Youth Ministry Can Get Tough

Common Issue Faced by Youth Leaders

I recently conducted interviews with 3 seasoned Youth leaders in two countries - The Bahamas and The United States. By far, the most common issue faced by all three Youth leaders is that of Team Motivation or a lack thereof. In the next few paragraphs I will attempt to provide encouragement for ministry leaders on the subject of Team Motivation and setting some boundaries to prevent burnout and loss of integrity.  Life in ministry can get difficult at times. It gets even more difficult when we do not have the right support system in place. Ministry was not designed to be a one man show. Take a page out of Pastor Moses’ book. He got to a place of frustration where the next thing to do besides blame God was to quit the job:

¹¹ So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me? ¹² Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which You swore to their fathers’?¹³ Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me, saying, ‘Give us meat that we may eat!’ ¹⁴ I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me.¹⁵ So if You are going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in Your sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness.”  (Numbers 11:11-15)

It does not have to get this way for any ministry leader. God in his wisdom provided Pastor Moses with a solution:

¹⁶ The Lord therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. ¹⁷ Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit who is upon you, and will put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it all alone”. (Numbers 11:16-17)

God provided Pastor Moses with a team. We need people to be successful at ministry. In fact, “People are the Plan” (Robbins, 526). If we are to be successful at building a team, consider these seven competencies a leader should have:

       Have a VISION for the potential volunteers

2.       Have a BELIEF that people are more important than positions and programs

3.       Have a WILLINGNESS to WORK WITH volunteers to see them REACH their 

       FULL POTENTIAL

4.       Have a LOVE for the volunteers

5.       Have a BELIEF in the IMPORTANCE of the youth ministry

6.       Have a DESIRE to HELP volunteers DEVELOP

7.       Have a WILLINGNESS to TRUST in the gifts of others.

                                                                                          (Loth, Paul. 528)

Another thing to consider is that there are RIGHT and WRONG volunteers for a ministry. Building a team will require you to do Recruitment. Be flexible. The range of volunteers will include people for broad areas of responsibilities to specific areas of responsibilities. Ensure your volunteers have (1) A love for Christ, (2) A love for Students and (3) A love for the Church (Robbins 536-538). These are non-negotiables. It does get difficult to find good help, but consider the following elements of recruiting:

v  Call Them – Help can be found in the unlikeliest of places and it can also be within your sphere of influence:

Make a list of targets – approach people one-on-one           Ask the students to recruit           Ask other leaders to recruit           Advertise – make your needs known            Seek input from the church office                                                              (Professor John Pape)

v  Court Them – It is very helpful to make potential volunteers feel appreciated, wanted and valued. Show a genuine interest in them, and affirm them consistently. They will want to come work with you. Create that environment in your youth ministry team culture – invest in relationships, express thankfulness with rewards, allow for conflict resolution on a productive way; maintain an inviting ministry space; keep good lines of communication open.

v  Coach Them – If our volunteers are to succeed, then we will need to provide training, support and the opportunity to grow (and fail). Use a coaching model that works for your team. Volunteers “need leaders who send them out to do ministry, call them back, discuss what worked and what bombed and be patient rather than threaten and insult” (Robbins, 551)

v  Cover Them – Protect them from themselves. Ensure they do not get burn-out. Ministry can be tough. Use staggered schedules to give them time off. Ensure their family time is not deprived. Also, protect them from discouraging parents and from students who will take advantage of their time and effort.

Here are a few additional considerations for building an effective Youth Ministry Team suggested by  Tyson Howells:

5 Steps To Building A Great Youth Leadership Team Step #1      We Must Build Trust Do you spend time together? Do you spend time together outside of the ministry context? Consider this – “Trust is built when people are willing to be vulnerable with each other” (Howells, T.).  Are you willing to abandon pride, ego, fear for the collective good of the team? Step #2   Mastering Conflict Most times we avoid conflict because it is easier and it feels more comfortable. Conflicts can be healthy. They can be constructive. Some of the best ideas, programs and solutions are the result of conflicts. Be open to others’ opinion and keep an open mind. Work through conflicts, don’t’ avoid them.    Step #3  Achieving Commitment “People will actively commit to a decision if they had the opportunity to provide input, ask questions, and buy into your vision” (Howells, T) Step #4  Embracing Accountability “Accountability creates ownership” (Howells, T.). Ensure there’s a system in place for this. Be clear in your expectations. Provide a job description. Ensure there is a measure of success. Conduct evaluations as it become necessary and provide training. Step #5 Focus on Results An effective team is results driven and Holy Spirit guided. Our goal is to bear fruit; to reproduce. You must be intentional in programming. Consider the maturity levels of your students. Provide a safe-space in which to grow and a path to achieve spiritual maturity. Celebrate wins, consider your losses and keep the focus on your students. We build people!                                                                                                                                                      (Tyson Howells)

