Youth leaders need help! Most of us are just normal people who love kids and want to see lives changed for Christ, but that often means we have to get caught up in a church system that’s extremely political, confusing, demanding, stressful and sometimes even detrimental to the life-change we seek. When we, as youth workers, are fired, very rarely is it because we’re accused of being apathetic toward kids or mishandling the Word of God. Rather, it’s usually because of personal conflicts and ministry values that aren’t aligned with the church or the Sr. Pastor. We love kids, want to reach them for Christ and wish we didn’t have to deal with all the junk many churches throw at us. This week’s series won’t solve all our issues, but it will help us understand a little bit about how the church system works and how we can avoid the common pitfalls that short-circuit our dreams of life-long service in youth ministry.

Two views of youth ministry
Many youth workers have a speed bump approach to student ministry. We know we are called to youth ministry and we focus so intently on it that anything else along the way feels like a road bump. We hit the road bump and keep going except we’re a little more annoyed on the other side of the bump than we were before we hit it: committee meetings, board meetings, parents, paperwork, reports, etc.

Many churches have a light bulb approach to student ministry. To them, youth ministry is simply buying a light bulb from the youth ministry rack. The rack used to be empty, but now it’s filled with people from Bible colleges and seminaries. Every church wants a flood light youth minister, not a small 100 watt bulb. Eventually the bulb burns out, the church throws it away and buys another bulb until it also starts to flicker.

Youth workers need help:

• Our focus is on students, not church systems.
• We sometimes don’t stay focused on a task from start to finish.
• We often take on too much, making us look even more unorganized because we say YES to way too much.
• We are more people oriented than task oriented.
• We are cool, which is a problem for a lot of established churches. We are the edge. We’re the innovators. We prompt change and challenge the status quo.
• We often don’t follow through on menial tasks, such as cleaning the church van after a trip.
• We feel pressure from a variety of sources. There’s a lot of different expectations placed on us by a lot of different people and too often those expectations conflict! (”Get out of the office and hang with kids.” “Get in your office and return those phone calls.”)
• We often lack a clear vision. We tend to love kids and love Jesus and think that’s enough, but it’s not. Vagueness is killing the church: vague gospel, vague vision, vague direction, and we have no sense of when we get somewhere.)

Read the rest of the series:
Navigating the church system (2 of 5): Leadership tensions
Navigating the church system (3 of 5): Why churches change slowly
Navigating the church system (4 of 5): Understanding the adoption curve
Navigating the church system (5 of 5): Common mistakes by youth pastors

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The above material is based on Tiger McLuen’s seminar, “Surviving as a youth worker in an imperfect church.” Used and edited with permission. Thanks, Tiger!

Every couple weeks I tend to get an email from a church asking me to recommended candidates for their youth ministry position. Although I have made recommendations in the past when I know of youth workers who are looking for a job, most of the time I my “youth pastor bank” is pretty dry. So, rather than trying to play matchmaker like some kind of eharmony for churches and youth workers, I may post some of those job opportunities here in case any of you guys looking. I probably won’t make a habit out of this, though, since there’s plenty of ways out there already for these kinds of connections to be made.

I’ve been in dialog over email with Prairie Lakes Church for a couple days now and from what I can tell, they seem like a solid church with a healthy perspective on ministry. Contact Terry directly if you’re interested.

DIRECTOR OF STUDENT MINISTRIES
Nestled in the heart of the Cedar Valley, Prairie Lakes Church is a growing, evangelical church with a mission to Point People to God. We are seeking a catalytic leader to develop and administer all facets of student ministries for grades 6-12, focusing primarily on small groups, Bible studies and discipleship. This position is responsible for planning, coordinating and overseeing activities for teens to promote fun, fellowship, spiritual development and ministry involvement.

Non-negotiables:

• Must be passionate about teenagers and totally sold out to the mission and vision of reaching teenagers for Christ.
• Must be a leader of leaders, willing and able to train and equip other adults.
• Must be convinced this is your life calling and vocation, not a stepping-stone to your real dream job.
• Must be technology-savvy.
• Must have keen insight into the youth culture and issues facing youth today.
• Must be creative and have excellent communication skills.
• Must have large church experience (1500+).
• Must be able to respond to this ad by Dec. 31, 2007.

This is an immediate, full-time position offering competitive salary and benefits. If you have been yearning for a healthy environment where you can play to your strengths, please submit your resume today, with cover letter including salary history.

Terry Kampman, HR Director
Prairie Lakes Church
1907 Viking Road
Cedar Falls, IA 50613

Phone: 319-266-2655
Email: terry.kampman@prairielakeschurch.org
Church site: www.prairielakeschurch.org
Youth group site: www.plcstudents.com

My church is going through the whole vision casting thing right now. Our current vision is pretty old and no longer reflects who we are. We’ve been hashing through a new vision every week in our staff meetings and it’s actually been a very stretching process. The vision has to be detailed enough to evaluate ministries and point our church in the right direction, but it has to be simple enough for everyone in the congregation to remember and articulate.

The hardest part is that vision must start with identity (who we are) and move to function (what we do). Usually churches put the cart before the horse and go straight to function (i.e. programs to accomplish such-and-such) without really thinking through who they are and why they do what they do. Identity is hard to grasp, but, in our opinion, it starts with Ephesians and then must move to, “What is our unique identity that makes us different from every other church out there?” Unfortunately, many church’s just find some other big church’s mission, vision, strategy, etc and adopt it for their own, thinking it will grow their numbers or make them like the other church, but nothing could be more crippling! We need to discover our own unique identity as a congregation in our specific town and context and then let our ministry flow out of who we are.

One of our associate pastors led the church staff through a discussion where we brainstormed “who we are” and “what we are becoming” based on key passages in Ephesians. He was gracious enough to provide me with those study notes to share with you all.

A book most of the pastors at my church have read is called, “Simple Church: Returning to God’s process for making disciples” by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger. I haven’t read it yet, but they speak highly of it as we’re going through this process. I have the book here in front of me, I just need to sit down and read it sometime soon.

Bible study notes from Ephesians about our identity and our “becoming”

What advice do you have for this youth worker?

A reader sent me this to me and we dialogged about it over email a couple times, but they would love to have your input, as well. Post your advice in the comments and thanks for your help!
 

His story:
Thought I would say thanks for your ten commandments. I have been sending them to a [church leader] here that has been a real not so pleasant person. He is a great businessman but really has been giving people struggles when it comes to being a leader of faith. He tends to tear people down now so that he can get through what he wants to accomplish. I am not really sure how to read this individual because he an be your biggest pal one minute and then turn on you the next. I am tired of trying to play his game. Do you have any advice?

I’ve heard this comment several times from students: “Church just isn’t for me.” In my mind, my immediate response is, “You’re right! It’s not for you.” Church worship services are generally focused on the working middle-class adults, not students or children.

I’d really like to address this issue with my church’s leadership and I know they’ll be open to it, but their first question will be, “What do we need to do? Where do we start?” and I don’t really have an answer for that yet. It’s definitely has to be more than just inviting students to help lead worship or take the offering — it has to be a total reset of the whole approach and mentality of church. The mentality needs to be all-inclusive. The problem with that, though, is that the “target” becomes a wide range of people and instead of intentionally hitting the bull’s eye for one age group, now it’s a more buck-shot approach. We hit everyone a little, but no one enough to make an impact. However, if we’re really honest, we could probably stand to evaluate even our adult-oriented church services and ask, “Is this really making a spiritual impact on those who attend?” If the answer is anywhere between “no” and “kinda,” then the service needs to be overhauled anyway.

Is it even possible to create church services that are intergenerational and effective for every age group represented? I’m kinda thinking it’s not, at least not with our current approach to church.

Next week my church does their annual “employee self-appraisal and job assessments.” Even though I’ve only been here a little over two months, it’s that time of year for them so my evaluation interview with the Sr. pastor takes place next week anyway.

I have a self-appraisal evaluation form that I need to fill out beforehand and the very first question makes me stop and think:

Please list, or attach a list of, your significant work accomplishments (in the past twelve months).

Hmm… Kinda goes back to my post about defining success in youth ministry. I have two observations about this question.

