Tag: Youth Ministry

Burn out in Youth MInistry

Burning out vs Natural turnover in Youth Ministry

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Burn out in Youth MInistry

Is it Burn out or Natural turn over in Youth Ministry?

In Youth Ministry it seems that leaders turn over every 2-3 years, if a church is lucky they may get 4 or 5 years before changing leaders.  Whilst there are many youth ministry veterans who promote the value of long term tenure, it seems that 10 year veterans are rare in our industry.  It made me think about the difference between turn over and burn out.  Is burn out being disguised as natural turn over?  Are some people leaving youth ministry because their time is up or do they burn out but call it turn over?  Could some leaders go on longer if there was more support?

These thoughts started when a friend asked me if I was burnt out or just needed to move on from my last position.  In some ways it was a bit of both.  After 5 years it was getting time to look for a new challenge but I was also finding it hard to recharge my energy levels.  This friend has seen many leaders in youth ministry burn out, yet she said that often people dismiss it by saying they were “getting too old for youth ministry”.

So how can we spot the difference between natural turn over and real burn out?  Here are a few thoughts from my experience:

Turnover:

  • You can choose when to leave – it is a great freedom to be able to choose when you finish up in a leadership position.  For example when I got engaged I turned over my leadership to a new leadership team because I felt the team was in good hands and I need to start a new journey.  Another time I turned over my leadership position after I finished a two year project and it was time for a younger leader to have the opportunity I had.  Natural turn over often happens when the time seems right for both the ministry and the individual.
  • You leave with energy for the next ministry – it is a great blessing to finish one ministry and move into another ministry.  It is a great thrill when a youth leader finishes up with the youth ministry because they are taking on a ministry in the adult congregation.  I remember leaving my church council to begin an outreach ministry and I left with so much energy and wisdom from the church council.  Natural turn over often happens when a person is passionate about moving on to another ministry.

Burnout

  • You leave later than you should – it is easy in sport to see when someone retires one season too late.  They say a person should retire at the top of their game.  Yet in youth ministry people often hang on a season too long because there is no replacement.  We can stay in ministry one season too long because we have no transition plan.  I stayed in one ministry for too long because I wanted stability and was scared to face change.  People often burn out because they feel guilty about leaving until it is too late.
  • You leave without any energy – Sometimes we stay on too long in a ministry and we quit because we are exhausted.  When a person finds it hard to begin a new season and lacks the energy to begin again they are burnt out.  People often burn out when they run out of energy from trying too hard.

Is burn out just part of youth ministry?  Whilst I would like to say it shouldn’t be, burnout is all too common in our industry.  Burn out should not be an occupational hazard, it should be avoided.  I think we should celebrate Natural turn over in youth ministry rather than hiding it when leaders leave.  Natural turn over role models healthy behave.  It encourage people to be healthy enough to choose when they leave and allows them to start a new ministry with energy.

Please leave your thoughts on burn out and turn over

Why a parachurch may get more young people than your church

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In a recent post I wrote about the 10% limit to the size of any youth group compared to the Sunday congregation.  But I bet that some of you know a youth ministry that breaks that 10% rule.  What I have discovered is that some parachurch groups are able to recruit far more members than the 10% limit.  Having worked in and with parachurch groups, there are a few key factors which enable them to reach more young people than a local church can.

Firstly what do I mean by a parachurch group?  In this context I am talking about any agency within the Church that has a specific mission to minister only to young people.  Put it another way I am talking about ministries that don’t belong to “full service” local churches.  These parachurch groups have the specific mission of meeting the needs of young people and usually they have a particular style.  These groups are a valuable part of our Church; they have a specific Charism to a specific group of people.

A few examples might be:

  1. Charismatic prayer groups
  2. Campus based ministries
  3. Market place ministries, some that meet in Pubs
  4. Social Justice groups

So why are some parachurch groups able to recruit more members than many local churches? Here are four reasons that a parachurch group might be able to get more young people than you.

