Avoiding Mountian Tops

By Doug Franklin October 12, 2011

We all love events in youth ministry. We lead camps, mission trips, weekend retreats and other events that are designed to be fun and bring growth to our students’ lives. The problem with most youth ministry events are they lead to a mountain top experience that brings a big rush but not long-term growth.  So how do we have good events that lead to growth? The answer is all in the planning. When an event starts fast it also ends fast, giving us the up to the summit and crashing back down feel. With all our events we need to create a starting trail. A series of large group talks and small group discussions that will prepare students’ hearts for the purpose of the event. This content will help students understand the focus of the event and allow them time to process the purpose. When we use the starting trail properly students will be willing to go deep with us at the event and will be prepared to make sufficient spiritual decisions that they won’t feel rushed into.  Because these decisions have been thought through there is a greater chance of long-term life change. The second action we need to take in planning events is have a finishing trail. After each event have two weeks of debriefing focused on the topic of the event. Have time for application and accountability. This will allow for a slow growth curve to develop long-term growth. These two planning ideas can make every event better.