1. The way this question is phrased almost assumes a list of tangible programmatic and numeric accomplishments, just like a business model evaluation would reflect. (”How many sales did you make last year?”)

2. How I answer this question reveals a lot about me and my view of ministry.

University of NSW research shows the human brain processes and retains more information if it is digested in either its verbal or written form, but not both at the same time.

Finally! Now there’s scientific research to confirm what I’ve always felt: PowerPoints that present the same text that’s being spoken is actually detrimental to its retention. I’ve always disliked “death-by-bulletpoints” that put into written form exactly the same thing that the speaker is saying. I almost feel like the speaker is insulting my intelligence: “I know, teacher, I heard what you said,” or “Yes, I may be deaf, but it’s a good thing I can read.”

When I use PowerPoint, I do my very best to make it imagery-based and not cluttered with text. I may put my main headline on the slide, but other than that my slides are mostly pictures and images that illustrate what I’m saying in different ways. And most importantly, I don’t make the connection for them!

For example, here’s a PowerPoint slide I used for a lesson on how God changes people:

I concluded my lesson with this image and never once explained or mentioned the cocoon/butterfly illustration:

My lesson was on how God works in our lives to change us. They can make the connection on their own. And when they do, it’s always more powerful and more memorable than if I had explained it to them. Self-discovery is always the most effective form of learning, so I use it as much as possible.

Some may think this approach is distracting, but I beg to differ. The mind can process information over 5 times faster than I can communicate it, so now I’m giving people’s minds two ways to interact with the information. A picture is worth a thousand words. Pictures will always spark imagination. Text doesn’t spark much of anything.

I’m not alone on this theory, either. Most presentation tips say, “Limit text! Use pictures!”

Jodie McNeill makes an interesting observation on this new research:

The main reason is that I feel that PowerPoint creates a gap between preacher/teacher and congregation/class, and that simply talking allows much more scope for relationship. The fact that Gen Y’s crave experience over explanation points further to the fact that a speaker who speaks with emotion and engages the crowd will be more likely to have an impact than those who present the information in a formal teaching style.

Hopefully I’ll be seeing less boring text and more pictures in PowerPoint presentations now. I want an experience, not a lecture.

[tags]PowerPoint, NSW[/tags]

A friend of mine is leaving his youth ministry to attend seminary and asked this question on the Facebook group, Youth Pastors Only: As I prepare for a transition in the next month and a half, do any of you have advice for what I can do to “leave well?” I feel that I can relate to this question due to my recent transition from my former ministry in Texas to where I am now in Minnesota.

As I prepare for a transition in the next month and a half, do any of you have advice for what I can do to “leave well?”

Here’s my response:

1. Don’t make promises you won’t/can’t/shouldn’t keep. For example, “I’ll come back and visit you guys” or “You can still call me whenever you want.” Students will cling to these statements emotionally and be hurt again in the future when they’re not fulfilled. If you’re planning to visit again next year on vacation or something, that’s fine, but don’t tell them just so they’ll feel better. Do your best to make it a clean break for the sake of the ministry and the next person who takes the position.

2. Decide which of your responsibilities MUST continue and delegate them to volunteers. If you have the time, take a week or two to overlap your involvement in these areas to ensure a smooth transition.

3. Listen to everyone. There will be so many different responses to your departure. What’s important is not that you address every concern (or relief!), but that everyone feels that you’ve heard their voice and feel that its respected and valued.

4. Once you leave, it’s hands off. Don’t contact people to see if you’re missed or entertain those who contact you to continue with some follow-up work or complaints. And when a new person takes over and students contact you about how it’s different (because it will be), always encourage them to be positive and support the new leader.

5. Never bad-talk anyone, especially if you’re leaving with tension. You don’t have to support various decisions and people, but don’t tear the ministry apart even further just so you feel like you’ve had the final say and got your revenge. Leave with grace.

I’m going to be honest: every item I list here is based on tendencies I’ve noticed in myself over the past several months. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, maybe you’ve even noticed some of them pop up in my previous writings. When I take a step back and write about it, it’s so easy to see how foolish I am. Burning out in ministry is not a sudden event in time that will take me by surprise, like a bursting firecracker on the 4th of July. Instead, it’s a slow process over time, like holding a burning match. If I’m not careful these things will eventually creep up on me, burn me, and render my leadership useless.

