Mayo Beatitudes of Developing a Leadership Team
In Cadre emails, I'm frequently asked to share some of my tips on developing a great leadership team. I thought you might enjoy hearing a few too. While some of the points may not sound too "glamorous," please just know that they work if you have the guts and endurance to keep doing them.
#1: Blessed is the leader who recruits other youth leaders one person at a time.
Did you notice my choice of the word "recruit"? Jesus didn't just make "pulpit" announcements and ask for "volunteers" when He was assembling His leadership team (the disciples). He aggressively went looking for people to share His mission and then He unashamedly recruited them!
Please stop thinking that bulletin inserts or pulpit announcements are going to build your leadership team! Quality people rarely involve themselves with a ministry simply because they felt motivated from a general announcement. With rare exceptions, non-targeted announcements usually get pretty non-targeted volunteers! The building of an effective youth ministry team is a mission of recruitment...one person at a time.
#2: Blessed is the leader who creates a three-month entry level opportunity so potential leaders don't feel trapped.
Often in church ministries, people don't want to give leadership a try because they feel as though they will be trapped for a year or so, even if they quickly determine that a specific ministry arena is not fulfilling for them. So it is important to create a fulfilling but non-threatening entry level opportunity for people you are recruiting to join your leadership team. It is also important that you clearly say, "Give this a try for just three months. At the end of that time, I promise you that you can back away without guilt if this ministry doesn't seem to be a fit.
All through the three-month period, focus on expressing honest appreciation to them over and over about their willingness to reach out to some of the teenagers. Appreciation still remains the best motivator for most volunteers.
#3: Blessed is the leader who "Loads the Bases" for new recruit's future ministry success.
None of us like to volunteer to do something that makes us feel like an absolute reject and failure and working with teenagers can be incredibly intimidating, especially when a leader is first starting. So make sure you "load the bases" for your new recruit's ministry fulfillment by assigning a couple of teenagers to them who will be very responsive. I assign 3-4 students to each new leader and often I call a couple of teenagers on a new leader's list and say something like this, "OK, we've got a new potential youth leader named, ‘Leroy Leader' that we really want to be a part of our leadership team. I gave him your name as one of four teenagers in our youth ministry he can build a friendship with. When he sees you at youth service or calls you on the phone, be really nice to him!" (I also tell the teenager to obviously not tell "Leroy Leader" that I requested that!)
#4: Blessed is the leader who requests a few specific but clearly-defined actions from newly recruited leaders on a weekly basis.
You are wise to follow the "KISS" Principle. "Keep It Simple, Sweetheart!" Keep your specific actions simple, reachable, and not terribly threatening. I request that my new leaders do the following each week:
- Show up 15 minutes early to the youth service and walk around, acting like "you own the place," creating positive tenor and an atmosphere of friendship.
- Stay at least 15 minutes after the youth service concludes, attempting to reach out in friendship or ministry to at least one of the teenagers before you leave that night.
- In order to begin to build "friendship bridges" with specific students, please call each of your four students on the phone every week. Let your leader know that when the student "grunts" as though he is not interested in anything you have to say, please realize that this is just normal!
- Attempt to connect friendship-wise with your 4 students at some point during the youth service. "Realize that friendship is the paved highway that the Holy Spirit will most often travel on." Most teenagers are not deeply impacted by hearing another message, but are more deeply impacted by having an authentic, Christian relationship with a caring leader that believes in them and helps them to become all they can be.
#5: Blessed is the leader who understands the never ending importance of encouragement and appreciation.
Mark Twain said that "Most people can live a long time on one really good compliment."
It's so important that people feel genuinely appreciated for the sacrifice of their time and energies. The Epistles talk about "being addicted to the working of the ministry." Given time, your new leaders will become so fulfilled with the joy of changing teenagers' lives that they too, will become "addicted to the work of the ministry." But along the way, I cannot overestimate the importance of expressing genuine, continual appreciation and encouragement.
In Cadre emails, I'm frequently asked to share some of my tips on developing a great leadership team. I thought you might enjoy hearing a few too. While some of the points may not sound too "glamorous," please just know that they work if you have the guts and endurance to keep doing them.
#1: Blessed is the leader who recruits other youth leaders one person at a time.
Did you notice my choice of the word "recruit"? Jesus didn't just make "pulpit" announcements and ask for "volunteers" when He was assembling His leadership team (the disciples). He aggressively went looking for people to share His mission and then He unashamedly recruited them!
Please stop thinking that bulletin inserts or pulpit announcements are going to build your leadership team! Quality people rarely involve themselves with a ministry simply because they felt motivated from a general announcement. With rare exceptions, non-targeted announcements usually get pretty non-targeted volunteers! The building of an effective youth ministry team is a mission of recruitment...one person at a time.
#2: Blessed is the leader who creates a three-month entry level opportunity so potential leaders don't feel trapped.
Often in church ministries, people don't want to give leadership a try because they feel as though they will be trapped for a year or so, even if they quickly determine that a specific ministry arena is not fulfilling for them. So it is important to create a fulfilling but non-threatening entry level opportunity for people you are recruiting to join your leadership team. It is also important that you clearly say, "Give this a try for just three months. At the end of that time, I promise you that you can back away without guilt if this ministry doesn't seem to be a fit.
All through the three-month period, focus on expressing honest appreciation to them over and over about their willingness to reach out to some of the teenagers. Appreciation still remains the best motivator for most volunteers.
#3: Blessed is the leader who "Loads the Bases" for new recruit's future ministry success.
None of us like to volunteer to do something that makes us feel like an absolute reject and failure and working with teenagers can be incredibly intimidating, especially when a leader is first starting. So make sure you "load the bases" for your new recruit's ministry fulfillment by assigning a couple of teenagers to them who will be very responsive. I assign 3-4 students to each new leader and often I call a couple of teenagers on a new leader's list and say something like this, "OK, we've got a new potential youth leader named, ‘Leroy Leader' that we really want to be a part of our leadership team. I gave him your name as one of four teenagers in our youth ministry he can build a friendship with. When he sees you at youth service or calls you on the phone, be really nice to him!" (I also tell the teenager to obviously not tell "Leroy Leader" that I requested that!)
#4: Blessed is the leader who requests a few specific but clearly-defined actions from newly recruited leaders on a weekly basis.
You are wise to follow the "KISS" Principle. "Keep It Simple, Sweetheart!" Keep your specific actions simple, reachable, and not terribly threatening. I request that my new leaders do the following each week:
- Show up 15 minutes early to the youth service and walk around, acting like "you own the place," creating positive tenor and an atmosphere of friendship.
- Stay at least 15 minutes after the youth service concludes, attempting to reach out in friendship or ministry to at least one of the teenagers before you leave that night.
- In order to begin to build "friendship bridges" with specific students, please call each of your four students on the phone every week. Let your leader know that when the student "grunts" as though he is not interested in anything you have to say, please realize that this is just normal!
- Attempt to connect friendship-wise with your 4 students at some point during the youth service. "Realize that friendship is the paved highway that the Holy Spirit will most often travel on." Most teenagers are not deeply impacted by hearing another message, but are more deeply impacted by having an authentic, Christian relationship with a caring leader that believes in them and helps them to become all they can be.
#5: Blessed is the leader who understands the never ending importance of encouragement and appreciation.
Mark Twain said that "Most people can live a long time on one really good compliment."
It's so important that people feel genuinely appreciated for the sacrifice of their time and energies. The Epistles talk about "being addicted to the working of the ministry." Given time, your new leaders will become so fulfilled with the joy of changing teenagers' lives that they too, will become "addicted to the work of the ministry." But along the way, I cannot overestimate the importance of expressing genuine, continual appreciation and encouragement.
Related Items
It doesn't matter how great you are at communicating or loving teenagers, unless you get good at recruiting and keeping volunteer leaders, all of youth ministry will be an uphill battle.
The size and strength of our volunteer leadership team plays such a pivotal role in determining the success of our ministry. Experience tells us that our youth ministry will never grow larger than our leadership base can handle. For it is imperative that we are able to care for the students the Lord entrusts to us.
So, grab a cup of coffee and join me as we tackle perhaps the number one challenge in all of youth ministry, "Effective Recruitment Of Volunteer Leaders."
Lovingly,
I hear it all the time... "I just can't seem to grow my leadership team. I get people to volunteer and then they quit a little while in, or they won't even try." Everything rises and falls on leadership. We all know the expression; but the implications of it in youth ministry are huge. We all know that we don't have the hours in the day to do all the work it takes to run a youth ministry by yourself, have a life, and still make a significant impact in a few student's lives.
In this Youth Leader's Coach, "Key Hurdles In Growing Your Leadership Team," I unpack the six key hurdles you need to face if you want to multiply your leadership team. You'll smile during some sections of my honest mentoring dialogue and maybe even "ouch" during some of the others. Whatever the case, this Youth Leader's Coach will speak to a youth ministry topic we all deal with on a regular basis. And just for the record, if no one has quit your leadership team in the last couple of months, you're doing better than most.
Lovingly yours,
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Have you noticed? Bulletin inserts don't work! Pulpit announcements don't work! We all know that in order to grow our youth ministries we must first enlarge our leadership base. But, how do you do that? What secrets have you discovered that others might need to hear? What might someone else have figured out that you never thought of? In this Alliance, we discuss recruiting strategies to solve the #1 reoccurring challenge most of us face in youth ministry, "How To Create An Amazing Volunteer Leadership Team."
As leaders, many times we communicate, "We're not into quantity; we're into quality." Often, that's a cop-out. Winning youth ministry leadership teams PLAY TO WIN. Don't you want to be a part of a CHAMPION leadership team?
This Youth Leader's Coach, "Attitudes Of A Winning Youth Leadership Team," will help equip you with all the strategies to not only have a thriving team, but one that WINS souls for the kingdom of God to make you absolutely UNSTOPPABLE! In this resource you will find pragmatics to help you identify the overarching goal of your ministry and how can you instill an unshakable method of accomplishing that goal for both yourself and in your leaders! I'll also talk about being successful from the smallest scale, to the biggest as we address some of the most CRUCIAL practices in continued growth and relevance in today's leadership culture, while at the same time, talking about the pitfalls to avoid as you lead your team into your best winning season!
Lovingly,
