Five Lessons Learned During Covid-19 - Part 4

3/17/2021

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full dream ahead

My wife calls me a dreamer. My kids call me a dreamer. I am a dreamer. I love to let go and let my imagination run away. I think I've always been a dreamer. We drive by an empty store front and I dream up five possible uses for the space. A warehouse, and I think of ways of turning it into a church or youth center. Give me an empty room and a couple hours, I'll dream up a fun, creative way to use the space.

I like to dream.

Most of all, I like to dream about my ministry and how we might creatively think of ways to welcome, serve, and help students take their next steps of faith.

A number of years ago, our student ministry was cramped for space. Our Sunday morning HS Sunday school class was meeting in the living room of home of someone who lived close to the church. Our student ministry was bursting at the seams. We needed space.

I started thinking outside the box, dreaming about possibilities. While sitting at a coffee shop, I saw a vacant back building for sale just one block from our church. I got online, found the listing and looked at the pictures. My mind went wild. It's didn't take me long to dream up ways we could use the building for our student ministry.

I shared my dream with someone who immediately saw the potential. She shared it with her husband, who also loved the idea. Within months the building was purchased, remodeled, and by September (just in time for our kick off) we opened our first student ministry youth center for the community.

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For the next two years, that old bank served as home base for our student ministry. We held our MS and HS Sunday school classes in that building each Sunday. Sunday nights welcomed students for our weekly student gathering. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we opened the doors for an after school program. On designated Friday nights we hosted various events and gatherings for students. It was great. And it all started because I let myself dream.

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Do you dream for your student ministry? Do you allow yourself to think outside the box? Do you ever just let yourself go and imagine all sorts of new and crazy ideas?

During this season of Covid, I've given myself the freedom to think outside the box. I said to myself, "If I could start at ground zero, with no rules, no limits, what would I do?"

After the first six months of covid, I began to rethink how we were reaching our students. As I thought about how we would reach our students, I began to dream about what our youth ministry might look like post covid. What changes would we see, both short term and long term. So I started dreaming.

Dreaming doesn't mean that I'm going to completely turn our ministry upside down with changes or even a rebranding. Dreaming is about the, "what might be." It simply asks the question, "What if?"

It's not about figuring everything out. It's ideas, goals, and hopes for the coming year or years. Some dreams may be nothing more than ideas, while other dreams will become amazing realities. The point of dreaming is not about coming up with the next best thing, but letting ideas surface, then with some help, sorting through those ideas to find the one idea that just might work.

Consider these ideas...

Make a day of it. Set aside some time, a couple hours to dream.
Gather up some leaders or volunteers and have them dream with you.
Ask your students to dream with you.
Have a dry erase board and markers, or the large post sheets that you can hang up.
Give yourself and those with you freedom to dream big, God-sized dreams.
Record everything. Write down the ideas. Take pictures. Capture the dreaming session on video.
Create a file to keep the ideas for future dreaming
Talk with other youth workers and see what they're doing.
Read a couple idea books.
Check out a few youth ministry blogs.
Join a youth ministry Facebook group and start a conversation or two.
Have lunch with your pastor and ask about the goals or plans the leadership is dream up and how the youth ministry might fit in those dreams and plans.

It's Full Dream Ahead!

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Meet Jay

Jay Higham is a veteran youth worker of almost 30 years; having worked with students in the local church and Christian camping settings. Jay is currently serving as the Director of Family Ministry at Covenant Community Church, in Wheeling, WV. Jay has been married to Amy for 24 years. Together, they are raising 5 kids, (4 boys and 1 girl). Jay is an aspiring author, blogger, speaker, vlogger, and social media junkie. He is also the host of our new podcast, Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers! Jay is passionate about student ministry, family ministry, and connecting and networking with youth workers to help them serve their students with passion and excellence.