Shutting Down Your Youth Ministry

Have you ever thought about doing this? I’m not talking about shutting it down, closing the doors and never opening them again. What I’m talking about is shutting down your youth ministry over Christmas break, march/spring break, easter weekend, or over the summer.

I’m seeing this more and more and as I speak to youth workers, this is not just denominational specific. This is

Design this, you have time to plan for your youth group.

happening right across denominational lines.

The reasons for this epidemic of shutting our youth ministry down are from paid  and volunteer youth workers:

• i don’t have the resources
• i’m not a paid youth worker
• i have a family
• i have vacation
• we are giving the kids a break
• we give pour volunteers a break
• most of our students go away at this time
• what's your reason?

My response:

• your kids don’t care about resources, they care about you in their life.
• you have not been a paid your worker the rest of the year.
• did you have a family the rest of the year?
• take your vacation. enjoy and rest. let someone else take the lead for the youth ministry.
• kids and youth workers take breaks all the time when they can’t make it out during the rest of the year.
• most of your students going away is not ALL. You need to get over the numbers game your playing and address this with God. It’s not about most but about one.

The one thing I know about youth workers, paid or volunteer, is that you are creative enough to over come obstacles. Just because the school calendar tells us that their is no school does not give us the right to say to our students that God has entrusted to us that their is no youth group scheduled.

There are many reason why youth workers honestly cancel youth group and here are three I have seen:

• insecurity
• control
• greed

Surprise your kids and church by not cancelling your youth group over break. Create a new plan and involve your students to help you accomplish it. They will surprise you, guaranteed! 

Pray and ask God:

Do what ever it takes in me

for your kingdom

for my freedom

so that others may see Jesus

Volunteers 2.0

The Art of the Volunteers Process

As a I mentioned in my blog about Developing Volunteers I have struggled in the past of being a lone ranger even when I have a great volunteer team. I've come to figure that they probably tolerated me because they loved doing youth ministry so much.

The volunteer process is an art form and it is up to you to make this a beautiful piece of art or a an ugly one. Once your volunteers have committed to the youth ministry and you have done your do-diligence  with the paperwork, checking references, vulnerable sector police check has been collected and your interviews have been finalized. You volunteers are now placed in the right roles but then what do you do with them? How many times should you meet together during the year? What should you talk about when you get together. Should your volunteer gatherings be formal or informal?

Training is an important part of building a confident, competent, and committed team. But don't make the mistake of assuming that a well trained team is automatically a good team. Our advice? Focus on building chemistry more than on training skills. The 9 Best Practices for Youth Ministry by Kurt Johnston & Tim Levert

A youth ministry cohort I lead, we have been going through the above book and the following points about volunteers really stuck out to our cohort from the chapter entitled Developing Volunteer Leaders.

Youth Ministry Overview: you need to clearly and regularly communicate with your volunteers the ministry programs, goals, vision, values and direction. This will keep your youth workers invested in the youth ministry by knowing these details. Your volunteers  have expectations for you and you must balance that when you are communicating an over view of the ministry you are also showing them your expectations for them.

Youth Culture Understanding: Regularly send out links to great websites to your volunteer team to some great sites. Some websites and speakers I would recommend are; Center for Parent/Youth Understanding by Walt Mueller, Digital Kids Initiative by cpyu.org, PluggedIn by Focus on the Family, (our cohort adapted this).

Counseling Students: Help your adults filter through what is and is not appropriate to counsel.

Putting Yourself in Their Shoes: Work your leaders through an exercise that takes them back in time to their own teenage years. As teenagers, what were their struggles, fears, hopes, parental issues, and other big issues?

Preparing a Bible study: Often the things we take for granted are the things most needed by our volunteer team. I (Jeff) have struggles with this for years. I would have conversations with volunteers and when they explained a struggle they were having I would think in my head, "REALLY!?! That is basic youth ministry knowledge and practice." I found this thought occurring in my head many times before I started to help my volunteers. They were telling me some important things, I just wasn't listening.

Social Networking with Students: The single most powerful thing an adult can give students is their presence - at sporting events, recitals, concerts, family gatherings, and so on - but social networking allows them unprecedented connection points with students that should be utilized. Jeff: But be careful is you are a jr, high volunteer because social networking could be uncomfortable for parents and organizations.

Jeff Smyth is a youth worker who has been involved in both the local church and non-profit areas of Canada for more than 15 years. Jeff lives in Toronto with his wife Heather and son Nathan.

Jeff online: ThinkYouthMinistry.com, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+

Volunteers 1.0

How to develop committed, competent volunteers.

I need to confess something to you that I'm not proud of but unfortunately it's a fact in my youth ministry experience. I struggle with being a "Lone Ranger".

I went through years of youth ministry doing it on my own, with the help of many volunteers around me, yet still doing it by myself.

I've come to realize that developing leaders is an art form. I had no idea that it requires a lot of work and commitment from me as the lead youth worker.

Here are a couple of steps I've learned about volunteerism  and building my volunteer teams with wisdom:

1. You are not desperate for the wrong volunteers.
2. It's easier to say "no" to a potential volunteer than it is to remove them later.
3. Don't answer for them. (ask them and let them say "no" before you answer for them).
4. ASK. If you don't have volunteers, you are not asking or making needs known.

Next Week: Volunteer Process

Jeff Smyth is a youth worker who has been involved in both the local church and non-profit areas of Canada for more than 15 years. Jeff lives in Toronto with his wife Heather and son Nathan.Connect with Jeff online: ThinkYouthMinistry.com, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+