Developing Adult Leadership

Last night I held a meeting for adults interested in committing to an Adult Leadership Team for the Youth Ministry here at Covenant UMC. The decision to hold this meeting and “re-invent” our current adult leadership came from one of my personal goals as well as from our church’s recent Leadership Summit. The meeting was well attended and honestly went better than I anticipated. The adults were onboard with what I was sharing and I really didn’t even need to “convince” as much as I was casting a vision that they seemed to latch onto immediately.

Because this first step went as well as it did I wanted to share what worked well for me, what excited our adult leaders, and the direction we're embarking on in our youth ministry.

(Youth) Pastor Focused Ministry

The first problem with this model is philosophical. I am currently responsible for much of what goes on here and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, its my job after all. However, responsibility is one thing, focus is another. The way things are now, I am often the main focus, or the face, of Covenant’s student ministry. This problem is layered;
1. My way isn’t the way to follow Jesus. It’s merely a way. Students need to see other adults pursuing Jesus on a regular basis. The more adults they can see chasing after Jesus, the more they may realize that they too, (not just pastors!) can do the same.
2. If I fail, their perception of Christ and/or the church may fail with me. I’m not planning on a major failure, but if it would happen I would hate to take down the faith of my students with me.
3. Although I hope to never succumb to a major spiritual failure, there is a high chance I will leave this ministry someday. If our ministry is focused on a face (currently mine), what happens when that face leaves?

The second problem with a (Youth) Pastor Focused ministry is logistical. Logistically speaking, having one person “in the know” is a plan for failure. I’m currently very involved in the planning, teaching, leading, media and sound, etc. A problem could easily arise in a few situations and leave the ministry in a minor tailspin if...

1. I get sick, injured, etc and can’t be there for a day, week, longer
2. I leave.

If either of these things happen, the last thing I want is for things to come to a screeching halt here until a new person is found to lead and restore order.

(The following is found at ChurchMarketingSucks.com)

Fallout in a church will occur...“unless the church and its leadership has a culture in place that’s deliberately, intentionally and passionately committed to pointing people toward Jesus and away from the guy with the mic. That’s how disciples are made, how Christ is lifted up and how all our churches are made healthier and stronger.”

This is what I want to develop at Covenant. A culture (not a person) that points students deliberately towards Jesus Christ. And I think to do that we need to train, equip and empower our adults and parents to stand in the gap between the youth pastor and the students. The culture I want to foster involves all of our adult leaders along with their individual skills, gifts, failures, and questions. Within this culture, students want to share their excitements, worries, fears, and struggles, not only with the youth pastor, but with the other adult leaders that they know care for them on a personal level.

Our Plan

Step 1: Involving adults more in leadership, not just chaperoning, of all youth programming and events. This may have to do with leading our student greeters, working with students giving announcements, speaking, media & sound, etc.

Currently our students are responsible for most of these things. However, I am the “head person” for all the things they are responsible for. I find the greeters and teach them what to do. I find and prepare students for giving announcements. I teach and am responsible for the students handling media. If there is a problem with the sign-in process, they come to me. If there is a question about announcements, they come to me. If the media/sound is messed up, I fix it.

Again, I’m happy to do these things. It’s my job after all. But what happens when I’m sick? What happens when I leave?

So, step one involves training and empowering adults and parents in positions of leadership, not just chaperoning.


Step 2: Involving adults in the planning process. This is coming directly from the Covenant Leadership Summit our church staff and leaders attended back in January, led by Doug Anderson.

A major question was asked: What impact does the length of time you take to plan have on the fruitfulness of your ministry?

Doug proposed that the amount of time you need to effectively go from focusing on the area you want to focus on, to actually doing something to accomplish that goal, is 9-12 months. This is just the planning stages.

What is more typical is that events, trips, worship themes, etc get planned a few weeks out.

Problems: Not enough time to explore, familiarize ourselves with, and express ideas creatively.
Most of time is spent drumming up support from volunteers and excitement from students instead of focusing on event itself.

With planning ahead, we’re able to be concise, creative, focused, and “sticky.”


Action Steps

Re-invention of the Adult Leadership Team.

Group will meet 6 times a year to engage in discussion regarding youth ministry, brainstorm, date check, and creatively plan ahead for youth events and regular programming.

(At each meeting) I’ll layout the short (next 4 weeks), medium (2-4 months) and long term (4-9 months) plans for discussion. We’ll spend a little time on the short term, most of our time on the medium term, and a little time brainstorming on the long term stuff. We’ll discuss upcoming sermon series’ and how we can enhance those messages, future fundraisers, camps, trips, curriculum choices, etc.

Once this bi-monthly group is established, we’ll shift into delegation of responsibility and move toward involving more adults on a regular basis at 707 and other youth events.

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This is where the “prepared” discussion ended. I then opened the floor up to our adult leaders for their thoughts, concerns, and general input. They jumped right in. They shared how they were excited to work together on developing sermon series’ in a creative way, how much better events would flow with this kind of advance planning, etc. They really seemed to grab onto the vision I was trying to cast. This was a moment of personal success that stands out from my first 3 years of youth ministry.