Do You KNOW What Your Teens Believe?
by Doug Clark
Do you really know how the youth in your community or ministry feel about God, church, ethics and sexuality? How would it affect your strategies for ministry if you had a “snapshot” of their REAL beliefs, values, and behaviors? What would you do differently if you knew exactly how the felt about your church?
These areas are explored in a new national survey, and NNYM members and their friends have been invited to participate.
The uniqueness of this survey is that participating ministries will not only receive the overall results, but also (anonymous) results specifically for your participating group. That means you could poll a school, community, or youth group and learn the real attitudes of that population of youth – not just their “Sunday school answers.”
Touch is the Target Youth Survey (TTYS) is a national, comprehensive, anonymous, and voluntary survey that examines how effective ministries have been in understanding and connecting with the youth that attend their services and events. The survey has been designed for youth ages 13-20. Additionally, it examines the beliefs, practices, habits, values and preferences of youth that will help adults better discern the best way to build relationships that prepare young people to live in the world as disciples of Jesus Christ.
If you want to see your own unique results, email TTYS at surveys@destinationdestiny.org, requesting a unique ID for your church or organization. They will email you a personalized link so you can see your results compared to the other participating ministries. Otherwise, simply distribute the link below. The National Network of Youth Ministries will publish findings when they are released as well.
The direct link to the survey is found at DESTINYSURVEY (if link does not work, go to www.destinationdestiny.org and click the “Survey” button).
At the conclusion of the survey process, ministries’ summary results will be provided, along with comparisons to other participating churches and ministries. While no individual names will be provided, the results will enable you to assess your ministry’s effectiveness and create strategies that engage and excite your youth, motivating them to pursue their destiny.
Preview the survey by taking it yourself, making sure to enter your age as “21+” so that your results do not have a bearing in the results for younger participants.
TTYS would like to complete the first round by the end of April. That will give them time to summarize and analyze the results to prepare information that would be available by mid-summer. Ministries would then be able to implement their findings in the 2010-2011 school year and beyond.
The more who participate in this survey, the better the results will be. Would you consider sending this information to other youth pastors, directors and leaders in your network or denomination so their churches or organizations can participate? They can also get a better snapshot of the values and beliefs of teens in their ministry!
