Youth Pastor Summit provides local and national gatherings that bring together student pastors, educators, and volunteers to foster collaboration, community, and soul-care. YPS is a direct response to the growing need for leaders who are willing to pour into this generation. Each YPS address four foundational and ever-present questions. The first of those questions centers on spiritual formation and asks, “Who are we becoming?” It is a simple question, but it is not a small one.
In a culture obsessed with image, metrics, and performance, student ministry can easily drift toward asking, What are we producing? How many students attended? How many decisions were made? While those questions are not unimportant, they are incomplete. Scripture reminds us that God is far more concerned with who we are becoming than what we are accomplishing. Formation precedes function and identity shapes impact. We see this throughout scripture:
- Relationship before responsibility (John 15; Mark 3)
- Transformation before mission (Romans 12; Romans 8)
- Heart before harvest (1 Samuel 16; 1 Corinthians 13)
Spiritual formation is the lifelong process of being shaped into the likeness of Christ. For students, this process is especially critical because adolescence is a season of intense identity development. They are already being formed by social media, peer pressure, cultural narratives, political polarization, and digital algorithms that disciple them far more hours each week than most churches ever will. Thus, if the Church does not intentionally engage in spiritual formation, someone or something else will gladly take on the role of shaping their hearts, values, and worldview.
At its core, spiritual formation is about cultivating habits, rhythms, and relationships that root students in Jesus. It is about teaching them not only what to believe, but how to live, how to pray, how to repent, how to forgive, how to listen to God, and how to walk faithfully when no one is watching. It is about helping them develop a resilient faith that can withstand doubt, disappointment, and cultural pressure.
Without formation, we risk creating spiritual consumers rather than spiritual disciples, which will lead to students who attend events but lack endurance, who know Christian language but lack spiritual depth, who follow Jesus when it is easy but quietly drift when faith becomes costly. Spiritual formation, however, builds spiritual muscle. It prepares students not just for the next retreat, but for the next decade.
Just as importantly, spiritual formation is not only for students; it is for leaders. The question “Who are we becoming?” must first be answered in the hearts of those who lead. Students may admire our words, but they will imitate our lives. They can sense when faith is performative versus practiced, when prayer is scripted versus sincere, when leaders are busy doing ministry but not abiding with Christ. Healthy spiritual formation in students is rarely produced by perfect programs, but it is consistently influenced by authentic, spiritually grounded adults.
This is why YPS places spiritual formation first among its four foundational questions. Before we talk about strategy, leadership systems, or ministry models, we must talk about becoming. Becoming Christlike. Becoming rooted. Becoming emotionally healthy, spiritually mature, and relationally present. Because no ministry structure can compensate for spiritual emptiness, and no leadership platform can replace personal intimacy with God.
When student ministry prioritizes formation, everything else changes. Teaching becomes more than information transfer. Worship becomes more than emotional moments. Small groups become more than social gatherings. They become sacred spaces where transformation is expected, where honesty is welcomed, and where growth is patiently nurtured over time.
In the end, the success of student ministry cannot be measured only by what happens on a stage or in a single season. It must be measured by the kind of adults those students become; men and women who love Jesus, love others, live with conviction, and remain faithful long after the youth group lights are turned off.
That is why we must keep asking the question: Who are we becoming? Because long after programs fade and trends change, spiritual formation remains. And spiritual formation, by God’s grace, changes everything.