Core Leadership Values

In a vision statement you process what you want to be about as a youth program from a macro level.  Hopefully it will help guide your every move and make you a more effective ministry by giving you guidance on what you commit to and what you say no to.  A few years ago, I had a thorough evaluation done of our entire youth program by 3 experienced youth workers (volunteer and full-time) who took a hard look at our ministry.  As I debriefed with them the evaluation of our overall ministry, it was recommended to me that our Youth Leadership team (staff and volunteers combined) have a core set of values that we commit to.

The purpose of creating these was to identify values that we believe are vitally important in our ministry and commit to them.  It’s important to identify what your leadership team will be because it keeps you focused on what you view as important in your ministry.   As with all things, unless you make it clear what you are striving for as a team, no one will know for sure.  They will just be able to guess that what you are about.

At Cedar Run, we have 4 Core Leadership Values that we strive for.  They are:

1. Prayer is our work; ministry is merely the fruit of that work.
2. We can only take others as far as we have allowed ourselves to journey in Christ
3. Kids remember how we made them feel, and what they saw in us – not anything we taught them up front. Therefore, it is our relationships, not our programs that truly bear fruit.
4. Work together in unison with team members.  Be encouraging and uplifting at all time.

From my example, you can tell that we value Prayer, Personal Discipleship, Relationships and Encouragement.  What about your Youth Leadership team?  What are you about as a leadership team?  What are your goals and priorities?  Just like mission statements, there are no rhyme or reason as to what your core leadership values are.  It all depends on what you, as a leadership team, deem as important and worth striving for.

TAKE A MINUTE and…

1. Jot down some core leadership principles you want to be about as a Youth Leadership Team.
2. When you are done, present them before your volunteer leaders and together come up with your Core Leadership Values.