Dear Youth Pastor:
Not too long ago, my senior pastor came into my office to let me know about a new young couple who had relocated to our town and had recently become members at our church. He explained that they were both interested in working with teenagers, and had led the youth ministry at their former church before they moved. My senior pastor thought they would make great leaders and asked if I wouldn't mind meeting with them to talk about adding them to our volunteer team.
Well, we met. And they became leaders. I knew it would be trouble from the start. The first few weeks weren't so bad. I did my best to keep them busy with jobs like organizing the snacks in the church kitchen and cleaning up after the decorate-your-friend's-face-with-ice-cream-toppings game. But then I went on vacation. Since none of my other leaders ever really stick around for more than a few months, I asked this new couple to lead youth group for the two weeks I would be out of town. It was a complete disaster. When I came back, they were energized, said they really enjoyed serving, and asked how they could serve more and give more time to our youth ministry. They even offered to lead youth group once a month so that I could have a week off from having to prepare a lesson!
If I don't do something quickly, I'm afraid they are going to take on more responsibility and become more involved. What should I do?
Sincerely,
Worried in West Haven
Worried:
Your concerns are well-founded. Much trouble has been caused in youth ministries through the years by well-meaning volunteers who don't understand their place in youth ministry: to clean up messes and make sure teenagers don't break any rules. It sounds like your new leaders are really excited and energized, so you have a lot of work ahead of you. Here are a few things that will help you along:
Assign them tasks that keep them away from students. If they want to help, by all means, let them help! Find things for them to do that don't involve a lot of contact with students, such as setting up games or running the sound equipment. You need to be careful on this one, though. It sounds like they might be the kind of leaders who will try to mentor students during such tasks by asking one or two to help them, so watch out for that sort of thing.
Avoid meetings of every kind. When you meet together with your leaders, chances are they might be encouraged by your time together, and rejuvenated enough to keep serving. Over-excited leaders will begin to lose steam if they can't connect with you to discuss any issues they might encounter as leaders or to simply ask for advice.
When you're on vacation, don't ask them to help lead youth group; simply cancel it. From your letter, it sounds like you need to understand a key principle of youth ministry: youth ministry doesn't happen without you, the youth pastor. Make sure you've got a hand in everything that goes on in your ministry. Not only will that stop volunteers from meddling, but it will keep you right where you belong: at the center of your youth ministry.
I hope this helps, Worried. Hopefully, you'll be back to running YOUR ministry on YOUR terms sooner rather than later.
Best,
Youth Pastor
Dear Youth Pastor is a public service to the good people who read this blog, and letters are published every Thursday. To ask Youth Pastor a question, just email him at DearYouthPastor@hotmail.com.
