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Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Making Tough Decisions

Whether it is stepping in when you don’t want to, asking someone to leave, picking a topic that is tough to discuss, at some point you are going to need to make a decision you don’t want to make.

Recently this meant cutting a program that I love. For two years, I ran a wednesday night drop in. Any student could drop by the church for a game of pingpong, foosball, card games or just to run around or kick a ball. It was a lot of fun for the students, and they loved it. Problem for me was I had the choice I could start a new small group for 3 grade 12 students and 2 college students who wanted to go deeper or continue running “Wednesday hang out” for up to 20 students. Well I cut the program that consistently had big numbers to run a program for 5 students.

Now for me the choice came to which program did I see having the most impact. In my mind it was far more important to equip a few older students with serious spiritual impact than to hang out. While those 20 students are just as valuable to me it all came down to our ministry vision and mission.

Our mission is to create an environment of love and laughter, so we can reach students for Christ and disciple them to be spiritual leaders of this generation and the next.

I believe that when you are faced with making a tough choice you have to look at what your vision and mission is, and weigh where the decision fits against that. If you don’t you will end up making a decision based on immediate feelings and that will often end up not being the best decision you could make.

If you don’t know you mission and vision you need to. Without these two things you don’t truly have a guide to figure things out. If you need to develop these I encourage you to read Purpose Driven Youth Ministry.

My second piece of advice when making a tough decision is to bring in another person or more. When we make decisions in isolation we often make the choice that suits us best, when you bring in another voice you become more likely to flesh out all the options. And let’s be honest as a youth worker you are going to go under fire a lot throughout your career, having a counsel helps you to support the decisions you made.

What pieces of advice do you have on making tough decisions?

Kyle Corbin has been serving youth as a volunteer or pastor for over 10 years. He is currently the youth pastor at the Bridge Church in North Vancouver B.C. You can follow his blog at: kylecorbin.blogspot.com or Twitter: @CorbinKyle

Add Comment April 27, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: How To Define A Leader

If there is no one to lead than you will never get anywhere. Doesn’t matter if your ministry has two volunteers or two hundred, if you are the only leader eventually the burdens and responsibilities will be too much. Chances are there is at least one other leader serving in your ministry the problem is you haven’t found him or her. You might think someone is a leader, and even call him or her one; however, you aren’t completely sure.

The reason your youth ministry needs leaders is so that you can share the burden and expand your capacity. With other leaders more ideas are brought to the table and your ministry teams will start to grow. Every youth ministry needs leaders; however, it isn’t as simple as going out to your volunteers and saying, “You’re a leader, so go lead.” You might call someone a leader because they are a dedicated and committed volunteer; however, they aren’t taking your ministry to new directions. In order to share the burden and build up leaders, you need to know what one looks like. To find these leaders you need to make sure you are on the lookout for.

Selfless Actions – A leader is someone who will serve others. Meaning they are compassionate towards others, willing to put others before themselves. They encourage and empower those beneath and below them, even if it means losing out on the credit. These leaders are the ones who go above and beyond what you’ve asked of them.

Inspirational Communicators – A leader isn’t so much a doer as a motivator. This means laying out a challenge for the team to undertake. It means delegating in a way that empowers the team opposed to demanding. Your leaders are people who can rally the troops and move them towards your mission.

Big Vision Casting – A true leader sees the picture before anyone else. They might not know how or when, but they know what. They aren’t afraid to dream big even if others call them idealistic. They know and understand that God calls us to greater things.

What makes a great leader? Someone willing to step up to the plate to serve alongside of you. Granted you might be a director, pastor or manager; however, you need other leaders to help you mobilize your resources and volunteers. Don’t be afraid to sit with your team and talk about these qualities. Have them help you identify the characteristics and values. When you can build leaders you can serve more teens because they will help you manage the people around you.

What are some other characteristics of a leader?

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.

Add Comment October 20, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Can Big Budgets Be Bad?

It’s still the second biggest taboo in Youth Ministry after salary, but ministry budgets are really important to talk about even though discussing them make people squirm. I wrote a few months back about a better way of talking about budgets with other pastors by comparing budget on a per student basis. But a pattern that I have noticed in my ministry, and I have seen in others as well, is that an increase in budget can result in a decrease in diligence of good stewardship.

To give a little context to this, 2 years ago our youth ministry had a budget of 8% of what it was in 2001. There were similar amounts of students and leaders and 75% less paid staff. In the time between now and then was a period where the group shrunk and the budget did accordingly. I will never complain about the finite budget had because it taught me a few things:

Tight budgets breed creativity: There is a great book called $5 Youth Ministry and for many youth pastors that is the name of the game. Getting creative, shopping on craigslist, building a home made catapult pumpkin launcher; this is the stuff that the memories are made of. Not having a lot of money to spend creates environment where collaboration and brainstorming happen, where students and leaders can use their gifts in ways that buying a solution might now allow.

