Occasionally it's a good idea to remind ourselves of a few all-important tips to be able to effectively lead in our Youth Ministry...here's a list of some of the things we should continually work on...
Be as early as you can, and stay as long as you can.
Believe it or not, students love it when they walk in and find a familiar face--a familiar ADULT face. They may not say it, but they do. And before they leave is the time when they are most likely to share what's going on in their lives. Students will begin arriving by 9am most Sunday mornings...5:45pm most Wednesday evenings. They'll leave for worship on Sundays, and on Wednesdays they will stay until we kick them out! Whatever you can do to help in this area would be awesome!
Consistency matters.
When everyone can count on you being there, we are a more successful youth ministry. Of course, life happens, and sometimes you just can't make it. We all get that...we all deal with things in our lives, too. Just remember that our students like to know what's happening and who's going to be there. Consistency matters.
Communication outside the church.
An email, a text, a FaceBook message, a Twitter DM...remembering a birthday, an anniversary, a school project, tests, a game, a concert, and the list could go on and on. You can't be at everything, and neither can I. And our students love us to be there to show support. They love getting those "Great game!" messages and those that let them know you remembered something important to them. Find the way that is most comfortable for you to communicate and dedicate a small portion of time each week to that.
Be yourself.
Show joy...show sadness. Students need to know that our emotions are real and not forced. Sometimes we like to put on a face that is completely opposite what we feel to avoid questions and remarks. Our students need to see us deal with things not being perfect in our lives.
Be generous.
with your time, with your efforts, with your attention. Be generous in everything.
Read well.
It's important to read things on Youth Ministry, things on theology, articles, books, journals. I am always reading something in these areas. Perhaps where we need to improve would be to all read a little something together every now and then and talk about it.
Avoid YouthLeader groups.
We all love to spend time together and catch up on the week, etc. I would encourage each of us to spend time doing that somewhere else. Our students want to be the most important thing going on...and our job is to help them understand that God is the most important thing going on. We can do that better when we choose to pay attention to our students over our group of YouthLeaders.
Engage in what is going on.
I know the couches are comfortable, and it's easier to stay there and kinda check out of what is happening. But how much more will our students get out of our time together when they see each of us sitting with them involved with them. I realize I'm the worst at this. After giving a few brief moments of announcements or whatever that is I do, I leave to get over the LifeSong prep. I know that doesn't say very much about how important I think the youth ministry is...please know I'm working on solutions to this.
Maybe there's more...what might you add to these items?
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