Gimme a Break!

When it comes to our youth ministry leaders, it’s a common tendency to fall into the mindset of “keeping them at all costs”.  We fear losing them forever and we sometimes fail to see that it might be worth suffering some short-term pain for some long-term gain.

There are many reasons why leaders leave ministry, including (but not limited to) burnout, lack of support/guidance, lack of training, lack of opportunities for growth, conflicts within the team/ministry, change of heart/desire, feelings of inadequacy or insignificance, changes in life/family/job, moral failures and not feeling appreciated/affirmed.

When one of our leaders comes to us and desires a break because of one or more of the above reasons, we must have the foresight and humility to grant the request.  I would much rather have someone take some time off from youth ministry leadership to get his business in order and come back stronger than keep someone for too long and then have him quit forever.    

Like many things in ministry, it sounds simple in theory but it’s not easy in practice.  Often, it’s hard to find good youth ministry volunteers so we’d rather cut off one of our limbs than lose one.  We worry about how someone stepping down looks to the teens, parents and other church members.  We try to convince them that things will eventually work themselves out and they should just keep on keeping on.

But if the leader is not in the right frame of mind, then keeping him on the team is doing him, the teens, and the ministry overall a disservice.

Youth ministry is not just about leading young people to an encounter with Jesus Christ.  It’s also about mentoring and leadership development.

When one of our leaders tells us he needs a break, let’s have the wisdom to grant his wish.

It’s simply the right thing to do.

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 

Maintaining Youth Ministry Volunteers with a Little TLC

Yesterday I was blessed to be a part of a panel for “Blueprints” – an innovative online youth ministry training session spearheaded by Tony Vasinda.  The topic was volunteer management: recruiting, training, and sustaining volunteers.  You can watch the entire hour-long session here.

As part of the training, I put together a 7-minute clip on ways to keep our youth ministry volunteers.  I also touch on the reasons why volunteers leave youth ministry, and I introduce the TLC theory.

Hopefully you’ll be able to use both videos to strengthen your ministry to volunteers and your youth ministry overall!





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. Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo 

5 Reasons I'm Excited About Youth Ministry in Canada

Hi there. 

My name is Jeremy Postal and I’m new to this little corner of the interweb. It’s good to be here and thanks for reading; I’m really hoping we’ll have the chance to connect at some point and share together our insights on student ministry in Canada.

In approaching my first blog post for Canadian Youth Worker I thought it’d be good to somehow introduced myself but, as I’ve been sitting here staring at a blank screen, I realize the difficulty of an introduction with me over here and you all the way over there. So, instead creep through my bio  and, in the mean time, I’ll tell you 5 reasons why I’m really excited to be writing here at Canadian Youth Worker.

1. I’ve been involved with next gen mission + ministry for over a decade and absolutely love connecting with other youth workers. I hope this will be a platform for connection with youth workers from circles I don’t typically roll with. Here is my email, my blog, my Facebook, and my Twitter – let’s connect.

2. I absolutely believe in the future of the Canadian church and I believe youth ministry is one of the catalysts of its present healing and future health.

3. Canadian youth culture is a massive mission field filled with students whose parent’s are post-Christian. Where does that leave students? Often with never having heard or had any experience with the Gospel – ever! Next gen ministry in Canada is now, more than ever, filled with the greatest urgency.

4. I’m completely dissatisfied with the number of young people who leave their faith upon high school graduation. I want to be part of a movement with other Canadian leaders who will call them back.

5. I want to, through this blog, inspire, encourage, mentor, and equip young and rookie youth pastors as they start out in student ministry. The first couple of years have a steep learning curve and we need you – all of you – to push through!

Whether you’re in a local church or para-church context, a paid or volunteer youth worker, or living on the west coast, the prairies, central Canada, or the east coast; for the future of our nation we’re all in this together. If you, like me, hold student ministry at the core of your calling and passion, let’s stand together, learn from each other, connect with each other, and be bastions of hope in a culture grasping for the frayed edges of what little hope they barely see.  

I’ll leave you with a quote by author Len Sweet as a means of self-reflection:

“Light illumines the darkness. If there’s darkness, the blame should be attached where it belongs; not to the world that is dark but to the church which is failing to provide the light.”

Let’s not fail the darkness by not being light.

-Jer 

Jeremy Postal is the director of Whistler School, a bible and discipleship school based out of beautiful Whistler, BC. He is passionate about building communities of restoration & creativity with Christ as the focus. You can also catch him regularly on his blog at www.jeremypostal.com.  

Get Over Yourself

Tonight I will be going to watch our Vancouver Whitecaps host the LA Galaxy at BC Place in some MLS (Major League Soccer) action.  There has been a considerable buzz around the city for the last couple of days because of one player: David Beckham.

One may argue that Beckham’s best soccer days are behind him (being left off the British Olympic Soccer Team is a clear indication) but his appeal is undeniable: along with Tiger Woods he is arguably the world’s most renown athlete.  And despite the Galaxy also having all-stars Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane on its roster, the Galaxy goes as Beckham goes.

So it’s not surprising that almost all of the media focus has been on Beckham – it’s even triggered a debate as to whether or not they should open up more seats for the game that’s officially sold out.  It got me thinking about what it would be like to be one of the other Galaxy players; to have the media circus follow the team wherever you went.  Would I enjoy it? Would I be resentful or jealous?  Would I accept it as part of the job?

