Monthly Archives: January 2011

Work Flow

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Sometimes ministry is all about theory and creativity.  We talk about dreams and visions we have for our ministries, but sometimes ministry is about paperwork and planning.  Depending on your role in ministry you may spend a significant time planning and doing office work or maybe you are mostly out of the office.  Either way, your job is probably full of a multitude of tasks that are often unrelated.

After experiencing the pain of trying to juggle all of my responsibilities by memory, I came to the point where I needed to have a better approach in order to keep stuff from getting dropped.  My answer was to come up with a work flow for my week.

I realized that most of my week followed a pattern.  Preparations for Wednesday night programs were being done Monday and Tuesday, Mondays were full of follow-up and check requests.  Thursdays were used to get Sunday programs worked out.  Noticing this flow, I constructed a super simple list of the things that I would work on each day of the week.  Each day I have a list of the major things that I need to accomplish.  This list gives me a great framework for building my day and helps me to focus on accomplishing the stuff that really needs to be accomplished.

One of the hard parts about working in ministry, which is also one of the great parts about working in ministry, is that you pretty much control your schedule and what you do.  Outside of certain weekly expectations, you basically have to be self-motivated and entrepreneurial.  It’s great not having someone stand over your shoulder telling you what to do, but if you are not a self-starter, it can be a recipe for laziness and mismanaged time.  That is where I have found my work flow to be extremely helpful.  There are days when I am worn out from activities the day before or from nights when my kids decided to wake up every hour, but having a set task list each day ensures that what needs to get done gets done.

One other benefit for doing things this way is that it forces you to be better prepared for your events and programs.  I now have no excuse to be planning Wednesday night activities on Wednesday afternoon, that was Monday and Tuesday’s job.

In case it helps, here are my essential projects for each day:
Monday: Hospital visits, Sunday follow-ups, check requests, website updates, Wednesday night planning.
Tuesday: Staff meeting and staff lunch, send out Sunday curriculum for our morning and evening programs, finish Wednesday night details
Wednesday: Work on upcoming events, lunch at schools, Facebook page update, lunch with other student ministers
Thursday: Finish Sunday details, missions team responsibilities, volunteer encouragement, Wednesday follow-ups, lunch at schools

Keep in mind that these are just the must-be-done-every-week things. And yes, Wednesday has two lunches.  Built onto this work flow are things like gearing up for events, random meetings, preparing for fill-in sermons, and all other kinds of random duties.  The key for me is that I have some level of accountability, even to myself, that the schedule is followed as closely as possible.  Hope this helps.

Where Is Everybody?

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Do you know those sounds that absolutely drive you crazy like rubbing a towel on carpet or scratching a chalkboard?  To me, this question, “where is everybody,” is the equivalent of that.  I cannot stand it when a youth worker, paid or volunteer, acts as if they are disappointed in attendance.  Sure you were expecting a few more, but why should the people who came feel bad for coming?

Showing that you are disappointed in attendance at a program or event communicates these three things:

1. Sure it’s nice that you are here, but it would be better if there were other people here too. It’s not good enough for just you guys to have come.

2. Well, I guess we can still sort of have fun with this small crowd. We’ll just make it work if we can.

3. The effort I put into this lesson/program/event is now going to be wasted on a group this small.

One of the biggest problems that arises when youth workers say stuff like this is that we kill morale.  Students have come to have a great experience and now they find out that this experience was dependent upon other kids coming too.

The other big problem with this way of thinking is that we as youth workers miss a huge opportunity to demonstrate how excited we are that anyone shows up to our stuff.  Instead of being excited that we can now have more one on one interaction, we lament the fact that we will have to manufacture more energy for our activities to work.

I get that having a smaller crowd than expected can be discouraging and can force us to change plans.  Last year we had almost 40 students sign up for a weekend event, one that required more than three months of planning.  In the end only 18 students actually attended the event.  I of course declared that my last day in youth ministry forever in the whole universe.  Eventually I calmed down and realized that we now had an opportunity to really invest in a group of kids in a way that would not have been possible with 40.  Did it mean making a few changes to the schedule and events? Sure.  Did it mean that I was a failure or that my career was over? Nope.

Rather than focus on what is totally out of your control, i.e. attendance, it is much better to focus on leaving each event knowing that you made a real impact and that you helped a student have a better relationship with God.  I have found great solace in planning events where we can have an effective event even if five or six kids show up.  And when the numbers are small, I never want to act like it’s not good enough.

Do You Need An Office

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While reading a youth ministry article recently, I noticed a commenter asking why a student minister even needs an office.  As someone who has an office and spends time in that office each week, I had a hard time trying to figure out just what he or she was getting at.

I don’t necessarily love my time in my office, but I also cannot figure out how it is not necessary.  As the only paid youth staff at my church, I play a significant role in delivering programs and plans for our students.  I tried to figure out just what I do in the office and here is a list I came up with:

  • Develop the program parts for Sunday and Wednesday night programs.
  • Communicate with students, parents, and volunteers through facebook, email, blogging, and (the dreaded) phone call.
  • Complete paperwork such as check requests and collection logs.
  • Meet with volunteers, parents, and students about who knows what until they show up and ask if I have a second.
  • Prepare and plan events such as retreats and mission trips.
  • Spend time staying in touch with resources, articles, and youth ministry ideas.

This list leaves off a few things I am sure, but the thing is that I find myself in the office quite a bit.  There are some ministers who are on big staffs with their role only being to spend time with students.  There are also ministries where some of what I mentioned is done by volunteers (we’re working on that and will be in 20 years).  I simply find the office time to be a necessary part of my job.

Does this mean that it is what I would rather be doing?  Not really, though I do love to create a good plan and see it work.  I would much rather spend everyday mentoring students and helping them realize what God has in store for their lives.  However, something that I have to remember is that contributing the kingdom is done in many different ways.  Creating a calendar and planning a Wednesday night program can be important ways to contribute to what God is doing in the lives of your students. 

When we look at ministry as a journey, we see that sometimes you have to plan the trip before you can take the trip.  There are days like today when there just is not much going on, and I need to use the time to plan events and programs.  There are also days when I spend the majority of the day speaking to and working with students.  Some days we have impact through preparation and check requests.

I must admit that there are days when I have been in the office far too much, and at the end of the day I really wonder what I actually accomplished.  I have found that I need to do one thing that would count towards active discipleship in order for me to really feel good about my day.  Maybe it is a quick thank you note for a volunteer or a conversation over facebook with a student.  What pushes me and motivates me is that I never want to leave the office feeling like nothing would be different if I had just stayed home.

Integrity in Ministry

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I love having conversations with the volunteers in our student ministry.  I like hearing about how they are learning along with the students and feeling like they are really making a difference.  Recently, though, I had a conversation with a volunteer that went in a different direction.  We began to discuss how easy it is for a minister or ministry volunteer to lose credibility and influence through just one bad decision.

The truth is that it doesn’t take much for our ministry to be derailed on account of our actions.  Ministers and ministry volunteers are definitely held to a higher standard than your average Christian and probably with good cause.  Ministry influence can be lost through one inappropriate conversation or one poorly thought out facebook post.

We have to actively maintain our integrity at all times, not just for the health of our own souls, but also for the souls of the people we minister to.  I have caught myself several times trying to decide if a facebook post would be perceived as appropriate.  I have had to change subjects when students ask particularly probing questions about movies I have seen or music I listen to.  One of the major elements of our jobs is to be an example to those we minister to.

I hear a lot of stories of youth ministers who are in trouble all of the time because they lacked discernment in certain areas of their lives.  This is frustrating because youth workers need to have people’s confidence in order for them to maximize their impact.  When we do something that takes away from our good example, we lose the trust of our constituents including the church staff, parents, and students wise enough to be disappointed.

As youth workers we want to be positive examples, mentors, and role models.  And with that comes a huge responsibility.  This does not mean that we cannot ever make a mistake, but it does mean that we need to enhance our discernment so as to minimize the mistakes we make that harm the ministry.