Leadership Training
For the last 30 years or so, I’ve dedicated my life to raising up leaders. The mistake many people make is that they think leadership training is what we do at a Bible School or a Leadership Conference or with kids who intern in the summer and that’s awesome. But if you’re going to be a real leadership trainer, it is taking a deeper interest in your volunteers, at least key ones and pouring your gut into them that will make a difference. Like most everything in the Kingdom, leadership training is tremendously unglamorous when you’re in the middle of the process.
Early on, I realized that one of the biggest keys to significant youth ministry is building a leadership team. I’ve spent time investing in my volunteers, not just the ones that have the availability to intern, because those people are few and far between. Investing in some of those amazing volunteers to help them be the best leaders they can be has been the magic of my life. I’ve done it quietly and non-glamorously and most of them have never been interns or Master’s Commission students. They’ve been countless amazing volunteers who have normal lives and I’ve helped see the excitement of being able to give their life away to something that could count for all eternity and believing in them and helping them to navigate the water.
After that, everything else, the speaking to leaders, the writing of leadership books and the Cadre have all come out of years and years of doing it with my volunteers.
For the last 30 years or so, I’ve dedicated my life to raising up leaders. The mistake many people make is that they think leadership training is what we do at a Bible School or a Leadership Conference or with kids who intern in the summer and that’s awesome. But if you’re going to be a real leadership trainer, it is taking a deeper interest in your volunteers, at least key ones and pouring your gut into them that will make a difference. Like most everything in the Kingdom, leadership training is tremendously unglamorous when you’re in the middle of the process.
Early on, I realized that one of the biggest keys to significant youth ministry is building a leadership team. I’ve spent time investing in my volunteers, not just the ones that have the availability to intern, because those people are few and far between. Investing in some of those amazing volunteers to help them be the best leaders they can be has been the magic of my life. I’ve done it quietly and non-glamorously and most of them have never been interns or Master’s Commission students. They’ve been countless amazing volunteers who have normal lives and I’ve helped see the excitement of being able to give their life away to something that could count for all eternity and believing in them and helping them to navigate the water.
After that, everything else, the speaking to leaders, the writing of leadership books and the Cadre have all come out of years and years of doing it with my volunteers.
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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,
Youth Ministry Basics is eight pragmatic teachings with informative "how-tos" that have consistently made significant differences in my youth ministries over the years.
If your youth ministry is larger than five or six, you will need to recruit leaders to help you. Even Jesus only had 12 in His youth group! But the challenge is finding volunteer leaders to come alongside you.
Before I had a single leader, I made a list of five names that I saw as potential leaders. My “big five” weren’t even a part of the youth ministry, nor did they show any interest in getting involved. This Youth Ministry Basics Resource outlines exactly how I have been able to find good leaders, cast vision to them and get them to stick.
Lovingly,
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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."
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. So that’s what I’m sharing in this ALLIANCE, “Mayo Beatitudes For Developing A Leadership Team.”
While some of the points may not sound too “glamorous,” please just know that they work if you have the work-ethic and endurance to keep doing them. So let’s take some time together dialoguing on 5 pragmatics to help you develop a phenomenal volunteer leadership team. I promise this topic, if applied, can be a game-changer. I’m excited for the conversation and ideas that this can spur among your group in the discussion time.
Often in ministry leadership we don't make the "win" clear enough with our volunteer leaders. What are asking them to do or be? I find leaders will be unmotivated, because we haven't clarified what it looks like to be a really effective youth or young adult leader on a volunteer basis.
In this Youth Leader's Coach, I share with you 7 Simple "ASKS" that I have of the leaders in the amazing ministries that I'm a part of. Make sure that as you have volunteers, whether 3 or 300, you are clarifying the win for them. When you clarify the win...you will find it will be exciting for them to be part of the ministry that you are privileged to lead.
Lovingly,