Tight budgets promote stewardship: I can remember vividly, 3 years in a row, where I was a volunteer in my early 20′s and not paying for a youth trip because I knew that if I dragged my feet long enough that the Church would just pay for it or forget about it. Not the lesson we want to teaching leaders and students. Following up with all students and leaders to make sure they pay is a great teachable moment around stewardship, commitment and integrity. Lets face it, it is also a great teachable moment for ourselves to learn to be thorough in planning and executing events.

Big budgets can breed wastefulness: As we have transitioned from a season of very tight budgeting to one where there has been an increase, I have noticed a decrease in my urgency to return things that I didn’t need, to buy more, or to buy frivolous things. It’s easy when there is a little more to spend, coupled with the attitude that I have to spend all of my budget if I want to get it back, that can cause purchases and events based solely on the reasoning of “why not?”.

I often need to remind myself that I am spending our congregant’s tithes that they have entrusted to me to spend for the furthering of the Kingdom. Having a small youth budget is not a death sentence, in fact it’s really a formative experience to work within one. Learning to use your budget wisely will allow for your effectiveness to grow proportionately with your budget.

Geoff Stewart is the Pastor of Jr & Sr High School for Journey Student Ministries at Peace Portal Alliance Church and regularly contributes GUEST POSTS to MTDB. Be sure to check out his Twitter stream for awesome ministry goodness. Want to get in on the fun and write up a guest post yourself? See how right here.

Add Comment September 3, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: You Are Bigger Than We Let You Be

it was a wednesday. when i woke up that morning, my plans were to go get an oil change with the free coupon i had, get things ready for fuel that night, go to fuel, and get in bed early. i had planned to get in bed early because i had planned to leave early the next morning to drive home to see the girl. i haven’t been home to see her since mid-september. she had been making the drive to knoxville the past few times we’d seen each other and it was my turn to come home.

i woke up, got some work done at home, and then drove over to get my free oil change. as i was sitting there in the waiting room working on things for fuel that night, the guy at the oil change place called me over to the desk. he told me that he wanted to show me something and immediately i thought, “well crap, this can’t be good.” he walked me out to the garage where my car was still raised up and started pointing things out to me.

my tires had no usable tread.

the tread cap on one tire was about to be exposed.

the steel on another tire was about to pop through the rubber.

my face dropped. that changed all of my plans completely. i had to call nicole and tell her that i couldn’t come home. everything that i had planned for that weekend was now down the drain and i was back at square one and only this time, square one included a huge bill for new tires a year before i had planned.

everything ended up working out and nicole ended up surprising me that night right before fuel started. we were able to go to an event at two rivers called quiet waters that was actually very good for both of us. we spent the weekend together and on sunday morning i told her bye and wished her a safe trip home.

in the small group that i co-lead, we have a thing called “high lows.” at the end of the night, after the lesson, we go around and everyone tells what the high point of their week was, what their low point of the week was, and if they had any prayer requests. that sunday night i told them the low point was finding out about my tires and my prayer request was that i could figure out how to pay for them.

after small group that night, without me knowing it, two of my guys decided that they were going to pool their money together to help me get new tires. not only did they do that, but they started asking their friends to help. they started asking other guys in the group to help. they went around saying they had a friend who needed tires so that he could go home for thanksgiving and see his family and his girlfriend.

these guys were freshmen in high school.

when i was a freshman i was completely dork, had a terrible mustache, and did things to try and fit in. i didn’t really think about helping other people. i thought about girls and upperclassmen and who i had a crush on that day (it changed a lot). i didn’t think up ways how i could give what little money i had to someone else.

but this group of guys thought that way.

last night at youth group they came up to me and handed me some money. they told me that was only part of it and that the rest was coming. today i’m meeting up with one of their dad’s to go get tires at a reduced price and him, along with these freshmen, are going to take care of the cost.

i’m so proud that i get to be a part of these guy’s lives.

i’m so proud that i get to help them grow in their relationship with jesus.

i’m so proud that i get to call them my friends.

i couldn’t think of a better way to start off this “this is the church” idea than to brag on these guys. they didn’t have to do what they did. by every normal line of thinking, they shouldn’t have done what they did. they should’ve kept their money and bought a video game or went to a movie or something other than giving it away.

but they saw a need, and they wanted to fix it.

they saw an opportunity to be help someone out, and they did.

they saw a chance to be the church, and they took it.

if the church that we’re raising up right now looks like this group of 14 and 15 year olds then we’re in store for a revolution of the church that most of us can’t even begin to fathom. these guys get it. they get what it means to be a christian. and the beauty of all of this is that they’ve got their entire lives ahead of them. they have the ability to do great things for god.

they have the ability to change the world.

say your prayers and take your vitamins.

have a nice day.

Jonathan just recently graduated with a master of arts in student ministry and works as an intern in high school ministry in a church in Tennessee. Check out his blog right here.