It’s hard to recruit an adult into youth ministry; however, to keep them for the long haul is another story. I would like to say that everyone that served with me in my first year is still with me today; but, that would be a lie. In fact there is only one person that has stuck around for the last 9 years. Fortunately, that trend has changed and the turnover is much lower today. THE PROBLEM is that ministers were leaving because they did not feel value. They felt like they were treated like doers and not leaders.
If you want your ministry to grow, you need to take the volunteers you have and give them the opportunities to lead. You can’t just wait around for the perfect leaders because they may never come. Instead you have to look at opportunities to build your ministry depth. That’s done when you:
- Take a Risk: Doesn’t matter if you ask them to hand in a resume or if you pick them out of a hat, when choosing a leader you are taking a risk. To take a calculated risk it’s important for you to develop parameters and steps that will allow them to grow as a leader. That means giving them room to fail.
- Give Over Control: In order for a leader to grow, they need opportunities to lead. Give them a project, an activity or event to run. Not only will it give them confidence as a leader but the understanding to what you feel as the youth pastor. This will allow them to understand the work that goes into reaching the vision for your ministry.
- Equip Them with Resources: You need to set your leaders up for success. To make that happen you need to give your leaders resources to educate them on ministry and materials that they need to perform certain tasks. This means understanding how and where they need to grow.
- Step Away: You can be the biggest obstacle to your leader’s development. While you think you are giving them control you could still be micromanaging. Encourage your leaders to come to you with any questions and then trust that they will follow through on the invitation. This means allowing them to fail. It means giving them permission to run the ministry in “their” way. By stepping away and allowing them to lead you give them the most important gift as a leader, trust.
To build your ministry depth you need to equip, motivate and empower leaders. They will extend your reach and influence. They’ll help you create more capacity in your schedule. When you grow leaders you build momentum behind your movement.
