WHAT NOT TO DO:

1. Never stand in front of your congregation and make a plea for help. Don’t ask for anyone interested to contact you. You may get a response from someone, but they could be an immature believer, have disqualifying personal issues, or sign up just to have fun. And since they know you’re in need of help, it’s hard to communicate, “Sorry, we do need help, but you’re not what we need.” You almost have to take whoever shows up at your office door.

2. Never beg people to join your ministry. You don’t want people to join you out of pity, sympathy, or because they have a hard time saying no. Don’t come across as a ministry that’s struggling and needs help in order to function. That’s not very inspiring and sets a completely wrong perspective for that potential volunteer, especially later if they decide to come on board.

3. Never invite someone to join your ministry team unless you’re confident in their abilities to fulfill the roles you assign. Don’t set your volunteer up for failure by saying, “Let’s see how well you can perform here” and then later say, “Wow, I didn’t know you were so bad at this. Oh well, thanks anyway!” This is a disservice to your ministry participants as well as to your now ex-volunteer. Set them up to succeed!

WHAT TO DO:

1. Ask your church staff and other trusted leaders for referrals of people they think would be a great fit for your ministry. Also, intentionally establish relationships with people outside your ministry area and get a feel for where they’re at spiritually and how they may or may not fit into your team. Pray over every lead.

2. Talk with other people who know your potential recruit. What input do they have? Any concerns? Can they envision that person successfully participating in your ministry?

3. If everything checks out, approach the recruit and cast the vision for your ministry. Share what God’s doing in your team and where you believe He’s leading. Also listen to their heart, talk about their passions and what God’s doing in their life, especially points that may intersect with what God’s doing in your ministry. Throughout the discussion, generate excitement for this individual if it looks like a good connection could be made between your ministry and this potential volunteer.

4. Invite the recruit to become a part of the ministry as a fly on the wall — no responsibilities, just to observe. Debrief together after every experience.

5. If they agree to join the ministry, clearly set the expectations and responsibilities for that individual. Provide ongoing training and support as they venture out into their specific area of ministry. This insures that they won’t burnout right away and will be a part of your group for a long time to come. Also make sure you take care of any legal stuff your church might require, including background checks and/or application process.

6. Set your standards high and keep ‘em there! The last thing your ministry needs is a questioned reputation because someone on your team did something or said something that was really stupid or even downright harmful. Your ministry should always be a safe place where people have full confidence in the integrity of your volunteers.

Dacia Bryan, youth pastor at Higher Ground Pentecostal Holiness Church in Ahoskie, NC, wrote me with the following question:

“Should a portion of the money we raise go to help pay for hotel expenses for youth staff members who go with us on overnight trips? Most of my youth staff are college age or a little older, most of them are relatively low income, and its a pretty big sacrifice for them to take off work and chaperon trips throughout the year.”

In my opinion, the youth volunteers should never pay a dime for anything ministry related, regardless of their income. They’re already sacrificing their family time, work time, relax time, friend time, sleep, energy, etc — that’s payment enough. I try to make it easy for the leaders to go on trips because if they can’t go, neither can the kids. Instead, I suggest splitting all the youth leader’s fees between the kids going on the trip: the cost of the trip for everyone divided by the number of students attending. For example, if a trip costs $50/person and there are 10 students going and 4 leaders, I take $50×14=$700 and divide that by the 10 kids, so now the trip costs $70/student and leaders go free. Besides making it easier for the volunteers, it shows them that you appreciate their sacrifice and dedication to the students. Even if a leader wants to pay, don’t let them. That way there’s absolutely no pressure on any other leader to pay also. If some leader demands that they make some sort of financial contribution, ask them to sponsor one of the students instead.

Now, I don’t really make this “formula” public to everyone when announcing the cost of trips and events. I just tell them what it costs and leave it at that, especially if no one is used to the slightly inflated prices. If someone asks, tell them the truth and back your volunteers 100% with this. Make it clear that if the leaders don’t go, then no one can go at all. Your leaders are the ones who make the trip possible for everyone, the ones sacrificing so much personally and giving so much to the kids during that time. The least the kids can do is cover the extra money to get them there.

Your leaders are the ones who make the trip possible for everyone, the ones sacrificing so much personally and giving so much to the kids during that time. The least the kids can do is cover the extra money to get them there.

Unfortunately there’s an attitude in many churches that expects programs to be offered either free of charge or at minimal cost. Those same parents have no problem forking over $200 for a band uniform or paying for their kid’s sports leagues because they deem those programs to be valuable. How much more valuable are their kid’s spiritual development?

In most cases, raising the price a little won’t affect anyone, as much as their outcry may indicate otherwise. Every marketing study out there shows that students are the #1 targeted demographic because they spend more money than anyone else and have the least amount of financial responsibility. The question isn’t usually whether students have money or not, the question is how they choose to spend it. If they’d stay home one Friday night instead of going out to eat and seeing a movie with friends, that’s almost an extra $20 right there. When my students committed to support one of our church’s missionaries, it was like pulling teeth to get them to meet their $30 pledge every month. But if I announce something about paintball, every kid immediately has $40 and is ready to go.

