YPT in Action: Will Standridge
We like to talk about the importance of theological depth in youth ministry - but what does that actually look like? YPT is not promoting a one-size-fits-all approach to youth ministry. Instead, we want to encourage youth workers to be anchored in the biblical essentials while practicing wise contextualization in their particular setting. “YPT in Action” will be an ongoing series where youth workers in a variety of contexts answer the same questions so we can learn from one another.
Name: Will Standridge
Church/Ministry: Paramount Baptist Church
Title: Preteen and Student Pastor
How long have you served in this ministry: 1 Year
How long have you served in vocational ministry overall: 3 Years
Ministry Setting (city/state; city/suburb/rural): Amarillo, TX; Suburb
Average Church Attendance: 750
Average Youth Group Attendance: 70-80
Age range of students in ministry: 5th – 12th Grade
Please describe what “Youth Group” looks like in your ministry?
Youth Group at Paramount encompasses two major ministries of our church, our Preteen Ministry (5th-6th) and Highschool Ministry (7th-12th). People who are a part of “Youth Group” would be anyone who regularly attends services at Paramount or one (or more) of our three regular student ministry programs.
What are your regularly-scheduled youth ministry programs?
Wednesday Night Student Service (One for high school, one for Preteen)
Sunday School
EQUIP (A Sunday Night gathering for 9th-12th grade).
How would you describe your teaching style in youth group (preaching, teaching, discussion leading… and how long do you usually teach for)
On Wednesday night I preach expository sermons through books of the Bible. I preach between 30-40 minutes.
On Sunday Nights we have a more open forum, Q&A style discussion. It goes for about an hour.
Sunday School is a traditional classroom format. I would describe it as teaching with a discussion component.
What are some recent series you’ve taught through, and how many weeks long were they?
On Wednesday nights we have recently done series in James (12 weeks) and Judges (12 weeks). We’re currently in Mark and plan to send 24 weeks in it.
On Sunday Nights we just finished a 12 week series on “The Covenants” and are starting a 10-week series on World Religions.
YPT obviously values teaching theology and doctrine in our ministry to students. What does that look like for you?
We start in our preteen ministry by laying a theological foundation for young minds. We spend 1 year with them doing something relating to the doctrine of God and 1 year focusing on a survey of the Bible. Our hope is this gives them the grammar to engage well as they transition up into the high school ministry. Sunday School is where we try and teach basic biblical literacy and concepts for students. Every Sunday morning we have a catechism we read through together as a ministry. Wednesday Night is for preaching to their hearts and seeing life-change as we bring the Bible to bear on their lives. Sunday Night is focused on going as deep as we can with the students who desire that. We focus mainly on apologetics and systematic theology.
How do you seek to partner with parents?
Parent EQUIP Nights: Once a quarter we host a parent night where we have a seminar related to challenges faces in parenting and discipling their kids (College Prep, Gender and Sexuality, Pornography, Sports, etc..)
Regular Communication: I send out a weekly newsletter with an overview of the week’s teaching, recommended resources, and a calendar of the next 4 months.
A Friendly Schedule: I try to not schedule much outside of our regular rhythms of our programming. This way parents can easily fit us into the yearly plan without constantly shifting things to get to get their students to youth group.
How do you seek to integrate students into the life of the church?
Cross ministry events are a big part of this for us. I try to have any service project or mission work involve at least one other demographic within the church.
I never schedule over a whole church event. When our student ministry programming rubs against whole church programming, we cancel and attend the whole church meeting.
I seek to put baptized students on committees in the church. I see them as full church members and want them to feel comfortable acting in all the capacities a faithful church member would act in.
I regularly, at all of our programming, encourage students to prioritize the Sunday worship service as their primary commitment throughout the week.
What are some of the books you think every youth worker would benefit from reading?
Confessions by Augustine—The autobiography of Christianity’s most important theologian that wrestles with sin, grace, and the Christian life in a way everyone should be exposed to.
Lead them to Jesus by McGarry—A tour de force manual for any youth worker looking to lead theologically.
Preaching by Keller—One of the most helpful reads on connecting the biblical text to the hearers context in teaching/preaching.
Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Dever. Student Ministry at its best flows from a deeply biblical ecclesiology. This is one of the best and most accessible books in the Baptist tradition for thinking through ecclesiological issues.
Pilgrim Theology by Michael Horton. While I’m not Presbyterian, Horton has given us one of the most accessible single volume systematic works that any youth worker could use to grow in their knowledge of God.
What are some particular issues/struggles that your students/families encounter that may not be prominent in other ministry contexts? How does that affect the shape of your ministry?
At any given time we have 6-7 high schools represented within our student ministry. These spread over 3-4 independent school districts. This means huge chunks of my group do not operate on the same schedule. This makes event planning a nightmare. Sports, proms, events, etc all conflict with each other making something like DNOW or Camp difficult to plan in a way that can involve close to everyone. This makes us prioritize the ordinary rhythms of our ministry over the occasional, which I think is healthy (but hard).
What’s one thing that you do in your ministry that could be easily-adapted for others?
Our Sunday Night EQUIP. This is an easy event as it just relies on you making yourself available for students interested in going deep. It is a Q&A format and can work for any size group. Take the limits off the questions and just let students ask and get good answers.