Is $4 gas hurting youth ministry? I think it is a legitimate question, and is the pain being felt most in the relational side of youth ministry? Personally, I know that I think twice about driving anywhere extra than to the office each day, and I bet most other youth ministers do the same. For starters most youth ministers are notoriously under paid and under budgeted, so driving say 20 miles round trip to pick up a student for a hamburger is $4 or more out of your pocket right off the top! This creates quite a dilemma for the youth worker because you know that youth ministry is all about time with students but you personally have only so much monetary resources to pull that off with. UGH! I hate the fact that I am thinking about how much it will cost me to spend time with students, it is just another unwanted barrier to ministry.
High gas prices are also making parents more hesitant in driving their students to church or students spending their money on gas to get to your events. I have found this to be true especially for churches that are "destination" churches where people drive a good distance to get to them.
Gas prices are also taking a bite out of youth budgets especially during those summer trips. We just drove close to 2000 miles roundtrip last week to Florida for Student Life Camp with four vans, I can't wait to see how much we actually spent on GAS!
So here are some hopefully helpful hints to get around this as much as possible.
1. Plan out your trips to see kids by geographical location. Go see multiple students in the same area.
2. Instead of a bunch of one-on-ones with kids maybe you meet three or four students half way between the church and their houses. This will cut down on gas for you and them.
3. Spend a day with students who live near you instead of driving into the office that day. Cut down on your days in the office (Check with your boss first).
4. Connect with kids online as much as possible or by texting (Don't overly rely on this)
5. Do more free stuff with students. If gas costs so much, take them to the park, go fishing, play ultimate frisbee, hang at Barnes and Noble, hit the beach, or just have kids over to your house. Keep it simple.
6. Plan your major programs for when students are already coming to church with their family. Maybe you move your main weekly program to Sunday mornings. Just a thought.
7. Do less events, make the ones you do do more meaningful. Cheaper events would be good also.
8. Stay closer to home for trips. There is plenty of mission work to do in your town and places you can go to camp nearby.
9. Get permission to use some of the youth budget to reimburse yourself for gas. Make sure your boss understands the value of being out with students.
10. Buy a smaller car or a hybrid because I don't think this is going away anytime soon!
Hope this helps and I would love to hear your ideas.
On the gas issue, based on a gas mileage of 12.5 to 16 mpg. About $2000 - $2560 is a good guess on gas for your trip. Ouch.
On the suggestions:
1. Remember the old tribes (mine was at the Allred House) back here in Tampa so long ago? That was an idea that was great. If you wanted to add something fun to your Bible Study, there was that Soccer Field nearby.
Another idea, plan it to be something regular, because coordinating schedules is always fun.
2. This picks up off of #1, I think you can have one-on-one time in the crowds or at the church from time to time.
3. I'm naive about this one (well, almost all of them), but I'd say that some aspects such as Staff Meetings or collaborating can't be avoided, but whatever you can do on your own at your home (I would imagine message and series prep as well as events planning to an extent could happen this way).
4. Or if they're one of the cool kids who keeps their phone on all day, then I don't see why actually talking wouldn't be a good thing (this coming from a guy who prefers real person,
e-mail, or text, telephones are just weird, until I get past dial and "hello").
5. Ultimate is definitely the game of the cool kids locally down here. Being you, Soccer would be something to do. I would also say that you could do something the kids would do anyways, like go see "The Dark Knight," and eat somewhere. $4 hasn't set everyone back to Ramen Noodles if you watch a movie yet, I don't think.
6. This is the only one I'd argue against for a few reasons. Sunday mornings = Sunday School or family goes to church.
To the non-churched, Sunday Morning still means church, and that might be off putting, especially to those that don't have supporting families. Then again, regardless, it's still church, but for some reason, the night feels different. I'd also be concerned for volunteers to an extent, because it might break up families, or require them to consistently stay for two services (which for the one service and leave types, it's like eesh). On the flipside, this could get the families more involved.
Regardless, unless you're in a church that's not that affluent, then another trip may not be as much of an issue, but I would advise the students who drive to carpool with their friends and rotate who drives.
7. I'd say make events A) Something they'd do anyways (see above), B) free (again, see above, your idea), C) turn some of your regular youth Sundays/Wednesdays into Special Event nights (say popcorn and movies on the lawn), again, taking another one of your own ideas and expanding upon it.
8. Closer to home like Myrtle Beach... okay Florida rocks. Anyways, having local service has always been a cheaper route, but don't forget to get out of town sometimes.
9. Hopefully "The Man" already understands this, if this boss is the church pastor. If they don't, then what are they doing, it's about people after all.
10. Thank God for my new car, really.
Hopefully there was some kind of wisdom in there:
* Ready made events. Including pick up games.
* Encourage students to save themselves money.
* New one... don't confine mission work to getting into the community (but don't forget about it). The local shelters are always in need of help, and giving is always a great thing to do. Remember "One Night?" It's just another way of missions. Getting the church involved in giving non-perishable foods on a Sunday morning is an idea that I'm surprised has never caught on.
The bottom line is to try and conserve fuel whenever possible, but don't let it consume you. No angels, demons, or ridiculous gas prices should keep us from doing God's great work. We just have to be smart about it. Good ideas Mark.
Posted by: Alexander Wilhelmsen | July 14, 2008 at 02:22 AM
$4 gas is hurting everything. Until we have a limitless resource where all we have to pay for is production and service, supply and demand will beat the crap out of us. This is especially true when the resource is something we are so reliant on, such as gasoline.
Posted by: Alexander Wilhelmsen | August 11, 2008 at 08:01 AM