building a team | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: My 5 Epic Fails

Have you ever felt like a failure? Okay, we all have at some point, because we all fail. We all do certain things that may be great ideas, but go about it the wrong way, and utterly fail. One thing that I desire is for others’ to learn from my mistakes and failures. I try to do this with learning from others’ failures, and hopefully they can learn from mine as well. Today, I want to give you the top 5 failures that I have committed in student ministry:

Epic Fail #1- Train and Equip Parents- As I have grown in student ministry (not going on 7 total years), I have learned that the parents represented in our ministry is as important as the students we are ministering too. Now, I am trying to teach, share resources with, and help parents become better parents to effectively parent the teens of today’s culture. If you are first starting out in ministry, go ahead and begin equipping the parents to build stronger families.
Epic Fail #2- Recruit a team of adult leaders- In my earlier years of ministry; I had a couple of leaders, but did not set up an adult leadership that would take us to the next level like I should have. Regardless of the number of students in your ministry, it is important to begin building a team to take your ministry to the next level.
Epic Fail #3- Inform parents when disciplining a student- There have been some times where a student gets in trouble, and I do not inform parents, and then the parents come back with a twisted story from their teenager, and I have to backtrack a bit, and build their trust and relationship back. I have learned that when a student gets in trouble or has to be corrected in our student ministry on an event or on Wednesday night, it is always important to mention it to the parents. I do not care how small, but in doing so, it builds relationships with the parents, and builds a greater trust from them to you.
Epic Fail #4- Think through games and pranks- I am a prankster, and am personally okay with pranks. My failure is that we have not totally thought through pranks in our ministry. At camp we decided to play “human clue” and fake a real murder with the students. It seemed like a fantastic idea, but when it played out, we had students crying, had a girl faint, had a young boy call his mom for a lawyer, and upset some families that were at camp. What seemed like a fantastic idea was horrible, because it was not thought out. Think out your ideas of what could happen, and it will save you a lot of problems.
Epic Fail #5- Building relationships with the local schools- Do this first. This should be one of the top things in your ministry that you are consistently doing. I have wasted time in this area at my ministry, and now am trying to play catch up. Building relationships with schools takes a great deal of time, and it is important that you stay at it, and consistently plan time to build this relationship.

So, do not fail at these things, and try your best to learn from the epic fails that I have done in our student ministry.

Josh Evans is the student pastor at Union Grove Baptist Church in the Winston Salem, NC area. He has been a mentor and pastor to students for 4 years. You can connect further with Josh on his blog or send him a direct email at joshhevans@gmail.com.

Add Comment November 10, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: 3 Practical Ways to Invest in Leaders

While you and I are called to serve teens and their families, our most important audience is the volunteer who serves alongside of you. Without them you can only do so much and last so long. That’s why every summer you make a huge effort in recruiting and training them in your craft. Every year there is a mad rush to get them and then when you do you are happy because you have a team. But, you aren’t done.

The hardest part about building up your volunteer base isn’t asking them to join, it’s retaining them for the long haul. When you have a volunteer who not only commits to your ministry for one year but five or even ten, the amount of fruit their service will bare is immeasurable. So, how do you keep them around? Well, it’s all about how you pour into them. Some of the big ways to do this is by sending them to conferences and hosting all day training events. However, the investment doesn’t always have to be expensive and complex. There are a few small things that you can do that will go a long way.

Here are three practical ways you can invest in your leaders:

Send Them A Note – There is nothing better than receiving an authentic hand written thank you note in the mail. It communicates; I took the time and effort to express my gratitude for you. You don’t have to write anything profound, just thank them for something simple or small that meant a lot to you. It’s another way of telling them how valuable they truly are to you and the ministry.

Get Personal With Them – You might meet with your volunteers constantly; however, how many times is it personal? Agenda-less meetings are essential to the relationship you have with your ministers. Find time to take a few of them out for coffee. Invite a couple of them over for a bite to eat or to watch a movie. Indoctrinate a couple of the key leaders into your family. The more they get to know you the easier it will be for them to return the investment.

Brag To The Pastor – Our pastor encourages the staff to introduce to him the all star volunteers and first timers. While he’s not going to get to know all of them, he wants to know the people making an impact on the church. When you introduce a volunteer to the pastor it shows them that you are so impressed with their work that you want the boss to know. That just might be the public affirmation they need to bring their service to the next level.

It’s important to note that you can’t do all these things for everyone. Not only is that a difficult task but also if you tried to praise everyone equally your investment would lose value. Lastly, always think simple. Your investment doesn’t have to be expensive or overly creative. Just make it authentic, transparent and spontaneous.

What other ways can you simply invest in your team?

Chris Wesley is the Director of Student Ministry at Church of the Nativity in Timonium, MD. You can read more great youth ministry articles and thoughts on his exceptional blog Marathon Youth Ministry.