Challenges Our Youth Will Face

It is extremely important that we are aware of the pressures our students face daily. Some of these challenges are in-their-faces. Without effort, the temptations to give up on biblical principles for seemingly attractive facts are right at their fingertips. 

Consider the following challenges by J. Warner Wallace:

1.       They will be challenged by the Media

There is a concerted effort to desensitize our young people to acts we define as deeds of the flesh according to the Bible. From a very early age, our children are exposed to television, movies and the internet. Many are becoming more media savvy than their parents and youth workers. “On average, Americans spend more than a third of their free time watching some form of media”(1). Messages communicated by media are often ant-Christian values. As much as two out of every three shows include sexual content, 50% of which are casual relationships and 9% depict teen sexual engagement (2). According to a Kaiser research, 76% of teens admit to having sex because of media influence, and college level students are more likely to engage in this type of behavior because it is common or “normal” among their peers.

2.       They will be challenged by their School’s Curriculum

Postmodern philosophies have infiltrated the educational system and there is an all-out attack on Christian values. Do not be surprised to see comprehensive sex education programs that require the teaching of sexual health and HIV/AIDS instructions that involve the teaching of “safe-sex”. On the other hand, in some school districts, “Abstinence only” education is not permitted. In school districts like California, students do not have to inform parents about medical services, including abortions.

3.       They are Challenged by their University Professors

More than likely our students will face very liberal professors, who employ reductionist philosophies – If it does not fit in their worldview, suppress it!  According to Wallace, research completed at the Institute for Jewish and Community Research indicates that in a survey of 1200 college faculty members 1 in 4 (25%) claim to be atheists; 6% affirm the Bible as God’s word; 51% say that the Bible is “an ancient book of fables, legends, history and moral precepts”; and more than half of the respondent have unfavorable feelings towards Evangelical Christians. Think we have a problem in our schools?                                                      (Wallace, J.)

The Issue of Integrity

“The best ministry leadership is leadership unencumbered by a guilty conscience” (Robbins, 116). It is therefore of major importance that we guard our hearts and protect the ones we are called to shepherd. Be certain, “ministry provides no immunization against sexual temptation. Ministers of all ages, both genders, ordained and non-ordained, old and young, married and unmarried, leaders in every conceivable ministry context- none are exempt from sexual temptation” (Robbins,137). 

With that in mind, please consider this code of conduct for Youth Ministry from SafeMinistry:

Youth Ministry Code of Conduct

• ·         Never abuse young people or cultivate relationships in order to initiate or cloak abuse of young people.
• ·         Never become romantically involved with any young person participating in the youth ministry.
• ·         Never be alone with a young person away from the presence of other adults.
• ·         Never have young people to your home or visit young people in their home when no other adult is present, except with the permission of a parent or guardian.
• ·         Never touch a young person in a manner which is inappropriate given their age, gender or cultural background.
• ·         Never physically discipline a young person.
• ·         Never make drugs, alcohol or cigarettes available to young people.
• ·         Never develop inappropriate special relationships with particular young people that could be seen as involving favoritism or any form of special treatment.
• ·         Never engage in any contact with a young person that is secretive (whether physical or through electronic media or in any other way).                       

References:

Wallace,J. Cold Case Christianity. “The Challenges Facing Young Christians”. Retrieved from: http://coldcasechristianity.com/2017/the-challenges-facing-young-christians/

SafeMinistry.SafeMinistry For Youth Leaders.https://safeministry.org.au/for-parishes/safe-ministry-journey/safe-ministry-pathways/youth-ministry-leader/

Howells. T. 5 Steps to building a Great Youth Leadership Team. Retrieved from: http://youthministryunleashed.com/5-steps-building-great-leadership-team/

Robbins, D. This Way Youth Ministry. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan (2004)

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Written By Kevin A. Hall  10/14/2017.