Category: Leadership

How do I get my Senior Pastor to understand my vision?

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It seems that many youth pastors or youth ministry coordinators wish that the senior leaders in their church would have a better understanding of the needs and vision of the youth in their church.  In fact a common complaint in youth ministry is a “lack of support” from the church council or board of elders.  As I read many youth ministry books it is a topic that has been around for decades.  So what is my response to the question:

“How do I get my Senior Pastor/Vicar or Parish Priest to understand my vision for the Youth Ministry?”

Before I get into my answer I want to share the answer of three “mega-church” youth pastors who have now become Senior Pastors.  A few years ago I was attending the youth ministry forum at a conference where this question was put to three famous “mega-church” Youth Pastors:

  • Judah Smith had just taken over from his father at City Church in Seattle after running a youth ministry that was reported to have over 2000 members.
  • Phil Dooley had just started the Capetown Campus of the Hillsong church after running a youth ministry that was reported to have 5000 youth across three campuses in Sydney.
  • Carl Lentz had just started the New York campus of the Hillsong church after running a very successful youth and young adult ministry in Florida.

When this question was put to the three of them sitting on stage in front of 250 youth ministry workers, most of us were hoping for a little support.  In fact they gave the opposite view, that there should be no separate youth ministry vision.  Judah Smith stated that it was the job of the youth ministry leaders to implement the overall vision of the church in the youth ministry.  Judah said that he told his father, who was the senior pastor, don’t try to make the vision sound “youthy” that is our job.  These three leaders all suggested that the youth ministry should try to understand the senior leaders vision for their church.

Now you might think that these three leaders are in a league of their own so their statements don’t apply to you.  But how many youth would be “big enough” to have a separate vision for the youth ministry?  One could argue that having a youth ministry of over 2000 people could be big enough to have a unique vision but it may lead the youth ministry to drift away from the rest of the church.  If however you want your youth ministry to be part of the church then why not adopt the vision of the church you wish to be a part of.  If 2000 people was not “big enough” for these three leaders to have a separate vision then why is 20-50 youth be “enough” to have a separate vision?

In my opinion the youth ministry and the young adult ministry should serve the rest of the church by sharing and supporting the vision and mission of their church.  So here are a few tips to help you deal with this question in your situation:

  1. Talk to your Senior Pastor/Vicar/Parish Priest – help him understand the ideas that you have for the youth ministry and work with him to fit them into the vision and mission of your church.
  2. Get involved with the Church Board/Council/Elders – don’t wait until the vision is set in stone to have your say in the formation of the strategic direction.  Attend meetings and put youth issues on the agenda, don’t wait to be asked for your opinion.
  3. Raise your concerns or thoughts behind close doors and support the vision publicly – once you have had your say then support the team.  Remember it is not your ministry but the ministry of your church so support the senior leaders in public.
  4. Help young people understand the vision – use the vision and mission statement of your church in your ministry.  Perhaps you need a few youth relevant images or stories but don’t change the meaning of the mission and vision.

To put things into perspective for most of us (i.e those who are not “mega-church” youth pastors) check out this great blog post 10 easy steps to make your pastor love student ministry by Benjamin Kerns at Average Youth Ministry.

And for those who might say “isn’t the Bible our vision and mission statement?”, yes it is but you only have to check out the thousands of mission and vision statements on church websites to see why this is an issue.

How have you worked with the leadership in your church to align the vision and mission of the youth ministry with the rest of your church?  Please leave a comment

Sabbatical – Part 1

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Being a Somebody

As a leader have you ever been in the situation where a person knows your name and this is the first time you have met them face to face?  Have you every introduced yourself and when you said where you worked the other person nodded like they knew the church or ministry?  Have you ever been in a situation where you are presenting to a room full of people and as they all leave they tell you they enjoyed your talk but you have no idea who any of them are?  Have you ever been in a meeting and the person running the meeting turns to you specifically to ask you your opinion?  If you have been in any of these situations then it seems you might be a “somebody”.

It seems that as leaders, especially in ministry, we can be known by more people than we know. 

I always thought that I lead with humility but since being on sabbatical for the past four months it seems that I had come to expect that people knew who I was.  There is a little bit of pride in me every time somebody knows who I am, it tells me that I am important.  I like being in a room full of leaders and the facilitator turning to me to ask for my opinion.  Whilst I thought that I handled it well, be in a new city where nobody knew me, it taught me there is a little bit of pride and arrogance in me.

