How Youth Pastors Can Help Senior Pastors Engage Youth During Sermons

The following is a guest post by James Blewett, the owner and operator of youth-sermons.com and author of the book Can I Get Baptized in Fruit Punch.

I wrote a previous article entitled How Senior Pastors Can Engage Youth During Their Sermons. And there were probably some Youth Pastors who were AOL. (Amening Out Loud) They thought they were off the hook and it was the Senior Pastor’s fault that their students weren’t engaged during the main worship service. But there are some things that Youth Pastors can do to help your boss out.

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60-80% of Christian teenagers are abandoning their faith after graduation before they finish their Freshman year of college. This is the statistic that we keep running with and it is going to take a village to fix this problem. So here are some practical ways to help out your Senior Pastor in your sermons.

Use a point your Senior Pastor used during your sermon

Insert a sentence into your sermons when applicable that goes something like this, “As Pastor Allen was saying in his sermon recently…” This will go a long way in bridging the gap between Wednesday night and Sunday morning for a lot of youth.

The idea is to add legitimacy to the messages your Senior Pastor gives. The students think a lot of times that the Sunday morning sermon is not for them and they won’t get anything out of it. Show them exactly what they can get out of it and some will try and find it for themselves the next time.

Tell a personal story or inside joke during your sermon

Tell a story about something funny your Senior Pastor did around the office or something nice he said about one of your youth. Use caution with this point of course, the idea is to make your boss look normal and approachable, not lame or weird.

Ask permission to share any story or thought that your Senior Pastor shared with you, and he will not only give you permission to do so, but will appreciate the effort you are going through to try and humanize him with your students.

Coordinate with your Senior Pastor about his teaching schedule

If you have a Pastor that plans out his sermons far in advance this is an exercise that you always should practice. If he is a sermon series guy, find a good one on his calendar and work together to make a youth version of that series that coordinates with his. It creates a natural connection with Wednesday night and Sunday morning, and can even help your Senior Pastor to know things that he can say in the pulpit that keep your students interested.

If your Pastor is a exegetical preacher, then you could get his notes and dig deeper into his sermon or develop a series based off an idea that is in his preaching,

Another great thing to do, if you have the right Senior Pastor, is to do some team teaching from time to time. Sharing a sermon with your Pastor is great way to build chemistry, gain insights and experience and show your students that your Senior Pastor is cool enough to let the Youth Guy share some spotlight. The easiest way to do this is to let the Senior Pastor do the introduction and the meat. The Youth Pastor takes the application and the closing.

Pay attention in Big Church

This is the biggest point of all. If you truly want your students to be engaged during your Senior Pastor’s sermons then you must be engaged during them. People cannot rise to a level that is higher than where their leader is.

Take good notes, nod at the good points, give an occasional AOL (explained earlier),  and never, ever fall asleep. If you have trouble with the last one stash some Five Hour Energy in your satchel and you will be wired all the way through the altar call, unless your Senior Pastor is really long-winded.

Senior Pastors, what could your Youth Pastor do to help you? Youth Pastors, what have you done to help your Senior Pastor?

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