As a youth leader you should have a safe, clean, and comfortable learning environment for your youth group. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when planning a location for your youth group weekly lessons and meetings.
You might have a small Bible study group, in which case you can have Bible study around your kitchen table, or in the backyard around a picnic table to take advantage of nice weather. But if your youth ministry is part of your church and is fairly sizable, you need to find a suitable safe, clean, and comfortable area for your students.
Enviroment
One of the first things that you need to take into consideration for a classroom is the environment itself. Is it heated for the winter months? Will it get oppressively hot in the summer? If the students are uncomfortable, there’s no way they are going to be paying attention to your message, and they probably won’t be having too much fun with your youth ministry.
Keep in mind that you should be able to see all students at all times while in the classroom environment. If there are dividers or obstacles that block your line of sight, these can be problematic. To keep the students at attention, they need to be able to see you.
Be able to get up and move around
Once you have the basic location of your classroom, you need to think about a floor plan. Is it big enough? Do you have room to walk around while teaching? Is there enough room for activities or games for the students?
The older that your students are, the more they are used to sitting down for extended periods of time. High school students are sitting for most of their day, so make sure that your youth group classroom has enough room for activities where you encourage everybody to get up and participate.
Customize it
When you find a permanent classroom for your youth group, let the students make it their own. Maybe you’ve been able to secure a room at the church for your youth ministry. Ask the senior members of the church if it would be okay if the students painted the walls. Have them come up with ideas and just go crazy. Have them paint their interests, their dreams, and their favorite scriptures. Having an interesting environment that they created is much better than a plain vanilla boring classroom.
If you have natural light in the classroom, a great idea is to have each student bring in a small plant. Caring for the plaints along with the students gives the classroom a warm comforting feeling. Share the responsibility of watering the plants with your students.
A positive learning environment is a necessity for any successful youth ministry. Having an environment where the students feel welcome will lead to a positive experience for everybody involved. If you haven’t been able to find a permanent space for your youth ministry, I would highly recommend that you reach out to the senior church members, and tell them that it is time to take the youth ministry seriously.