So, to answer your question, don’t ask the leaders to pay for anything. Cover their gas, meals, lodging, 100% of any youth ministry related expenses. Charge the kids a little extra to cover it. Give each of your leaders a hug in the process for making the trip possible and let them know just how much you appreciate their sacrifice and dedication to the students.

Here’s an question that showed up in my Inbox from an unnamed reader of this blog:

I can’t seem to get my leaders fired up about being relational with our students. It’s so frustrating. We have over 150 students in our student ministry and I’m really feeling like I’m getting to the point of burn-out with trying to connect to everyone myself. I see the changes we need to make but I don’t feel like my leaders are ready or willing to make the necessary change. Do you have any suggestions?

What suggestions do you have for this fellow youth worker?

Here’s my response. Please leave yours, as well.

1. Try meeting with each of the leaders one-on-one (or as a couple if they’re married). Talk about their dream for youth ministry. What is their passion in youth ministry? What vision do they have for it? Why are they youth leaders in the first place? Model the relational side with them and create opportunities for them to exercise their giftedness and passion for students. If there is no passion, love or “spark” for students, then they really have no business being a volunteer. Try casting a vision with them for what you want the youth ministry to look like. Make them feel a part of the process. Then, when discussing the strategy and relationships becomes a part of it, they feel like they have ownership over it.

2. Make sure you say “no” to any unrealistic expectations. Your emotional health is more important than the youth ministry. Besides, if you’re burning out, you won’t do anyone else a bit of good anyway. The best thing you can do for the students is to protect yourself so you can continue working with them for the long haul.

3. Start the leaders off with little steps. First ask them to do something as simple as contact one student a week outside of church. It only takes 5 or 10 minutes, but that simple phone call/e-mail/IM communicates the world to them. After the leaders are comfortable with that, challenge them to contact every student in their small group each week. Later, have each leader attend one student’s extra-curricular game/performance during the semester. Before long, move them on to attending more students events. You get the idea.

Again, if volunteers are resistant to connecting with students, I’d seriously question their reasons for working with the youth group in the first place.

I’m not really an expert painter, home designer, or fashion statement by any stretch of the imagination, but fortunately one of my youth leaders is. This Sunday marks the beginning to a whole new youth room look that she’s been pioneering, a renovation extravaganda! I’ll post pictures here before and after to show the progress.

On Facebook, my fellow youth pastor friend, Ben Kraker, posted several pictures of the new paint job he’s sporting in his church’s youth room and man, it’s nice! At first I thought he had it professionally painted, but then in the picture above he revealed his secret: he printed a logo and text onto a transparency and put it on the wall with an overhead projector. How creative is that?! Who knew overhead projectors were still around and even used for anything?

1. I will be more of an equipper and less of a doer. Ephesians 4:11-12 says that the purpose of leaders in the church is to equip the people to do the ministry of the church.

2. I will build into the ministry of others rather than seeing them as tools to build my own ministry. Jethro told Moses that trying to be the solitary authority figure was wrong (Exodus 18:13-24). Jesus chose to invest into building 72 other ministers (Luke 10:1), 12 heavily, and three of them intimately so.

3. I will develop a kingdom perspective, realizing that building the ministry of others will multiply the impact of my life. Jesus went out of his way to make sure people understood how much he demanded before they became his followers. For Christians, giving time to ministry is not optional.

4. I will be a cheerleader. In a world full of negative attitudes and criticism, I will demonstrate Christ’s love by celebrating the accomplishments of others.

5. I will call people boldly. Rather than recruiting people timidly, hoping not to offend them, I will boldly invite them to contribute their time to the most significant cause in the universe.

6. I will devote resources to developing others. I will give people constructive feedback. I will seek ways to pay for appropriate training events.

7. I will laugh. My ministry has eternal consequences and is the most serious effort there is. But the Bible speaks of love and joy— not somberness—as the attributes that characterized Jesus’ followers. Jesus’ ministry was a lot like 13 guys on a three-year camping trip—they had to spend some time laughing together. I will help my people have fun in their service.

8. I will forgive myself for 2006. God chose to do this ministry through me, knowing that I’m a cracked vessel (or crackpot). I will spend time now consciously determining what I need to learn from my mistakes and then I will join God in casting them into the Sea of Forgetfulness.

9. I will remember The 1 Thing. In Luke 10:38-42, Jesus reminded Martha that while all her attempts to serve him were good, the one thing most important was developing a growing relationship with Jesus. I will remember that ultimately it is not about my ministry or my church. Ultimately it’s about developing a growing relationship with Jesus

10. I will keep these resolutions longer than the one about dieting and exercise.

by Brian Proffit