  1. Narrow the focus – many parachurch groups are able to focus on one or two key activities and do them well.  When a ministry only has few things to focus on they are able to tailor everything in the ministry to these one or two activities.  In contrast a full service local church has about 20-30 groups and ministries running.  Often the resources of a local church are spread thinly across a wide range of activities.
  2. Like-minded people – there is an old saying that like attracts like; a parachurch can attract young people with a common interest.  It is easier to attract a group of like-minded people than it is to keep the interest of everyone.  Often the local church is trying to cater to the needs of everyone in their community.
  3. Independence brings freedom – many parachurch groups are able to stay independent of the mechanics of regular church councils and committees.  I was once part of a parachurch group that met every Monday night and we could plan what we wanted with the leaders whenever we needed.  In contrast when I was part of full service local church the parish council met monthly and you needed a months’ notice to get an agenda item on there, meaning it could be two months before we could make a decision.
  4. Larger drawing area – usually a parachurch will draw members from a bigger geographical area than the local suburban church.  A parachurch might host an event for 100 young people that come from 10 suburbs where as you are trying to host an event for the young people in your suburb.

Before finishing I want to add that I am not against parachurch groups, they are vital part of the Body of Christ.  Given that I have been a part of both parachurch groups and local churches, I wanted to pass on some of the reasons why the parachurch groups might get more young people than you can get at your local church.

There are many positives of connecting young people to a local church; the main reason is that the local church is intergenerational.  In a local church young people learn to connect with a wider experience of the Body of Christ.

The real lesson for both parachurch groups and local churches is to focus on what God has called them to do rather than comparing each other.  I hope this helps you in your situation.

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Is your Youth Ministry limited to 10% of Sunday attendance?

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Whilst it has been popular over the past 20 years to say “it is not about the numbers”, many of us still measure our success in terms of attendance.   In a previous post I wrote about the difference between attendance and commitment so I know that attendance can be deceptive.  However many of us are judged by others based on how many people we get to our events, so let’s take a deeper look at attendance numbers.

What attendance number are you aiming at in your youth ministry?  How big would your ministry have to be to think it is successful?  Pick a number:

  1. A youth ministry will only grow to about 10% of your Sunday congregation (see Mark DeVries below).  Does the number in your head now look small, achievable or unrealistic?  A church with an average weekend attendance of 500 people should have a youth ministry of up to 50 young people.  But if your weekend church attendance is only 150 then perhaps you should be aiming to reach 15 young people.   So when you compare the size of your ministry to the youth ministry in another church, we all do this, you should compare the two groups as a percentage of the Sunday attendance.
  2. Successful youth ministries come from successful churches.  On the flip side there aren’t many weak churches that have strong youth ministries.  Perhaps your ministry is growing or not growing because of issues in the Sunday congregation.  If you find it hard to grow your youth ministry this may not be because of the issues in your youth ministry.  Check the health of your Sunday congregation to see if this is effecting the health of your youth ministry.  For example if your Sunday congregations don’t volunteer, then that may explain why you find it hard to recruit volunteers.
  3. In the post Christian era, young people are the first group to leave a struggling church and the last group to return to a growing church.  Often when the teenagers stop coming to church because it is “boring”, the parents stop coming as well.  Perhaps the reason that you are not growing is that the young people have sensed that the church is going nowhere.  Many churches that struggle for some time lose all their young people.  It can be difficult for these churches to win back the teenagers and they can’t grow a youth ministry until the children in the kids ministry grow into the youth ministry.

Mark DeVries in his book Sustainable Youth Ministry outlines five key “normal” indicators that he has discovered from his Youth Ministry consultancy with hundreds of churches in the US:

  1. A youth ministry will settle at 10% of the worshiping congregation
  2. The Youth Ministry budget should be $1000-$1500 per young person
  3. There should be one full time staff person for every fifty youth
  4. There should be one adult volunteer leader for every five youth
  5. Even with significant investment a youth ministry has a ceiling of 20% of the congregation

What is a realistic attendance target?

Whilst it is hard to translate these “normal” indicators into what is achievable in Australia, we do know that many of the bigger youth ministries come from bigger churches.  I think the most realistic target for you to aim at in your church is:

  1. Start with at least one male and one female leader then add another male and female volunteer leader for every 10 young people.
  2. Aim for 10% of your Sunday congregation, when your church grows so will your youth ministry.

Hopefully our youth ministries can lead the growth of our churches, but don’t be disappointed if you reach a 10% ceiling, you are doing well.

Please leave a comment about what indicators are normal in your setting.

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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.

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.