Why You Need Help in Youth Ministry
#1 You may not see that your ministry is disconnected from what God wants. In other words, what if your ministry stinks and you think its great because kids show up? Outside voices speak massive truths! You may know you’ve got some problems, but what if you’re headed towards failure?
#2 Your solutions may not make sense for your situation. Maybe you are trying something that worked at your last church? Maybe you are trying something that you read in a book, magazine, or blog? How do you know if those things will work today in your present situation? How do you know that you’re not going to invest time and money on something that just won’t work?
#3 You are trying to figure it out without any expert advice. Let’s face it, there is always someone who is smarter or has earned more expertise than you. Maybe you can learn from their experiments? Maybe you can avoid their failures or pitfalls?
#4 You have dug in. Are you at the point where deep down you know your plan is going to fail but you are so proud that you won’t admit it? Are you saying, “Either it’s my way or I’m not the right person for this?” Are you frustrated by a lack of success and reward but you’re banking on turning the corner any day now? Have you been saying that for a year?
#5 You’ve labeled some problems as unable to be fixed in your situation. Have you said that your plan would work if only the kids would rally around you? You’re telling your boss you just need that one thing or a little bit more money for more resources? Are you saying that if you had the right environment, building, weather, or soda machine everything would come together? Blaming curriculum? Blaming soccer? Blaming parents? Blaming the Holy Spirit?
To quote Marko from this year’s National Youth Workers Convention in Pittsburgh, “You have everything you need to be wildly successful in youth ministry.”
Sometimes people ask us why Youth Specialties has events. These statements show you some of the reasons. We are all in this together. We all need help leading our youth groups. We all need to hear fresh truth. We all need to learn from one another. We all need to be told that it’s worth it. We all need to be affirmed. We all need to take time to rest. And some times recognizing those truths means that you need to get away from your day-to-day life to get away and figure it all out.
You probably know about the National Youth Workers Convention. We also offer a one-day local training in over 90 cities called YS One Day. If you want to bring an expert into your ministry to determine exactly what is going on and come up with customized solutions, we offer YS Consults.
November 14th, 2008 - Posted By: Adam McLane in Soul Care, encouragement, nywc | |