I remember my first few years in youth ministry at my home parish of St. Paul in Richmond.  I was surrounded by an awesome team of leaders and blessed by a youth ministry coordinator who trusted me despite my relative newness in the Catholic faith (I came into the Catholic Church in April 1993 and was part of the youth ministry team by that fall). 

In my excitement, enthusiasm, and now admitted ignorance, I wanted to be involved in EVERYTHING.  I wanted to be in every skit.  I wanted to deliver every teaching or testimony.  I wanted to make the announcements at Mass.  I wanted to be known as the best small group leader.  I wanted to lead every prayer service.  I equated being the best youth minister to being the most popular youth minister; thus I wanted to be the most popular youth ministry leader at the parish.  Basically, I wanted to be the David Beckham of my parish youth ministry.

Notice how I “wanted” to be all of these things...but I certainly didn’t “need” to be them all.  In terms of “Christian years”, I was by far the youngest and least experienced member of the team.  It’s almost comical now...19 years later...thinking about what a pain I must have been to work with. Certainly I had some decent ideas but scattered among them I’m sure were plenty of bad ones.  I’m so grateful that my peers were patient, understanding, and most importantly, humble.

Looking back, I certainly don’t regret how things turned out: this December I will be celebrating my 10^th year working for the Archdiocese of Vancouver as its Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry.  But I do regret how I may have made some people feel, especially if they felt that I was too selfish and/or arrogant.  Over the years, I’ve learned how to delegate, how to trust others, and to humbly accept that other people are simply better than me in certain areas.  In essence, I’ve learned to “get over myself”...although some would argue that I still haven’t mastered that elusive skill. :p

That’s why the best youth ministries are the ones that are run by teams of people and not just one person; where one person will be weak another will be strong.  It takes a variety of individuals to minster to and with the many young people in the parish.  It takes a multitude of people to be able to respond and relate to the many needs of youth.  And it takes an entire team of leaders, bonded by faith, to lead young people closer to Christ.

After all, there is no “I” in “TEAM”.

And it takes an entire village to raise a child. 

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

It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye: Transition in Leadership

This past Sunday, our assistant pastor said goodbye to our parish after three years of faithful service to our parish community.  As Father Swann Kim reflected on his time at St. Paul’s at the end of Mass (one year as a deacon and two years as a priest), he choked up in a touching and genuine display of emotion.  On cue, many in the congregation (including this writer) had to wipe away tears as we listened to Fr. Swann speak about how we had all become his family and that he was sad to move on.

Fr. Swann won’t be too far as he takes up residence at Our Lady of Assumption Parish in Port Coquitlam.  As with many of the priests who have lived with and learned from Monsignor Luterbach, Fr. Swann will likely become a pastor somewhere in the not-so-distant future.  Life at St. Paul Parish will go on, in large part to the strong leadership of Msgr. Luterbach and countless others in the parish community.  As well, we are all excited as to what our new assistant pastor Father Rodney Nootebos will bring to our parish.

In reflecting on this transition, I started to relate it to youth ministry (surprise, surprise).  In particular, it underscored for me the importance of having a good transition plan in place when a parish youth ministry coordinator or youth minister moves on...for whatever reason. 

It’s happened before:  a popular, highly-competent and highly-effective youth ministry coordinator leaves a parish and youth ministry seemingly leaves with her.  The parish is apparently caught off-guard (even though it knew this day was coming) and youth ministry has a hard time recovering, if at all.  All because the church’s youth ministry efforts were tied directly to its leader and not to the community.

Part of my role is to aid in this vital transition period so youth ministry doesn’t fall off the map in both the eyes of the pastor and the church community.  Thus, I offer three ways to ensure that youth ministry doesn’t leave with the outgoing youth minister:

1.     Mentoring.  Youth ministry is a prime opportunity for solid mentoring and leadership development.  Even the best youth ministers know that they aren’t going to be around forever; the smartest ones will realize this before it’s too late.  A strong leader should be able to identify and perhaps even groom one or two people to take his spot...without feeling threatened.  Leadership always needs to be evolving....otherwise our ministry isn’t growing.      

2.     Create a Job Description & Procedures.  You might be turned off by reading this one thinking that it’s way too much work.  Realize that I’m not talking about lengthy, complicated, air-tight dissertations here.  But I am talking about concise, pointed documents that will bring consistency and transparency to the ministry.  Thus, I encourage you to spend some time creating some of these documents.  The last thing you want to happen is for someone to leave and to take all of the “trade secrets” with her.

3.    Know what you are doing and why.  If we are truly doing our job as youth ministers of leading young people to an encounter with Jesus Christ, then it shouldn’t matter just who on the team is doing it.  Ideally, young people will relate youth ministry to a multitude of people rather than to just one person.  Youth ministry is more than one pastor, one priest, or one youth minister.  We’ll know we’re doing it right when a prominent leader leaves yet the young people stay.

I pray that all of our youth ministries are designed so young people relate their leaders to youth ministry, and not the other way around.  That way, when it’s indeed someone’s time to move on, young people will be able to see that it’s a natural part of growth and evolvement.

Then it won’t be so hard to say goodbye.

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

Supporting and Maintaining Youth Workers

Here are 7 tips for supporting and maintaining youth workers via a video blog I did for an online Youth Ministry Conference back in November 2011:



1.  Build healthy relationships with them
2.  Meet regularly with them
3.  Motivate and affirm them
4.  Provide them with a variety of responsibilities
5.  Evaluate them
6.  Clarify expectations with them
7.  Pray with them and for them

"The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few."  Matthew 9:37

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.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo