the Monday Morning Debrief: Relearning

When I was hired as the Family Guy at New Life, I went from leader and “doer” of Youth Ministry to a manager of youth and children ministries.  There were a lot of things I had to learn and change about how I functioned as a minister taking on this “management” position.

But then, in November, I was asked to take over the Youth Program that was struggling.  I did and I have enjoyed it a lot!  However, I had to once again change the way I functioned as a staffer at New Life.  I was still “managing” the children’s ministry but I was no leading and “doing” the Youth Ministry.  In fact, there were many things about doing youth ministry that I had to relearn.

Relearning Youth Ministry was a bit odd to me because I was out of daily leading a youth program for over a year.  I actually felt like Tim Tebow before he was drafted by the Broncos.  ESPN did this great piece on him on how he had to relearn how to throw the football so he could be a better passer in the NFL.

So, now being back on the front lines of youth ministry for 6 months now, here are a few things I had to relearn:

• Identifying, recruiting, training and developing leaders.  Being at a bigger church and not knowing as many people, I have had a harder time identifying potential leaders.  But as I have gotten to know the existing leaders and built even more relationships with the congregation, it has been great sitting down and talking to all the new potential leaders.  Then, developing a development plan for each existing leader has been a blast as well as I get to sit with them and get to know them on a deeper level and help take them to the next level of their leadership.
• Digging into the day to day operations again.  Being a “manager” meant I just had to make sure things were getting doing.  But now being the leader and in charge of doing or delegating all the things.  So I had to relearn how to best run this program.  What works and what doesn’t…finding my happy place in ministry again

Those are just 2 quick things I had to relearn and get immersed in again.  So what about you?  Is there something you have to relearn in youth ministry to be more effective?  TAKE A MINUTE right now and share a thought or comment about this so we can all benefit.