Sticky Faith 4 (Syler Thomas)

Syler Thomas, who is doing this series on Kara Powell and Chap Clark’s Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in Your Kids is a youth pastor.

Have you had that experience where you’re reading something, and you get the sense that the way you’re doing something will never be the same after you’ve read it? I felt this way after reading chapter 5 of Sticky Faith. While I was reading it, my wife asked me what I thought of the book. My response was: “I don’t think I’m even ready to talk about it yet.” That’s how paradigm-shifting the concepts here are for me.

Chap Clark takes the notion of the 1:5 leader to student ratio in youth ministries (which is the general “rule of thumb” ratio that most of us are shooting for) and turns it on its head. He says we should aim for a 5:1 ratio of adult influence in a single student’s life. This obviously doesn’t mean that each student has 5 mentors who spend regular time with a student, but rather 5 different adults from a church body who have an influence in a student’s life. The easiest way to make this happen is for there to be a small group of people whose families make it a priority to care not just for their own kids’ activities but also for their friends’ kids. So when Marisa has a piano recital, that gets written down in 5 calendars. When Tommy gets awarded his eagle scout, those 5 families are represented at the ceremony. This is not a new program for ministers to implement. Rather, it’s a goal each family should consider.

This comes out of a concept that Powell and Clark have discovered through their research which they claim is the closest thing to a “silver bullet” that they discovered. Students who have a connection to the adult services at their local church (rather than just a connection to a youth group alone) are much more likely to have a “sticky faith.”

Can you attest to the importance of having young people connected to adults in a church? What do you think about the 5:1 ratio concept?