Sell the idea to the congregation. In most church communities, when an infant or child is baptized or dedicated, the adults and families publicly promise to care for and nurture that child throughout his or her life. This shift to seeing the end goal of youth ministry as assimilation is a call to your entire congregation to follow through on the promise they made. Make sure the entire body is aware the church is expected to receive with open arms the full partnership and participation of the graduating seniors into the life of the church. The key is to hammer away so often at this message that it'll become part of the continuing story of the church.

Communicate at all levels of the youth ministry that the goal is assimilation. Before you make sweeping changes (if you need to), make sure everyone affected by the new commitment is given ample time to understand, digest and dialogue with the idea. Most people, especially parents, are frightened by the prospect of change; most have high hopes that the youth ministry program will make their kids into "good disciples" (whatever that means). Take your time to listen to and ease the fears of people—students, parents, youth staff—and include them in the brainstorming piece of making the shift. Try not to impose this vision on people without giving them opportunity for wrestling with the reasons behind the changes themselves.

Change what you are doing to ensure that every ministry task points toward the goal. People own what they help create. As you have convinced the leadership that the goal of youth ministry should be assimilation and you've allowed the youth ministry constituency to be in process with you regarding the implications of such a shift in thinking, you must adjust the various programs, curricula, events and methods you use to do the task of youth ministry.

Create an evaluation structure. With any change in programmatic focus or shift in thinking, initial enthusiasm and structural adjustments often are not enough to create the needed momentum to make the shift permanent. It's the responsibility of those charged with the primary leadership in youth ministry to build a system of evaluation into your planning. This evaluation process must be concerned with the primary question: Does everything we say, do and are point directly toward full assimilation of our students upon graduation?