“He Must Increase, But I Must
Decrease” - John 3:30
My favourite worship leader is Matt Maher. Among the many reasons why (in no particular
order): he’s a brilliant musician, he’s
an intelligent writer and storyteller, he has a profound understanding of
church, he’s a lot of fun to be around, he’s Catholic, he’s Canadian, he’s been
a long-time friend to both the Archdiocese of Vancouver and to me, and we’re
the same age.
Among his many endearing and inspiring qualities is his
humility. He always ensures that the
worship is about Him and not him. I’ve
seen him leading 18,000 youth in spirited praise only to quietly walk off the
stage without fanfare so as to not interrupt the worship. Matt doesn’t need the adulation...and when he
does receive it he is quick to direct it all to God.
Matt literally and figuratively becomes invisible when he
leads worship. And it’s a beautiful
thing.
It reminds me of John the Baptist. John was to prepare the way for Jesus knowing
that he in essence was destined to play “second-fiddle”. He was obviously fine with it, as he
proclaimed with great humility: “He must
increase, but I must decrease.”
Here are 3 ways that we can apply a humble attitude in
our youth ministry:
1, It’s about God and not about us. I’ve heard many youth ministry mandates and
mission statements to the effect of “leading young people closer to God” but I
never heard one that says “leading young people closer to the youth minister.” Yet many times we forget that it’s not about
us. I’ve written before about my early
youth ministry career. In my efforts to
become a popular yet competent leader, I volunteered to give every talk, be in
every skit, and lead every group discussion.
While it made me feel good, it took me a while to discover that I was
holding other people down – people who were just as popular and much more
competent. Thankfully, this phase only
lasted a short while. At least I hope it
did.
2. Ask for help. Even
Jesus needed a dozen apostles to help him carry out his ministry. So what makes you think you can do things on
your own? The “Lone Ranger” mentality
almost never succeeds, rather it can lead to burnout, depression, and a
plethora of unfulfilled promises and unclear expectations. You can decrease by recruiting leaders to
help you, asking parents to take some ownership in the ministry, and delegating
and trusting tasks (large and small) to others.
It will prolong your youth ministry career and make the ministry much
stronger overall.
3. Realize when it’s time to move on. As good as you may be (or think you are), you
are not irreplaceable. The strongest
youth ministries are those that have ongoing leadership training and even a succession
plan. I think of athletes like Brett
Favre and Michael Jordan who had difficulty walking away from the sports that
made them so renowned. If you are getting
complacent or if the ministry is not growing, then it may be time to take a
hard look at how effective you actually are.
As you examine your effectiveness in youth ministry, ask
yourself: “In what ways must I decrease
so that He may increase?”
Clayton
Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean
Isaiah and Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie. He
has served as the Director of the Office of Youth
and Young Adult Ministry of the Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Vancouver for the past ten years, helping
parishes develop their own youth and young adult
ministries. When not doing ministry, Clay enjoys
spending time with his family, playing music, playing
sports, playing naptime, and writing blogs on topics such
as family, faith, and the Vancouver Canucks. Learn
more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo
