Ten commandments for surviving in youth ministry (9 of 10)

Categorized | Volunteers, Youth Ministry

Ten commandments for surviving in youth ministry (9 of 10)

Posted on 04 September 2007 by Tim Schmoyer | Trackback link

Ten commandments for surviving in youth ministry Thou shalt not be a solo act. Don’t build the ministry around yourself. If you do, the ministry dies when you leave. Focus on building and training solid volunteers who can do ministry just as effectively as you can. Function as an adult team leader even more than you function as a youth leader. You can’t possibly reach every kid in your community, but with a strong team of qualified individuals, you multiply yourself and your reach goes a lot further than it would otherwise. If you find that you do more than 80% of the total work load for your ministry, you’re doing too much. For larger youth groups, that percentage should drop for you, too. Delegate. Train. Equip. Guide. And whatever you do, don’t be a control freak. Give your volunteers the freedom to maybe not do as well as you could on their first or second try. (I find that most of them actually do better than me!) The old cliché is true: work yourself out of a job.

1 Comments For This Post

Kevin Twombly Says:
September 4th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
great post once again Tim!

We have worked real hard to build a team based ministry and through it have seen incredible effectiveness with lots of benefits:
No burn out in our leaders because we all try and serve in our individual calling and passion.
Unity with our whole leadership team because there is one common vision.
No competition among leaders because we all strive to the same goal.
Youth see the example and serve each other because they are seeing it modeled.

Team based ministry is a win-win for everyone involved. A great read on this whole subject is Wayne Cordeiro’s book, “Doing Church As A Team”.
http://www.doingchurchasateam.com/inside.html Real cool flash preview of the book as well! I highly recommend it if others are looking at how best to begin a team approach to ministry.

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thoughts from PK>Kevin Twombly Says:
September 4th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Life in Student Ministry

About me: I am married to my beautiful wife, Dana, and together we live in Minnesota where I serve as the youth pastor at our local church. The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my church. More about me...