Being a “Nobody”

Over the past four months nobody has known who I was.  I haven’t run into a single person who knew my name before I had met them.  The closest that I had come was when I have been called “Jesse’s Dad” or “Aidan’s Dad” at the boys school.  Since coming to Melbourne I have deliberately introduced myself as a stay-at-home-dad so that I learn the humility of being a person, not a position.

It has been hard being in situations where I would love to share my opinion and nobody calls on me.  Or meeting people at church and when they find I am new to the parish they treat me like I am new to Christianity.  It came be refreshing to not know anything about anything.

The Blessing of being “Nobody” on Sabbatical

There are three things that I have learnt from being a “nobody” here in Melbourne:

  1. I am a person not a position – it seems that I had pride in being a position.  Perhaps I was hiding behind the position so that others knew me first; letting me of the hook of having to make the first move to get to know someone.
  2. Everyone has something to share – now that I have been the person in the room with something to share but no position to share it, I have learnt how valuable the opinions and experience of the group are, not just the positional leaders.
  3. Listen more than you talk – I have sat back and done a lot of listening over the past four months.  I have learnt more than I did in the previous 12 months where I talked more than I listened.

Perhaps you won’t get a chance to have your own sabbatical anytime soon.  Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting more of my learning’s from my sabbatical.  Whilst my sabbatical has not been as structured as an academic sabbatical, it has been four months where I have been intentional about listening to God (read more here in Sabbatical – Introduction).  Perhaps you might learn something for your leadership position or your ministry.

Please leave a comment, especially if you would like to know specific about my sabbatical that I write in a future post.

Sabbatical – An Introduction

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In September of 2011 I finished up working in the Diocese of Broken Bay as a Diocesan Youth Ministry Coordinator, basically a Ministry Consultant to 30 churches.  Whilst I loved the job, my family and I were moving from Sydney to Melbourne so that my wife could take a promotion.  After almost 16 years in full time ministry it was time for me to take a break.  In fact it was the first time in almost 22 years that I wasn’t doing any ministry outside my family, not even a small volunteer role in a ministry.

It was important for me to take the opportunity to “revive my dropping spirit”.  It was also important for me to spend some time as a dad helping my boys settle into their new schools and anew city.  So I didn’t want to do the usual academic sabbatical where there is a structured program but I also didn’t want to do nothing either.  It was important for me to call this time a “sabbatical” so that I would give these four months the importance they deserved.

Over the past four months I have needed to waste some time, I needed to have the afternoon siesta or watch too much TV.  But I have also been listening very carefully to God.  During the last project I was doing inSydneyI heard God say “don’t worry about what is next because I will tell you in Melbourne.”  Now that I was in Melbourne I wanted to explore everything that God had in store for me.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting more of my learning’s from my sabbatical, you can read Part One here.  Whilst my sabbatical has not been as structured as an academic sabbatical, it has been four months where I have been intentional about listening to God.  Perhaps you won’t get a chance to have your own sabbatical anytime soon so you might pick up something for your leadership position or your ministry from my experience.

Please leave a comment, especially if you would like to know specific about my sabbatical that I could write in a future post.

  1. Sabbatical – Part One
  2. Sabbatical – Part Two

What I learnt from the Yellow Wiggle

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The original handover from Greg to Sam

Recently the children’s entertainment group know as the Wiggles, decided to bring back Greg as the Yellow Wiggle.  Whilst many parents were upset because they liked Sam as the Yellow Wiggle, in this blog post we will look at what this teaches us as leaders in our situation.

Background about the Wiggles

  1. If you don’t know who the Wiggles are then you must not have kids.  They are a children’s entertainment group from Australia that have entertained millions of children.  The Wiggles have won every award possible in their category and are in the Music Hall of Fame.
  2. A few years ago Greg, one of the four original members was replaced by Sam because Greg was unwell.  Sam was much younger and connected well with the kids.
  3. Most of the four original Wiggles would now be their 50’s.  The original four will not last forever so what is their exit strategy?

What can we learn from the replacement of the Yellow Wiggle?

  1. Look to replace yourself – Whilst it was sad to see Greg leave, bringing in Sam was a chance to replace the original line up one person at a time.  When you replace yourself in an up front roll, you train up more people who can do your job if needed.  Bringing in Sam was the perfect way to get the audience used to seeing a new Wiggle. Every few years the Wiggles could be replace another member so that the fans always knew at least one Wiggle.  Going back to an original member was a backward step to replacing yourself.  In your role as a leader are you training up others to replace you or do you hog center stage?
  2. It is not about you – By replacing Greg and bringing in Sam it helps the audience connect with the brand of the Wiggles rather than the individuals.  The Wiggles had the opportunity to build a fan base rather than boosting the self-confidence of an individual.  Bringing back Greg give the impression that the true Wiggles are the original four members.  In your leadership role is it about building your ministry or boosting your ego?
  3. Don’t just hire your friends – in terms of the Wiggles reaching their audience, Sam was the better choice amongst this generation of fans.  By going back to an old friend the Wiggles lost a lot in the public relations department.  It told the fans that it was about what the original members wanted rather than what the fans wanted.  In your leadership role do people have to be friends with you to get ahead or can the best people rise up?

Application to a ministry setting

We all know a “Yellow Wiggle” situation where one leader has been replaced by a new leader.  Perhaps you know situation where that went well or perhaps you know situations where it didn’t work so well.  In a previous post I wrote about how this can be done well  (see Building a Legacy for more).  We know that in a Youth Ministry situation leaders move every 2-3 years and each leader has their own style.  In a local church, the senior minister moves every 5-10 years and a new senior minister can bring a 180 degree shift.  So as a leader at any level remember these three things:

  1. Look to replace yourself before it gets too late and you decide to leave.
  2. It is not about you it is about the people
  3. Don’t just recruit from your friendship circle; build up the people who will best minister to those in your ministry.

If you ever forget these three things then just think about a man jumping around a stage in a Yellow Skivvy.

Please leave a comment, especially if you had any thoughts on the replacement of Sam as the Yellow Wiggle.

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Growth Part 2 – you can’t do more of the same

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Several years ago I was the ministry leader for a start up ministry.  We were trying to get something new happening and so a few of us pitched the idea to a number of our friends and people we knew.  Mostly it involved going out to dinner with friends and chatting to them over a meal.  We would explain the vision, the concept, some of the practical steps and what we needed from each person.  There was a sense of urgency because we wanted to get this up and running and we needed a start up team.  The pitch worked on about half of the people, but we got our start up team.

Fast forward about a year and half and we had grown to about 20-30 people in the ministry.  This was a good position to be in at that time but we wanted to grow bigger.  Every time we held a meeting we would ask ourselves “who else do we know that we could get to come along?”. The problem was that we had already asked most of the people we knew and after 18 months of doing life together this group was our friendship circle.  We were trying to get the next 20 people using the same strategy as how we got the first 20 people.

This experience taught me a valuable lesson about growing a ministry:

“You can’t do more of the same to get you to the next level”

Doing what got you growth in the start up phase may not lead to future growth.  When we wanted to grow a start up we asked the people we knew.  To make the next growth leap we needed to get people we didn’t know so they could invite their friendship circles.  Sometime in ministry we try to repeat the things that made us successful hoping that we will get the same result.

Andy Stanley says that growth doesn’t come from something that is tweaked, it comes from something new.  You can hear his talk on the Andy Stanley Leadership podcast here.

Growing a ministry from one level to another is not the same; getting the first 10 people to commit to a new ministry might take as much work as adding another 30. Some growth levels are bigger jumps than others.  For example when you double your start up team of 10 you are only adding 10 more people, you can handle 10 new names and faces.  When you double a ministry with 50 you add another 50 people which changes the dynamics to that of a crowd.  Imagine a bring a friend night with a group of 150 regulars, you could have another 150 new faces walking around which is way to much for one person to handle.  Each new growth level brings new challenges and new group dynamics so you can’t do more of the same.

What have you found to be the growth levels that have forced you to function differently?  How did you handle it? Please leave a comment to help us all out.

Growth Part 1 – What is your ceiling?

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Have you ever wondered why your youth ministry is not growing? Have you ever wondered how big it could get? What is the fullest potential of your youth ministry? Here I am talking about the number of people involved in the youth ministry. You can measure the “size” of youth ministry or you could measure the “health” of your ministry. But let’s just talk about numbers in this post, because numbers represent an actual disciple.

Every time I meet a youth ministry coordinator, they openly or secretly have a target in their mind of what number represents success. Some people have 20 as their target, others 50 and some want to reach 100. Peter was a person I worked with and his target was always 50 people, once he got 50 he was happy and said his youth group was “healthy”. In the three churches were he had served he had always got 50 young people in his group but that was his ceiling, the youth group never grew bigger than 50.

