Climbing Youth Ministry Mountain
Night after night I sat around a table looking in the eyes of men and women, young and old, from all different backgrounds, and saying "This could be an amazing ride, but I need you...I can't do this by myself. I need leaders and tonight I'm asking you to consider becoming one of those precious few..."
Those few later became hundreds, but regardless of how many began the climb with us, I always made sure there were individuals around me when I reached the top.
If you do not take the time to build a fence of people around you as you walk this journey, when you reach the top of Youth Ministry Mountain you will wind up calling the ambulance for yourself at the bottom. In the beginning it is really easy to start with the mindset that you can do it all on your own. When this is fueled by determination, your biggest challenge will come the moment you recognize you need people to catch your vision. In the trenches it appears hard to get others to come walk alongside you, but the youth culture of this nation desperately searches for a cause to believe in and support. With others joining you, it brings protection and accountability. If you arrive to a place where you have at least ten or fifteen kids in your youth group, you are not physically able to take good care of everyone by yourself. As a leader, it's your job to proactively find individuals to help assist you, but let me encourage you that when you do, it will make all the difference in the world.
Night after night I sat around a table looking in the eyes of men and women, young and old, from all different backgrounds, and saying "This could be an amazing ride, but I need you...I can't do this by myself. I need leaders and tonight I'm asking you to consider becoming one of those precious few..."
Those few later became hundreds, but regardless of how many began the climb with us, I always made sure there were individuals around me when I reached the top.
If you do not take the time to build a fence of people around you as you walk this journey, when you reach the top of Youth Ministry Mountain you will wind up calling the ambulance for yourself at the bottom. In the beginning it is really easy to start with the mindset that you can do it all on your own. When this is fueled by determination, your biggest challenge will come the moment you recognize you need people to catch your vision. In the trenches it appears hard to get others to come walk alongside you, but the youth culture of this nation desperately searches for a cause to believe in and support. With others joining you, it brings protection and accountability. If you arrive to a place where you have at least ten or fifteen kids in your youth group, you are not physically able to take good care of everyone by yourself. As a leader, it's your job to proactively find individuals to help assist you, but let me encourage you that when you do, it will make all the difference in the world.
Related Items
This Youth Leader's Coach, "20 Things Guys On Your Youth Leadership Team Want The Lady Leaders To Know," is sure to become one of your favorites! It's the companion to the one I did from the female perspective. Granted, last time I checked, I'm a million miles from being a guy. So rest assured that I interviewed many of the male species to get their "top twenty." The results were eye-opening in some cases.
So listen carefully to what many men in youth ministry would love to communicate to the female leaders on their team. And then feel free to make copies of both this Youth Leader's Coach and its companion, "25 Things Ladies On Your Leadership Team Wish Male Leaders Knew About Them." Hand them out to your leaders and I assure you that the unity and understanding on your team will go up. After all, a popular writer tells us that "Men are from Mars and women are from Venus!" No matter how much we all love teenagers, we're wired up pretty differently.
Your Venus Cheerleader,
This is one of those times together that you will want to copy and give to all the guys in your leadership team! Better yet, if you are bold, make copies for your female leaders too and then ask them how you're doing (if you're a male leader). I've entitled our time together "25 Things Ladies On Your Leadership Team Wish Male Leaders Knew About Them."
Through the years in youth ministry, I've repeatedly heard girls bemoan some of the same issues with men in the youth leadership trenches. This is especially true of ladies who work on the team of a male youth pastor. So I had some fun and decided to create this Youth Leader's Coach around 25 of those most repeated themes. You'll have fun listening. Even more, I think you'll hear some things that will help sharpen teamwork in your youth ministry with some of the amazing females around you.
Still laughing at "Women's Lib,"
I hear it all the time... "I just can't seem to grow my leadership team. I get people to volunteer and then they quit a little while in, or they won't even try." Everything rises and falls on leadership. We all know the expression; but the implications of it in youth ministry are huge. We all know that we don't have the hours in the day to do all the work it takes to run a youth ministry by yourself, have a life, and still make a significant impact in a few student's lives.
In this Youth Leader's Coach, "Key Hurdles In Growing Your Leadership Team," I unpack the six key hurdles you need to face if you want to multiply your leadership team. You'll smile during some sections of my honest mentoring dialogue and maybe even "ouch" during some of the others. Whatever the case, this Youth Leader's Coach will speak to a youth ministry topic we all deal with on a regular basis. And just for the record, if no one has quit your leadership team in the last couple of months, you're doing better than most.
Lovingly yours,
We all know that good volunteers are hard to find, but they're even harder to keep! There's a million legitimate things that can cause great people to quit, but it's our role to help manage those things effectively so our volunteers will stay in the game long-haul. That's why I wanted to share this resource with you.
In this month's Youth Leader's Coach, "16 Reasons Why Good Volunteers Quit," I'm sharing from my more than 40 years of experience 16 of the most common reasons I've found why good leaders quit and how we can tackle them effectively.
Lovingly,
Often in ministry leadership we don't make the "win" clear enough with our volunteer leaders. What are asking them to do or be? I find leaders will be unmotivated, because we haven't clarified what it looks like to be a really effective youth or young adult leader on a volunteer basis.
In this Youth Leader's Coach, I share with you 7 Simple "ASKS" that I have of the leaders in the amazing ministries that I'm a part of. Make sure that as you have volunteers, whether 3 or 300, you are clarifying the win for them. When you clarify the win...you will find it will be exciting for them to be part of the ministry that you are privileged to lead.
Lovingly,