I doubt I’m alone in this. Here’s how you and I will crash and burn-out in ministry:

1. Ignore spending time in the Word and in prayer. Ministry is easy — you can do it all in your own strength. It shouldn’t be based on God anyway. Spend all your time teaching others how to develop their relationship with God instead.

2. Accept responsibility for everything. Say “yes” to whatever is asked of you and your time. It doesn’t matter if it could easily be handled by a volunteer, take it on anyway because you’re the guy they pay to do it. Besides, there may be no one else willing or available to do it besides you, which obviously indicates how important it is to everyone else.

3. Become emotionally attached to every situation. Whenever someone has a need, be the first to jump in, provide all the emotional support they need and rescue them from the problem. After all, everyone needs a savior.

4. Always serve God in ministry. This is so important that you must sacrifice all personal down-time and fill it with good things like meetings, events, Bible studies, evangelism, mission trips, prayer groups, small groups, and knitting groups.

5. Attempt to control everything. Control all the planning, the results, the future, the people, the workplace, the weather and God. You are the sustainer of the ministry on whom it is all built. If you take your eyes off of any of anything it will collapse and fail miserably.

6. Base your self-worth on the “success” of your ministry. You’re investing your life into this ministry thing! How it grows and flourishes indicates how important you are and how pleased God is with your labor. If your ministry is struggling, there must be something wrong with you.

7. Feed spiritual consumerism. So-and-so left the church and is attending the “mega-church” down the street because they have a better youth ministry. Now you need to quickly compete by offering the same programs but better. Otherwise, the entire congregation will migrate and leave you out of a job.

8. Focus your ministry on programs. This may come as a result of #7. Remember that vision and relationships are secondary to programming. Look at Jesus for example: His ministry was all about getting things done, not about growing disciples through relationships or communicating His vision for the world.

9. Dwell on all the problems. So it turns out that your ministry is the only one in the world that isn’t perfect. Let it consume your thoughts, your heart and your emotions. It’s important to focus on internal problems so there’s no time left to reach the lost souls that are dying all around.

10. Avoid transparency at all costs. Vulnerability brings the potential for rejection, criticism, and people losing respect for you. As a church leader, everyone must think you’re perfect, strong and invincible. Otherwise, the perfect people in your church will have no reason to follow you.

11. Focus only on what’s in front of you. Dreaming a huge vision for the future only makes people feel uncomfortable, probably because of item #5. Passion can become contagious and take the ministry in scary and risky directions, so it’s best to avoid these dreams altogether. It’s always safer to wander aimlessly by staring at your feet than it is to walk toward God’s beautiful horizon and risk tripping.

I talked with almost 40 churches over the past several months before taking the youth ministry position in Minnesota. Several reoccurring themes seemed to keep popping up as I asked questions and learned more about each church and their ministry.

First, most churches do not have a strong sense of where God is leading them. Instead of seeking God’s vision for their congregation and community, they steal God’s vision for Saddleback or Willow Creek, modify it a little and say, “This is our vision.” Most churches carry the generic mission statement of “making fully devoted followers of Christ.” I’ve observed through the interviewing process that Mark Batterson’s observation is true: the more vision a church has the less internal problems it has. He says, “Most church problems are vision problems.” (A post on this is coming sometime next week.)

Second, I like to take risks and experiment with ministry in new ways. In theory, most churches are attracted to new ideas and talk a lot about innovative plans, but few actually feel comfortable implementing them in practice. They feel safe and comfortable with how things have been running for the past 50 years. They’re more concerned with not offending anyone and eliminating controversy than they are about reaching lost souls.

Finally, many churches are content to coast on success they had years ago rather than continuing to pursue it for this current year. I heard lots of stories about big events and ministry ideas that were implemented and left a big impact on the community, but they were never repeated or improved upon. Discussion seems to stop at, “Wow, look what we did! That was so cool!” and they’ll tell their one story for years to come.