Changes in Leadership

Today, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver announced its annual pastoral appointments.  Basically, every July some priests changes parishes: head pastors move churches, some assistant pastors become head pastors, and other priests move into specialized roles, move out of the archdiocese, or retire.

At my home parish of St. Paul's, we are once again affected by the changes, as we will be getting our 3rd assistant pastor in 3 years.  It's not a bad thing, as our church is looked at as one of the most dynamic in our archdiocese and a great place for priests to hone their ministry.

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. 

(As a side-note, It's neat that this blog comes a day after Jason's post of transition.)

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 and 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 evolution.

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      

Becoming Invisible

“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      

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

Don't forget the little ones

One of my major mistakes in Youth Ministry was forgetting the little ones.  For the most part a majority of my time was spent with kids aged 12-18+.  It was my “job” title as a Youth Director to spend time with “Youth”.  In my head that meant that I didn’t see the kids until they were 12 and sometimes older depending on the circumstances.   This created a disparity between the kids who were coming up and the ones that I had already established relationships with.

At our church we have a strong children’s ministry that can see upwards of 50 kids on a Sunday morning.  Not once in 6 years did I darken the door of the kids main ministry center and left getting to know them to when they finally made the trek “upstairs” on a Friday night.   If I were to go back and do it again I would make sure to integrate myself more into the kids’ lives at a younger age.  I don’t think it was something that needed to occur on a weekly basis, but getting to know the kids at younger age would have taken things much farther much quicker.

Youth ministry is all about relationship, and relationship takes a lot of work.  By spending a small amount of time with kids who are going to be in your ministry in a year or two, I believe you can accelerate the relationship building which will then allow you to speak into their lives at a much younger age.  Don’t make the same mistake I did and forget the younger ones. 

A couple quick tips:

1. Talk to the Parents – I’ve already wrote an entire blog on this, but talk to the parents of the kid who is coming up to youth in the next couple years.  See where they are at, and how they are dealing with a soon to be teenager.  
2. Spend Time with the Kids – Take a few moments every couple months to just talk with the kids who are in that 10 to 11 age bracket.  They’ll probably surprise you with how they see the world.
3. Work on integration – Growing into adolescence is a hard enough time for a kid without the added pressure of moving into a new group of people.  Make sure you spend some time researching and preparing the transition period for youngest of your group.

Integrating new kids into your ministry can be a difficult process for some.  If you have a healthy kid’s ministry behind you, it is something that will happen every year.  Make sure you develop a plan to work with whoever is charge of the kids and do what you can to help ease the transition between the two different environments.

How To Transition Out Your Position

When it comes to transitioning out of a youth ministry role, there are two truths:

1. You will move on to something else or 
2. You will be moved on to something else.

The following are some specific tips on what to do—and not do—in order to transition out of a youth ministry position with integrity, grace, and style.  Most of these suggestions are intended to apply when it is you who is initiating a resignation process, though most of the following are also applicable if it is your employer who initiates a termination discussion.

Do take into consideration, when contemplating leaving, whether your decision to leave may harm your credibility within the sector or field in which you are employed.  Be aware that if you plan to continue to work in the same field, potential employers may question your decision to leave a similar organization.

Do have a clear conversation with your manager/supervisor (if you have one) about your decision and try to time it so that your supervisor is able to absorb the news.  Think in advance about his/her possible reactions and be prepared for any possibility; don’t be shocked by your employer’s reaction, whether positive or negative.  Often, you can predict how your employer may react by honestly gauging your performance and by thinking about how much of an impact on the organization your departure might have.

Do give as much notice as possible; 30 days is standard, with a minimum of 2 weeks.  Be prepared for the possibility of your employer letting you go sooner, however, and plan your remaining time carefully for the smoothest transition.

Don’t try to use your paid vacation days at the end of your employment term.  Although you may be legally entitled to this compensation, employers will often view this as petty or insulting if you initiated the resignation process.  This practice is more commonly used as severance when an employer initiates a termination.

Do craft a professional explanation of your departure to share with peers, contacts, and others in the field.  Review any such notice with your employer before sending it out to any constituents whose opinion they might value.

Do allow your supervisor the opportunity to negotiate with you to stay, but only if you would actually consider staying.  Be realistic about the likelihood of any counter-offer coming to fruition and take this into consideration.  If you have made up your mind to leave, you should not consider any counter-offers; it will only lead to frustration on the part of your employer and will serve to make you look greedy.

Don’t look for a new job while on-site at your current place of employment, even if you have already decided to leave or you have informed your employer of your decision.  It is unprofessional and reflects poor character and judgment.

Do take into account the impact your departure will have on the organization. In most cases, your departure will require the organization to find a replacement, which can be a difficult and time-consuming process.  Be willing to help transfer your personal institutional knowledge to others.  You might offer to write a manual that outlines the position’s key tasks and projects, including important contacts and systems used.  It may also be that the position will be vacant for a period of time after your departure.  Ensure that all of your projects are left at a place where they can be put on hold temporarily or easily picked-up by someone not familiar with the project.

Do offer to help write and/or revise the job description for your position. Also, offer to participate in the process of finding and training your replacement, if desired by your employer.

Don’t forget to tie up any logistical loose ends (e.g. final pay, keys, passwords, health insurance and COBRA forms if needed).

Do request an exit interview to share and receive final feedback, if appropriate.

Do use this opportunity to build credibility with your employer. Even though you are leaving, be as available and present as possible in your final weeks on the job, exhibiting a positive attitude and performing at a high level.  This will leave your employer with a positive impression of you and your work.  As you continue down your career path, you will find that relationships with past employers are vital, so be sure leave the best impression along the way.

HT to Common Good Careers

If you're looking on how to communicate your transition you can get a great example from ThinkYouthMinistry: How to transition with grace and dignity

Jeff Smyth is husband to Heather and father of one active boy Nathan. He has been involved youth ministry leadership for 15 years in both the local church and non-profit areas of Canada. He has been serving for the past 3 years as the coordinator of community initiatives with DOXAToronto.com the Scarborough arm of Youth Unlimited (Toronto YFC). Learn more about him by visiting ThinkYouthMinistry.com or follow him @jeffsmyth