Tom McKee
No pastor would intentionally neglect his newly recruited staff. Yet once the recruiting is done, many turn the new staff loose, breathe a sigh of relief, and assume their job is finished, forgetting the important task of equipping the staff to serve. If the youth team resigns, the pastor is back to chapter one.
One minister was excited about his team. A high school coach and his wife, two college students, and the young carpenter who headed the team were enthusiastic and seemed qualified. But soon the phone rang. Jerry, the coach, was saying he had made a big mistake and needed to resign. He had just evaluated his priorities, and something had to go. Pastor Don knew something was wrong, because two months ago when Jerry was recruited, nothing could have stopped him. What had changed?
Jim, the young carpenter, called the next evening and said he felt the youth group would probably do better under Jerry’s leadership than his. He felt unqualified. How could this be? Jim had been faithful for two years and was tremendously effective.
As Don began to ask questions, he finally discovered Jerry had many new ideas but did not know how to implement them. He tended to order kids around like his basketball team at high school. “If you don’t make the grade, we can cut you from the squad” was Jerry’s style. Jim was experienced with teenagers, but he did not know how to handle Jerry and his aggressive leadership. Being sensitive and not wanting to cause trouble, he felt maybe it was time for a change.
Jim and Jerry illustrate several false assumptions about youth workers. They remind us of Lyle Schaller’s story about the conflict between the scientists and engineers designing Apollo spacecraft. The scientists wanted a vehicle free of defects so they could use all available space for scientific equipment. The engineers wanted to use the space for more backup systems, contending the only safe assumption was that something would go wrong. The argument was resolved by asking the astronauts in training. They opted for lots of backup systems!1
The significance of the story is that assumptions are important. Our assumptions determine how we operate. Some assumptions about equipping and motivating youth teams even sound biblical; however, they are dangerous.
False Assumption #1: People Who Work with Youth Professionally (Teachers, Coaches, etc.) Are the Best Youth Sponsors.
This is a logical assumption. Jerry was a natural; however, he had a hard time making the transition from his basketball team to the youth group. Jerry’s experience reminds me of my own when I first entered the ministry. I was twenty-two years old, full of enthusiasm about youth, and had just been called as a youth pastor in a church on California’s Monterey Peninsula.
I thought this job would be a cinch. After all, I had been raised in an active youth group, my father was the Christian education director, and I had been a campus leader in my Christian college. A few months before my appointment, I had directed a successful musical using the most qualified talent in the college. I came into this church thinking I could take the same leadership ability and be a smashing hit with the young people.
After one summer of youth ministry, I was dry. Preparing my first lessons for the high school Bible study convinced me I was not really as interesting as I thought I was. When I directed my first youth musical, it was a flop. People did not show up for rehearsals, and I soon realized the caliber of talent in our small youth group was very different than that of the college.
Discouraged, I called my father for help. He gave me the names of two youth pastors in the area and told me to see them right away. Dick and Bob each spent significant time with me and allowed me to watch them in action. I asked questions, observed, and took new enthusiasm and insight back to my group.
I often go back to that experience when I see new sponsors take on a group they have never worked with before. Their initial enthusiasm frequently fades in the first month. We owe it to new workers to provide times of in-service training; we also need to urge them to link up with experienced people both in our churches and others nearby. High school teachers, coaches, and enthusiastic leaders from Christian colleges have great potential, but we cannot assume they will automatically be successful. Working with the typical youth group is very different than the teacher’s captive audience or the college leader’s talented, mature group.
Nor should we assume that just because they are professionals with youth, they even want to work with youth in the church. Often high school teachers tell me, “I’m with high school students all week long. I don’t want to be with them in the church. I would rather minister to some other age group.” We load on unnecessary guilt when we assume that just because they teach high school, they should sponsor the youth group.
False Assumption #2: Since the Pastor’s Job Is to Equip the Saints, That Means Training the Youth Team Directly (especially if the pastor is a former youth pastor).
Who will sit down with Jerry and train him? I don’t have the time to train every leader in the church. I cannot run the youth workshops I used to teach when I was in youth ministry.
However, I can make sure they are trained. I can arrange for them to go to seminars. Most denominations and publishers offer training materials. And most metropolitan areas have Sunday school conventions, with special sessions for youth workers. Workshop leaders in these groups usually love to spend time with enthusiastic sponsors.
Some churches appoint new members of the youth team and assign them as helpers for the first few months. Jerry would be assigned to work with Jim and observe him in action. Jerry would have limited responsibilities at first. The use of teams already mentioned in the previous chapter is a natural for this kind of training.
We can also supply our workers with inspirational reading about youth and youth ministry. Many times I have visited the local Christian bookstore with a youth worker to look at everything from books about teen problems today to “how-to-work-with-teens” manuals to Bible studies and materials written especially for young people. Two resources were invaluable to me in youth work and may warrant your special attention. Campus Life is an excellent magazine designed for young people. I found that it appealed to non-Christians as well as Christians. Not only is it good for sharing with teens, but it also gives youth workers insight into the problems of youth and illustrations to use in teaching and counseling. The other resource is Ideas, the publication of Youth Specialties in San Diego that contains practical help for youth meetings (crowd breakers, games, skits, socials, and discussion starters).
Many other resources fill the same needs. We need to be sure to supply our workers with these things.
False Assumption #3: Since the Youth Team Is Working for the Lord, They Don’t Need Tangible Incentives.
It sounds so spiritual to say, “The Lord will motivate my team.” But that kind of thinking forgets that God uses human instruments. The classic example is Barnabas. He was the one to take John Mark, the quitter, and encourage him back into the ministry.
One of the most neglected ministries in the church is the ministry of affirmation. We forget to praise workers from the pulpit and in private. Those who praise the youth team and write notes of appreciation are likely to keep them. Those who take team workers for granted will lose them, not because they are not spiritual, but because we all get discouraged.
Gordon MacDonald says, “As I look back through my life, I am caused to realize that I am the product of a chain of ‘affirmers,’ men and women who believed in me, who took time to communicate to me their conviction that God had something in store for me in serving Him. Many times I would have quit, dropped out, if it hadn’t been that there was some key person who believed in me.”2
It does not seem to bother God to offer incentives. In The Mind Changers, Em Griffin points out that the writer of Hebrews says the expectation of reward is a condition of faith. “For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6).
Griffin goes on to show that business and industry have picked up this idea in their marketing. “One tool company switched from talking about their electric drill to describing what the tool would do for the buyer. They said simply, ‘We sell holes.’ This makes so much sense that it’s hard to believe that we in the church ignore the fact that benefits are what people are waiting to hear. But we often do. We tell them what they should believe or what they ought to do without making any effort to show the advantages that come from God’s way. All of us need incentives.”3
As a pastor, I receive tangible incentives from people in the church. Susie and I have been loaned a home at Lake Tahoe, a camper, and a houseboat at various times. I remember times of great discouragement when someone in the church was sensitive to my need and took us out to dinner. It was a little serendipity that God brought along just when we needed it.
What about our youth teams? Do they ever get these kinds of reinforcement? They also face discouragement. The work of the youth leader who is also holding down a full-time job and keeping a family together may become intolerable. Usually this shows in a negative spirit and a questioning of everything. Soon there comes a resignation—or worse, they keep on but with a negative spirit. Some join another church to avoid the pain of quitting the responsibility.
So many times pastors say we should not give dinners or special recognition to volunteers because they “are doing it for the Lord.” I wonder how long these pastors would stay in the ministry if they did not get affirmation. How many volunteer youth workers get to travel to annual conventions at church expense? How many have a public platform each week to communicate what they feel deeply inside? How many get to plan their own schedules, with time for the church, home, and work?
Some churches waive all fees for sponsors at youth group outings. Others go further; they take care of baby-sitting expenses, so the youth retreat becomes a retreat for the sponsors as well as the young people.
Equipping for the Long Haul
Too often our youth team is like the three frogs who found themselves trapped in a large urn of cream. One looked at what appeared to be a hopeless situation and soon sank to the bottom and drowned. Another panicked and began to kick his legs frantically to get out. He soon exhausted himself and sank. The third simply kept kicking methodically, steadily, until the cream turned to butter, and he climbed out.
I have seen all three types of workers in the church. Some volunteer and, after their first experience, quit because of fear. Others dive in with great enthusiasm because the need is so great, but they quickly become exhausted. Others, however, evaluate the problems and move methodically with purpose.
Youth work is hard work, and sometimes you are not sure you are accomplishing anything. Our goal is to equip and motivate a team that does not give up in despair or burn out in exhaustion but makes steady progress in changing teenage lives toward usefulness.
Lyle Schaller, “Assumptions,” The Parish Paper (July 1983), p. 1.
Gordon and Gail MacDonald, If Those Who Reach Could Touch (Chicago: Moody Press, 1984), p. 71.
Em Griffin, The Mind Changers (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale, 1976), pp. 100-101.
© 1986 Christianity Today