Most new groups aim for about 20 to 30 people in their group. The magical number for group dynamics seems to be about 30; a group seems its most healthy at about 30-35 people. But does a ministry subconciously stop there when it may have the potential to continue to grow? Why do some leaders have a growth ceiling?

A game changer for me was meeting Phil, a youth ministry coordinator with over 150 people in his youth group and their target was 500. All I wanted to know was how did they get to 150, let alone how were they planning to get to 500. When Phil started with the youth ministry, the group already had 50 people. Together they set themselves the target of reaching 100 students for Christ. When they reached 100 they set their sights on 500 because that was more outrageous than 200.

Reaching a target can lead to complacency if a new target isn’t set. Some groups reach their numbers ceiling and stop growing because they feel they have made it. It is fine to set a reasonable numbers target early in the growth of a new group, but that number should grow as the group grows. Your target should always be one that makes the group challenge itself to invite new people.

The down side of your ceiling is that complacency can lead to stagnation. Some groups hit their numbers ceiling and then go backwards even if they stay around 50. When a group reaches its target it takes away the urgency to invite new people (evangelism). When a group reaches its target it can turn inward to keep its numbers rather than being outward focused on what they can do for others (mission).

What is your numbers ceiling, or what is your complacency figure? What number would make you think you have arrived? What number of participants in your group would take away the urgency to invite new people? You better find this out because you don’t want to stop growing for 12 months before you look into this. You need to plan your next target before you reach your current one.

Please leave a comment about your growth ceilings, perhaps what advice could you offer to others to break through their growth ceilings.

Building a legacy – be the first in a long line

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How do you want to be remembered?

Recently I finished up in a ministry position where I had served in for about six years.  Since leaving the position I wondered how I will be remembering.  Will I be quickly forgotten?  Will people miss me?  Then it struck me that my biggest fear was that people would say “it hasn’t been as good since you left.”  Whilst sometime that feels nice, the reality is that I hope that ministry will continue to grow stronger into the future.

It seems that when someone is leaving a position is a bit late to start building a legacy.  If someone wants to leave a good legacy then they have to start thinking about it when they are in the position.  How do you want to be remembered when you leave your current ministry position?  Perhaps finishing 2011 and moving into a new year is a chance to refocus on the type of legacy you are building.  Here are a few suggestions for building a good legacy for when you are ready to leave:

  1. You don’t want to be forgotten – whilst it is important to be humble and replace yourself well, people who make an impact in a ministry are never forgotten.  If your time as ministry coordinator is quickly forgotten then you were not making the impact that you should.
  2. You don’t want to leave a void – it is important that you have some role in succession planning for your departure.  It is important that the work that you began continues after you leave.  Perhaps the ministry may not replace you, but if there are leaders to step and lead after you leave then you have built a legacy well.
  3. You don’t want to handicap future growth – after you leave, the ministry should be allowed to grow where it needs to.  Some leaders like to put in structures that predict the future grow, rail road it where they think it should go, but all it does is restrict growth.  As a leader you want to empower future leaders to change or cut programs and events that you may have started to fit the needs of the future community.
  4. You do want to leave your corporate knowledge – you have an obligation as ministry coordinator to leave any work that you have done within the ministry.  Unless you had it written into your contract you must leave a copy of all work produced whilst working for the ministry.  Usually a ministry will allow you to take a copy with you, but don’t walk out of the office with all copies of the files, both hard copy and on computer.
  5. You do want to build flexibility – as a ministry leader you appreciate the freedom to adapt the ministry to the current circumstances.  When you leave respect the future ministry leaders by allowing them to create new visions, programs and events.
  6. You do want to build a dynasty – do you want to be remembered as the last good ministry coordinator or the first in a long line of great ministry coordinators?  You want to build something that will get bigger and better after you leave not smaller,  you don’t want the community wishing that you would come back to save them.  Be the first in a long line of great ministry coordinators not the last.

Now have I done all of these?  No.  In the various ministry positions that I have held both voluntary and paid I have learnt the hard way all of these points.  But as a ministry leader my biggest fear is that ministry will collapse after I leave.  The best bit of advice I ever heard was “a great ministry leader is always doing themselves out of job”.  As ministry leaders lets build great dynasties not ministries that collapse after we leave.

Check out a practical example of Building a Legacy in my post about how the Wiggles replaced Greg with Sam, then brought back Greg to replace Sam in What I learnt from the Yellow Wiggle

Please leave a comment to pass on your advice about building a legacy.