1 View Comments October 6, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts 3 Ways to Fight Gossip in Your Church

One of the responsibilities of each of us is to protect the unity of the church. At times, youth workers are put in difficult positions where we have the opportunity to listen to gossip, agree with critical spirit and add to the problems that are brewing beneath the surface of any church. Be a part of the solution, here’s what I think are some trench-tested ways to make sure

Fight gossip with praise
If you hear criticism directed at a specific person, immediately turn it around with praise. When someone identifies a weakness, speak directly to one of their strengths.

Point them back to the person it is about
Without hearing too much, you can usually see that a person’s venom is directed toward someone specific. Gently nudge or firmly direct them to the person they should be talking to, not you.

Remove the repeat offender
You will be talked about. A gossip TO you will gossip ABOUT you. People that undermine others will undermine you and unravel what you are trying to build. This is always a last-resort-tough-call-no-one-likes-to-do-it but doing it once will send a huge statement on where you stand and how seriously you take this issue.

How about you – what are some other ways to help protect the unity of the church?

JG

2 View Comments May 10, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Rebuilding Your Team

There’s nothing more painful than losing your dream team…or even one dream player. From time to time, you will be faced with a key leader moving away or a right-hand man being moved up to help with a program for adults. It happens — our adult ministry steals our best people all of the time!

So when this happens — you have a few choices to make: (1) you can wallow in the golden years of what was, or (2) you can get to work on rebuilding a young team and see where God takes you. Honestly, you’ve probably done enough of (1) already, so let’s talk about (2). Here we go:

Don’t compare to the past
Rebuilding a team is difficult enough without making comparisons to the past. You are building a new team now — with different gifts, personalities and passions — embrace it instead of focusing on the frustrating differences.

Adjust your leadership to who you have now
The way you led last year probably isn’t going to work anymore. Different people need to be led differently — the pressure to adjust is on you, not on them. Consider giving everyone a personality test or the 5 Love Languages quiz to see what you’re working with and make a real effort to lead in a new way in the new season.

Become the world’s best coach
Maybe one of the reasons you’re lamenting the loss of your teammates is because you had a whole pack of seasoned, battle-hardened veterans and now you’ve got fresh meat. Become the world’s best coach! Constantly push, nudge and challenge your people in the right direction. Before you know it, they’ll be veterans as well…and prime pickings for adult ministry to swoop down for another batch (not that we’re bitter or anything).

Face the challenges head on
Need a pep talk? We got one: You can do this! Keep your head in the game! Don’t run from the challenge! Rebuilding a team is not an easy task. Hang in there! We know that God is going to use you in new ways in the next season.

This post was written by Josh Griffin and Kurt Johnston and originally appeared as part of Simply Youth Ministry Today free newsletter. Subscribe to SYM Today right here.

Add Comment November 2, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts How to Build a Great Team

One of the earliest mistakes I (Josh) made in ministry was being a lone ranger. And while we specifically addressed that topics a few weeks back — we have received lots of questions about building a healthy team, specifically this question: “Where do I start?”. This week’s issues of SYM Today will help get you started on the exciting journey of building a great team. Here we go:

1. Start with Prayer
Before you begin the to tackle the huge risk of forming a team, ask God to show you the criteria you need to look for in potential leaders and the places in your ministry you need to build some leadership infrastructure.

2. Create a Hit List
If you could get anyone in your church on your leadership team — who would you go after? Which parent stands out as a great mentor and is raising their own kids well? Which young college age-student is showing incredible promise as someone who God’s hand of favor is on? Don’t walk around church lurking and mumbling as you write furiously on your clipboard! Just think through the best and the brightest and begin to pray specifically for them.

3. Make a Personal Ask
There’s nothing wrong with a blurb in the bulletin or an announcement from up front. But the reality is that the shotgun approach often brings a lot of collateral damage. You have to wade through a bunch of people to get to the one you really wanted. So while you are taking broad shots with bulletin announcements, use a laser beam approach and ask people directly, person to person. you might be surprised by the results…it is much tougher to say “no” to a direct ask than it is to say “no” to a bulletin insert.

4. Embrace Rejection
There’s nothing more discouraging than being rejected. And I (Kurt) would know since I had a lot of it from the ladies in college. But embrace the “no” as a sign of God’s involvement in this process — He is the one building the team and sifting through the members of your church for the volunteer(s) that is perfect for your ministry.

Want to build a great team of volunteers? This a great way to start! We’ll see you tomorrow with some thoughts about where to take them once they’ve said yes.

This post was written by Josh Griffin and Kurt Johnston and originally appeared as part of Simply Youth Ministry Today free newsletter. Subscribe to SYM Today right here.