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Season 4

Brad Griffin: Reframing youth ministry decline

It’s been a really tough couple of years in ministry. Are you feeling overwhelmed—and maybe even a little guilty about broken relationships with your students? Hosts Roslyn Hernández and Giovanny Panginda revisit a conversation between Brad Griffin and Dr. Josh Packard of Springtide Research Institute packed with insights that will help you reframe student decline in ministry participation. Tune in for practical ideas on rebuilding trust and connection with your students.

Episode 3 / Mar 3, 2022

Timestamps

0:46 Youth leader voices
4:00 Many of the questions young people have in this season are religious in nature.
5:45 Only 10% of young people in your research said that a faith leader or religious leader reached out to them personally.
11:26 What we can learn from a teen saying, “No one reached out to me.”
13:50 What is behind the decline in participation in youth ministry?
19:31 Many young people don’t know how to connect with a church even if they wanted to.
21:50 Giving young people answers to questions they aren’t asking, and the implications of being in the “out group.”
24:20 Building trust with young people.
28:15 Ideas to stay engaged with students if our church is answering the questions they aren’t asking.
30:40 Practices that help us build trust in relationships.
36:29 A youth leader story

Quotes

“I don’t think it’s the failure of individuals… I haven’t met a youth director or pastor or campus minister yet who didn’t care enough or wasn’t working hard enough.” - Josh Packard

“What matters is that young people still feel alone and disconnected. What we need to get at is solving that.... And sometimes that I think is just relentless pursuit, relentless follow up.” - Brad Griffin

“I needed to hear, “It’s not my fault.” Once I heard that, I could move on and actually be helpful to my students.” - Giovanny Panginda

"Consistency over time can lead to a breakthrough.” - Brad Griffin