How NOT to promote events at Church

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Have you ever sat through a talk at church where someone was promoting an event and you thought “they are butchering this chance”? Even worst have you heard someone do such a bad job at promoting an event that you thought “I won’t be attending that event”?  There are some basic mistakes that people make when promoting events, perhaps because people are new to a position or maybe nobody has ever workshopped their presentations.

One time that really sticks out in my mind was a ministry leader who was promoting a youth camp at our church.  This person kept referring to the ministry as “my ministry” which straight away made me feel distant as though I wasn’t part of this.  Then they complained to the church that they didn’t get enough helpers last time and then said “I can’t do this all alone, if I don’t get more helpers I might have to cancel”.  At this point I wanted to encourage them to stop talking before they did anymore damage.  Whilst the dates of the camp were clear this ministry leader didn’t give any clue as to how we could help out or how the youth could register for the camp.

Recently we looked at three styles of promoting events, so now lets look at four things to avoid when promoting events:

  1. Don’t be vague – sometimes you only get one or two shots at promoting your events so be very clear about the information other people need to know, which is:
  • When is the event
  • How do people register
  • How can people assist with the event
  • Where they can find out more information (website, Facebook, foyer etc)

2. Don’t doubt the event – it is so important to sell the event with confidence.  Never say that the event won’t go ahead if we don’t get numbers because people won’t register until they know you have the numbers.  Don’t promote this as the best event in the world but you should promote the highlights of the event in a way that is attractive.

3. Don’t be disorganised – if you haven’t got a flyer, Facebook group or webpage set up then never get in front of your church or ministry to promote an event.  You should present a well prepared talk or video clip to your church or ministry when promoting events, don’t make it up on the spot.  The minute you say “more details to come later” people switch off and think “then I will pay attention later”.

4. Don’t make it about you – you are trying to get other people to attend an event so make your presentation about how others can attend rather than how much help you need.  You have to convince the audience that they should either attend the event or ask someone in the target age group to attend.  Don’t make people feel sorry for you having to do all this work to host the event.

Perhaps you can extend this list by leaving a comment on the mistakes you have made in promoting events.  Whilst we learn from our own mistakes, perhaps your mistakes can help someone else get it right the next time they have to promote an event.

How to promote ministry events when speaking

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Let’s face it, if you are involved in ministry then at some stage you will have to promote an event.  It may be an event that you are running or it may be an event hosted by another group.  Either way there are three different ways to promote events:

1. You should go – some people promote events where all the work is on the other person.  This style of promotion usually involves phrases like:

  • There is a great weekend coming up, you can check out all the details on the website
  • If you want to attend the event then registration forms are in the foyer
  • The talk is going to be awesome you will really love it

This style of promotion places all the emphasis on the other person to get involved.  Whilst you might be keen for people to attend, this style can come across as impersonal.  However you can use this style effectively to pass on all the invitations you get via Facebook and email.

2. I am going – some people use this style to promote events in a way that is more personal, I am going do you want to join me.  This style encourages others to attend because they know at least one other person is going.  Many young people don’t want to go to an event alone so it is wise in youth ministry to say that at least you will be attending.  This style of promotion usually involves phrases like:

  • I am attending this event and I can tell you more about it in the foyer
  • On the weekend I am attending the camp, if you need a lift come and see me

This style of promotion is great for building a team.  As the ministry leader it establishes you are the peer leader; you are on board with the event and you want others to join you.

3. We are going – when your ministry gets bigger (bigger than your core group of leaders) then you should move to this style of promotion.  This style states up front that this community/ministry is attending the upcoming event, if you belong here then you will be going too.  It might seem a little bold but people want to be part of something popular and this style implies “everyone” is going.  This style of promotion usually involves phrases such as:

  • We are attending the camp next month please think of someone new that can join us.
  • We are hosting a guest speaker, please sign up to help set up or pack down the event.
  • On the weekend we are having an event for all those we haven’t seen for a while so pick up some flyers off our team in the foyer.

Whilst this might be the best system to use when promoting events, you need to have some track record of “everyone” attending events.  If this is the fifth time you use this style and nobody has turned up to any of the events before, then perhaps people may doubt that “we” are really going.

Pick your promotion style wisely so you know when to use each of the three styles.

  • Use the “you” style to pass on community events that you get in the mail.
  • Use the “I” style when you are attending an event and you want some others to join you.
  • Use the “I” style to build a core leadership team as it builds your place as the leader
  • Use the “we” style when your group is bigger and you want everyone to attend.

In the next post we will look at some things not to do when promoting events.

Leave a comment of how you have had success in promoting events.