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Workshop: Growing youth ministries, Dr Saimond Ip
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Many churches in North America face a conundrum. Despite heavy investment in youth ministries (11-24 years old) in terms of human resources and programming, most youth groups just never seem to go beyond the fire-fighting stage. Massive dropouts and lack of spiritual maturity and commitment are just some of the issues.
Dr Ip studied three hundred churches in Asia and found that, like their North American counterparts, the vast majority of them are in the fire-fighting stage. But 20 of them set themselves apart and manage to grow their youth ministry consistently in the last decade, both in terms of numbers (growing tenfold to hundreds of teenagers) and, more importantly, in terms of spiritual maturity and commitment. Most of their teenagers become committed leaders in the church; many become pastors and missionaries. Dr. Ip learnt from them and applied their successful principles in his own youth ministry in the last twelve years.
The secret is not special programs or techniques but to refocus on three basic principles: (1) high touch pastoring: one phone call per week plus face-to-face sessions (outside the normal youth group) once a month (2) mass evangelism: bring at least twenty new teenagers into the church each year, no matter what it takes and (3) discipleship training. Most discipleship training is just going through a weekly program. True discipleship training ensures mutual accountability, in-depth life sharing, and rigorous life supervision. And it takes 5-10 years, non-stop.
Dr Ip will present these cases and discuss their applications in the North American context. He believes the basic principles still apply but need adjustment in their sequencing for different age groups. He will also share two potential approaches to jump start a youth ministry.
Dr Saimond Ip
Dr Ip has three jobs at the same time and he spends over twenty hours each week on each of them: (1) the CEO of a private e-commerce business; (2) youth ministry for Sun Kei Alliance Church in Hong Kong (as a deacon, he shares the same role and responsibility as a youth pastor) and (3) Program Director, Diploma in Pastoral Ministry (Youth), Alliance Bible Seminary. The diploma program has twenty three students, all of which are existing youth pastors in Hong Kong.
In 1998, Dr Ip went with 100 other Christians to a new town called Tseung Kwan O on a church planting initiative. The new church Sun Kei Alliance has now grown to a total weekly attendance of 1,200, with more than 400 in the youth ministry (11-22 years old). For the last twelve years, Dr Ip has been very active in evangelism, pastoring, and discipleship training for Sun Kei's youth ministry. Dr. Ip also leads the evangelism department and the strategic development for Sun Kei 's adult congregation.
Dr Ip conducted an in depth analysis of more than three hundred church based youth ministries in Hong Kong and found that most of them face serious challenges. But he has identified 20 youth ministries that has experienced consistent growth in the last decade, both in terms of numbers (growing to hundreds of teenagers) and, more importantly, in terms of the spiritual maturity and commitment of the members. Based on lessons learnt from these 20 churches and on his own direct frontline experience, Dr Ip founded the diploma program in Alliance Bible Seminary (ABS) to help local churches transform their own youth ministries. He also organized a youth ministry summit last year. The summit was a huge success and was attended by more than three hundred pastors.
In addition to youth ministry, Dr Ip is also an expert and consultant on overall church growth and development. He speaks extensively on the topic in Hong Kong, China, and South East Asia. His book "101 local churches in Hong Kong" is a definitive book on the subject and is used in many seminaries in Hong Kong. Dr Ip has also provided consultation sessions for pastoral and lay leaders of more than a hundred local churches in Asia. Dr Ip got his PhD from the University of Cambridge, England.
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