Youth
ministry can be a challenging but rewarding experience. To make the most of
this calling here are some practical ways you can do that ministry.
1)
Talk through the calendar before you go public with it.
One of the biggest things I learned at my second church was making sure you clear your ministry calendar with your family calendar first. This will save you a ton of headaches as you navigate little league, board meetings, and those pesky things like birthdays and anniversaries. The 24 hours it takes to complete this step are critical to success in youth ministry life. Trust me.
2) Establish some (mostly) non-negotiable family boundaries.
What night is your date night? How many nights of the week are you out doing church stuff? When is the best time for the family to be all together? There has to be grace and flexibility on a regular basis, but outline what are the non-negotiables and create some boundaries for yourself in ministry. If you skip this step, you’re going to say “yes” to everything and “no” to your family. (my family used to call me "Mr.-meets-a-lot")
One of the biggest things I learned at my second church was making sure you clear your ministry calendar with your family calendar first. This will save you a ton of headaches as you navigate little league, board meetings, and those pesky things like birthdays and anniversaries. The 24 hours it takes to complete this step are critical to success in youth ministry life. Trust me.
2) Establish some (mostly) non-negotiable family boundaries.
What night is your date night? How many nights of the week are you out doing church stuff? When is the best time for the family to be all together? There has to be grace and flexibility on a regular basis, but outline what are the non-negotiables and create some boundaries for yourself in ministry. If you skip this step, you’re going to say “yes” to everything and “no” to your family. (my family used to call me "Mr.-meets-a-lot")
3)
Build a team and empower them to help carry the load.
Youth ministry is bigger than one person—if it’s all about you, prepare for burnout. You can hang on for a while, but while you hang on, you’ll also bottle-neck growth in your ministry and other leaders. You are cheating others out of the opportunity to become leaders if you micromanage your ministry. Empower others to take significant parts of the ministry so that you don't have to.
Youth ministry is bigger than one person—if it’s all about you, prepare for burnout. You can hang on for a while, but while you hang on, you’ll also bottle-neck growth in your ministry and other leaders. You are cheating others out of the opportunity to become leaders if you micromanage your ministry. Empower others to take significant parts of the ministry so that you don't have to.
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