Ch 4. Choosing and Supporting the Youth Leaders

This chapter helps us to consider who becomes a leader, how that leader is supported, and what that leader can be doing or him/herself in self care.

Look around your church and see who it is that is involved in youth ministry. For most of us, that person who is leading the youth ministry is someone from inside the church family, and is most likely doing this as a volunteer. And in most places, that is OK. But even volunteer leaders need to be given some training and guidance so they know what they are doing; and so they know that what they are doing is supported by the elders of the church. 

In most cases in the research, members of the youth leadership team are people who have grown too old to attend youth group themselves. Now, in most cases, that’s fine. Those young adults who have outgrown the youth space in your church are prime candidates to be youth leaders. They know the church and the community; they know the families; they know how things work in that church; they are often ready and willing to be involved. Great.

But consider this – do the teenagers in your church just assume that they will become youth leaders when they are 18 or 21? Do they believe that their age is enough to make them leaders? I ask because in one place that was a part of this study, this was the implicit expectation (p27). Obviously, I don’t think anyone should become a leader just because they are too old for youth group. There is much more required than that. 

Here’s something else to consider. Youth from the church becoming leaders bring enormous strengths which I’ve already listed. But there could also be some unexpected weaknesses.

“We noted in the research that most youth leaders were carrying on the practices that they had experienced within their church. They, they were not approaching the task innovatively or creatively, or in a way that adequately took into account the changing needs of each generation of youth.” (p27)

How can we work around this potential problem? 

Training

I’m a little disturbed that many leaders interviewed “did not feel the need for training”. We all want to do our best, and most of us think we are doing all right. But that can certainly be enhanced with some effective training. This doesn’t mean doing a Bachelor of Ministry – although that’s not the worst suggestion. Training can be short term or even occasional, but there should be some training.

“It would seem that the development of the expectation that youth leaders would do some training, if only a few days of intensives, would strengthen the confidence of youth leaders and enhance the equality of leadership.” (p29)

Can I encourage to have a look at https://pyv.org.au/training/pyv-training-events-recordings.html and make use of these. 

Also, I will be teaching a short course at the Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne starting late July 2016. Leave a message for me if you would like to know more about that. 

Payment

How many youth leaders get paid anything? Very few is the general answer. Most churches will struggle to find the funds to pay for a full-time youth worker, and many other churches will struggle to believe they should. I would (perhaps naturally) encourage churches to make some payment to the youth leaders. 

The most disturbing comment on paying youth leaders is this: “In a number of churches, young people said that paid people might not be motivated in the same way as volunteers, and, by implication, said that paid employees might not be as passionate about youth ministry.” (p29) Before I stand up to give a list of reasons why this is wrong, the authors of the research make this helpful comment: “There is no evidence that such remuneration reduced passion.” I agree.

Support

Most youth leaders – especially the paid ones – can tell you about the time they were verbally stripped down by either a parent, an elder or a senior pastor. And if not that, they can certainly tell you the times and places they felt completely unsupported. 

Senior pastors, you are the greatest source of strength and support to your youth leaders. Even if you don’t attend the youth group very often, I urge you to please meet with and encourage your youth leaders. 

Youth leaders, if you are looking for more support and don’t know where to go, send me an email and I’ll come and meet with you or do what I can to support you. You might feel alone, but you’re not really. 

Finally, the authors close this chapter with a section on Self-Care.

Self-Care

People burn out. People who work with people burn out quicker. Youth leadership can be very demanding and the load can be heavy and slippery. So, even where there is good support from others, taking care of yourself also matters. One aspect to this is setting some solid and appropriate boundaries.

“No one has the capacity for deep and intimate relationships with everyone. One needs to be clear about how much time to spend and where to spend it with those who come for help.” (p31)

Serving Jesus is fantastic, but serving Jesus can also come at a cost. Serving Jesus doesn’t take away the reality that we are still human and need to rest. We also need places where we can just enjoy being with people without being the person in charge. And it’s probably good to have something to do that is separate from your youth work. If you’re an introvert, then you will need to be extra careful about the amount of time you spend with people. 

Practicing good self-care contributes to faithful and effective ministry.

Christian Research Association have released the findings from research done on youth ministry in Australia. The book is titled "A Vision for Effective Youth Ministry".

There is much in this research which all pastors, both youth and senior, should take seriously. In this series of posts, I hope to give a brief summary of each chapter. Of course, you will be much better off if you purchase the book yourself.