Youth Ministry Management Tools 2.0: Everything You Need to Successfully Manage Your Ministry

by Mike A. Work, Ginny Olson

Overview

Youth ministry isn’t just meeting with students and teaching them God’s truth. It also involves a myriad of administrative and operational details. Youth Ministry Management Tools 2.0 provides youth ministers and volunteers with helpful insights, advice, and practical resources to successfully manage a youth ministry. You’ll find sample budgets, release forms for trips, and clear direction for screening applicants for volunteer positions. Authors Mike Work and Ginny Olson provide you with quick and accessible answers to all of your management, administrative, and supervisory questions and needs.

Sprinkled throughout the manual are brief personal anecdotes by actual, in-the-trenches youth workers, case studies of church-office debacles, pivotal lessons learned over decades of ministry, nightmare scenarios to avoid, and glorious successes to emulate. No other book provides everything a youth ministry leader needs in one place at such an affordable price.This revised and updated edition of a youth ministry classic includes bonus online content, copy-ready pages and forms, and loads of other highly practical material.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310516859
Publisher:	Zondervan
Publication date:	09/02/2014
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mike Work is the Vice President of Operations at Youth Specialties. His previous management experience includes six years as an executive pastor and five years of business management consulting. A veteran youth worker who has served more than 25 years in local and parachurch student ministry, Mike has also served as the executive director of YFC’s DCLA Conferences and the executive producer for the Planet Wisdom Student Conference and the National Youth Workers Convention. He and his family make their home in Phoenix, Arizona.

Ginny Olson abides in Minneapolis, MN where she is the Director of Youth Ministry for the Northwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church as well as a writer, speaker and consultant. Previously, she was one of two directors of the Center for Youth Ministry Studies at North Park University in Chicago, Illinois. She also served on the youth ministry staffs at Willow Creek Community Church and Grace Church, Edina, Minnesota. She is the author of “Teenage Girls” and co-editor and contributor to “Breaking the Gender Barrier in Youth Ministry.”

Read an Excerpt

Youth Ministry Management Tools 2.0

Everything you Need to Successfully Manage your Ministry

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By Michael A. Work, Ginny L. Olson

ZONDERVAN

Copyright © 2014 Ginny L. Olson and Michael A. Work
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-310-51685-9

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CHAPTER 1

BUILDING A FOUNDATION

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

* The Four Components of Youth Ministry

* The Three Touchstones of Leadership

One of the very first things we learn about God is God is both creative and administrative. In the beginning of Genesis, God creates the heavens and the earth. God then goes on to separate darkness and light, water, and ground, and categorizes the animals. A calendar of seven days is set, including a day of rest. From the get-go, we see a mix of creativity and organization. We also see God giving pastoral care in interactions with Adam about his loneliness. Early on God institutes policies (e.g., don't eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden) not for the sake of policy but for the protection of people and the pursuit of God's purposes.

From the beginning we see that God desires us to be relational, creative, organized, and purposeful. God had a plan and set the desired course for creation. Yet we youth workers spend a lot of time making decisions that we hope are moving us forward on our desired course.

If you ask a group of people in a windowless room to close their eyes and spin around and then point north, when they open their eyes, they will be pointing in every direction. Some will be pointing in the right direction; others, not so much. This is a fairly accurate representation of how some youth workers lead: they're spinning around, trying to move in a direction they believe to be north, but often they're without tools to navigate. The result is that they may or may not make it to their destination. By placing one foot in front of the other with no sense of direction, it's possible to get miles off course. A philosophy of ministry and a philosophy of leadership provide those inner compasses to direct a leader and his or her followers to true north.

DEVELOPING A PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY

The most effective youth workers understand why they do what they do. And they can articulate it to others. "What is your philosophy of youth ministry?" is the one interview question that often stumps those who haven't done the hard work of formulating their philosophies of ministry and leadership.

There's no formula for developing a ministry philosophy, but there are some areas to consider. Based loosely on the work of educational philosopher William Frankena, the following components can help you clarify what you believe about ministry and how it should be lived out. Understand that there are whole seminary courses about philosophy of youth ministry. This is just a primer to get you started:

Component #1–Primary Purpose

If you think of a philosophy of ministry in terms of a building, this is the foundation upon which everything else is built. When the storms of ministry blow away everything else, this is the concrete slab. It's your ideals, your values, your theology, your beliefs about God and ministry. It answers the questions about why you're here and why you're doing what you're doing—which is helpful when it's 3 a.m. at the lock-in and the second kid just threw up.

