By William Ciocco

It was never my passion to have a big youth group. My focus has always been on individual growth rather than the numbers. That is why it was so amazing to me when I saw this group of twelve become a group of seventy-five in about two years. 

When I was asked to be the youth pastor of my first youth group I was very apprehensive about accepting the assignment. My wife and I had been youth leaders for only six or eight months and had just gotten to know the twelve or fifteen teens that we had. After a lot of prayer, I accepted the position that began to show me how powerful God really is. I learned several things during the next two years, and trust that some of you will learn from my experiences. The three main things that I learned were: be real, pray for believe God would want, and pray for each teen be name as often as you can.

As I stated, I started with a youth group of twelve or fifteen teens. Many of them had parents that attended the main church, but some were friends of theirs. The advantage that I had was that the kids knew my heart and my life. I loved them and was not afraid to tell them. I live what I speak and they see that. Kids want to know that you are real. They want integrity. They want to believe what you are saying. When they see you live it they can believe it. They see that it works.

It was never my passion to have a big youth group. My focus has always been on individual growth rather than the numbers. That is why it was so amazing to me when I saw this group of twelve become a group of seventy-five in about two years.

Shortly after being appointed youth pastor, I was invited to a get acquainted dinner for the Acquire the Fire youth convention in Miami, FL. The youth group had been attending a different convention in Gatlinburg, TN. I was not happy with some of the things that went on there and welcomed the opportunity to look at something else.

My worship leader and I, along with our wives, attended the dinner. At the dinner we were asked to show our interest by filling out some paperwork. I, like many, filled in the paperwork before the instructions were given. There was a line that asked how many teens we would be bringing. I wrote in twelve, our group had grown by this time to a strong seventeen to twenty and I felt that it might be possible for us to convince twelve to go.

When the instructions were given, the man said, "In this block put in a number that you would have to pray for. A number that you could not get on your own."

I erased my twelve and wrote twenty.

After the dinner I asked my worship leader how many he thought we should pray in. He said, "It might be high, but I think God will send twenty with us."

We brought 22 teens with us to Miami that year. Several of them got saved and one went on the missions trip to Mexico over Christmas vacation. After the trip, the teens were so excited about living for God that we had a bonfire on the beach and burned all of their secular CD’s, tapes, posters, etc. Anything that could interfere with their walk with God went into the fire.

The youth group was never the same after that meeting. They learned that they could live for God and that it didn’t matter what the world thought. The experience changed me. It taught me that God is big enough to do that which we are willing to put the time and energy into praying for.

The youth group began to grow. We were getting a reputation for being serious about God. The teens were wanting prayer meetings and worship meetings. They were hungry for God. I was very enthused in the spiritual growth that had occurred in the lives of these teens.

I was teaching hard lessons about serious things that I thought for sure would turn kids off. I taught on how teens shouldn’t date until they were seriously seeking a spouse. I expanded on Ron Luce’s teaching about dating God for a year and learning to love Him. Kids want the meat of the word.

The next year, God sent 55 of our teens to Acquire the Fire in Tampa and 15 to Miami. Three of my kids and one of my leaders went on mission trips with Teen Mania for two months that summer. The came back with a heart for ministry and to reach others for Christ.

God laid it on my heart to pray for the kids that didn’t go on the Acquire the Fire trips. He also laid it on my heart to pray for that kids that were missing meetings. I began praying for those kids and the weekly attendance rose to between sixty and seventy-five. More importantly the kids were getting a relationship with Jesus Christ. Later, I divided the whole mailing list among my staff. I had each staff member commit to praying for twenty kids every week.

I believe that all it takes to build a rock solid youth ministry is a firm foundation. Stay on the basics. Spend time with God about what He would have you to share and never use a canned sermon from a magazine or card file.

Loving Jesus and loving kids, that’s what it’s all about. If you love them you will spend the time in prayer to see what God has for them.

Even with all that I have shared here, the most important thing in any ministry is to honor God and be under the authority of your senior pastor in all that you do. I was fortunate to have been under a pastor that has a heart for young people. I realize that some of you are not in that same situation. Pray for your pastor. If God can do what He did in that small youth group, he can change you pastor.

William Ciocco
Denomination: Baptist - Southern Baptist
Email: GodsVessel@mindspring.com
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