker CA is totally
cool so everything there is great and
has all the details on the venue on a
roster our mission our vision how to get
involved as a volunteer is our student
the resources that we give outside and
we want to let people know too that
history-makers more than a conference
it's a life long journey to be being the
person that God's called you to be and
how can people get connected with next
generation ministries yeah so we just
flow through everything called it
next-gen BC CA and so everything is
there and it's all for resourcing
mentoring of leadership podcast
leadership stuff that's contextualized
to the Canadian culture that we live in
and if people feel like they have a call
of God in their life and they're getting
whispers from God then we want to simply
resource that and plan into flame the
call of God in their life as leaders and
if they want to connect to you you got a
Twitter Instagram email something yeah
yeah that's all it just Google me man no
no it's basically it's Andy underscore
Gaborik for Twitter a Gaborik at a BCP a
cor G for email and everything is there
Andy Gavin CA for a website so yeah
that's great stuff if people want to
hang out and connect over sushi or wings
awesome awesome Andy thanks so much
appreciate it there you go next
generation ministries elevate conference
think international we're out so thanks
so much for checking out this video
check out all the links and info talked
about in the YouTube description and
make sure to hit the subscribe button to
stay connected with Inc International
for more leadership videos to help you
grow your leadership and creativity keep
crushing it
