I've been thinking alot about what it means to be successful in student ministry. I have ridden a roller-coaster of emotion as I have scoured the Scriptures, websites, books, e-zines, maga-zines, etc...But here's what my heart keeps telling me what a successful student ministry looks like. --Students knowing Jesus Christ personally.
Success is not irrelevant events that keep students busy. Success is not behavior modification. Success is not puffing up students with bible knowledge. Success is not good programming.
In John 4:13 Jesus talks to a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well and says, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life!"
See, when a kid really knows Christ, it shapes their whole life story. 
All of the sudden Christ convicts their hearts of sin and they begin to burn with passion for friends who do not yet know Christ. Every time they bump into a new spiritual truth from the Scriptures they devour it and it becomes part of who they are.
All of the sudden Christ convicts their hearts of sin and they begin to burn with passion for friends who do not yet know Christ. Every time they bump into a new spiritual truth from the Scriptures they devour it and it becomes part of who they are. Share this challenge with me. Pray for us in the student ministries. Pray for our teenagers to personally know Christ. Pray for our students to share Jesus with their friends. Pray for our volunteer staff and student leaders to take the call of Christ to Orlando and beyond. Amen.
