No Such Thing As Too Small.

posted Oct 16, 2008, 9:44 AM by Lee Nelson
"Our youth group is too small."

This is a strain that gets repeated often.  The limitation of size is a problem of motivation.  The thought is, if there are only these youth, then how can I make a big impact?  It can be depressing... only two showed up.

"There is a lad here with five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?"  John 6:9

Andrew shares your bewilderment with smallness.  The question is, how can we be motivated to offer what little we have to God?  The answer lies in letting God take care of the big things, while we attend to the small things.  You might be in a place where you have two or three youth who are at all interested in being instructed in the Christian Faith.  That's big.  Let me tell you how big it is.  If only one of them is converted to lifelong discipleship and a lifelong commitment to being a witness to Jesus Christ, you will have set off a celebration in Heaven. (Luke 15:10)  It is my experience that if a catechist takes seriously his or her role of uniting the person to Jesus Christ, offering a personal witness, and teaching the Scirptures, inviting others into his/her life, the results will be far better than one in three.

So your youth group is small - too small to play the games in your youth ministry books and too small to get a group rate on a ski trip, let alone a group rate on anything.  But, once we have bought into that disappointment and negativity, the battle has already been lost.  It has been lost because the battle is a battle for hearts and minds and souls, not consumers of religion.  The main task of youth ministry is not numbers, and it is definitely not getting a group rate.  The main task is making disciples.  Scripture devouring, grace-filled, sold-out for Jesus disciples.  If you make one - you can die with a smile on your face.