How do you discover the primary purpose? Think about what makes youth ministries different from other organizations that help adolescents, such as the Scouts or the YMCA. Ask yourself, why is youth ministry important to the church or the local community? Or, why do you want to invest in youth ministry at this point in your life? As you formulate ideas to address these questions, keep asking the question "Why?" until you hit the core of your beliefs. For example, "We believe that God wants to rescue adolescents." Play the curious toddler and repeatedly ask, "Why?" Why do you believe God wants to save adolescents? From what? To what? Why do you think it's necessary that they're saved?

Or "We believe adolescents are the church of today and tomorrow." Why do you believe the church is critical? Why is it important that adolescents are part of it either now or in the future? What does this say about your view of God? Of the church? What do you base that view upon?

We tend to rush to sayings and Bible verses without putting any thought into our choices. What we end up with is a slogan masquerading as theology. Keep pushing into this component until you're satisfied you're at the foundation of what you believe.

Component #2–Perceptions of People

Each of us comes with a perception of adolescents, their families, the church community, and other leaders. These perceptions are what make up component #2. Our perceptions are often formed by our experiences and our theology, both current and past. For example, if we rebelled as adolescents, if we're drawn to news stories dealing with the dark side of teenage behavior, or if we were raised in churches that strongly emphasized human transgressions and depravity, we may tend to see students as having a sinful nature that's fully intact. On the other side of the spectrum, if we had relatively chaos-free teenage years with families who thought we could do no wrong, if we focus on how teenagers are changing the world for the better, or if we were raised in churches where the term "sin" was rarely spoken but "grace" was used habitually, we may view students as essentially good at their cores.

Our beliefs about components #2 and #1 are critical in the development of a ministry philosophy. If, as we note earlier, component #1 in a ministry philosophy is the foundation, then component #2 makes up the structural beams. The rest of a ministry philosophy is built on these two components. That's why it is so important to wrestle with what we think and believe about our primary purposes and what our perceptions are about people. It's easy to leave these unexamined and just replicate what we've experienced or heard about, but we end up developing ministries built on sand rather than bedrock.

The development of component #2 requires that you grapple with the question, "What do I believe about adolescents as well as their surrounding networks?" The way you answer that question will deeply impact your ministry. If you believe people are essentially good, then you're likely to have a ministry with few, if any, rules and guidelines. Taken to an extreme, there can be an immature naiveté blind toward potentially troubling behaviors. This leader may believe that students innately know on a retreat when it's time to call it a night and will sleep in their own beds, so having a curfew is unnecessary and distrustful. Or when interviewing volunteers, this leader sees background checks as a waste of time and potentially divisive in the church, so why bother? This leader doesn't believe anyone would willingly seek to harm an adolescent.

On the other side of the spectrum: If you believe people are basically sinful, then you're likely to lead ministry marked by many rules and lots of chaperones who have been closely vetted, with strict safety measures at events. (One youth pastor hired a security guard to watch the church during a lock-in, both for those who might come in and those who might sneak out.)

Veteran youth pastors realize that the reality of component #2 is somewhere in the middle, where adolescents are made in God's image (good) and yet have fallen away from the original design (evil). They are creation, but creation in need of redemption. These youth pastors do the hard work of examining their beliefs and studying theology along with adolescent development, science, and pop culture. They investigate adolescent trends and talk with parents, teachers, and community leaders. Seasoned youth workers live in the tension between being wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16), and their philosophy reflects it.

Component #3–Focus

This component doesn't mean a random emphasis based on the latest youth ministry blog or conference. Rather, the focus of a youth ministry flows out of the primary purpose (#1) as well as the perceptions of people (#2). For example, if a youth pastor believes God is all-powerful and loving and desires a relationship with God's creation (#1), and believes adolescents are made in God's image and yet have fallen away from the original design (#2), then perhaps the focus of the ministry is to be a safe and loving place to ask dangerous questions, build strong relationships, and consider a life dedicated to following God.

One way to help develop #3 is to ask, "What do we want the ministry to be known for?" For example, if the ministry targets adolescents who have no home and experience poverty and violence, you may want to be known as a ministry that helps adolescents develop strong, holistic, internal and external support systems and will advocate for them when they cannot advocate for themselves. Still stuck? Suppose the local news is profiling your ministry: What would they concentrate on? Or if you had to write a summary of the ministry in 140 characters, what would it say?

Another example: Say the ministry is predominantly made up of homeschooled kids. If the perception (component #2) is that these students study hard all day in relative solitude, the ministry may decide to focus on building a community marked by play and recreation. But if the perception is that adolescents are at a prime age to learn the deep things of God, the ministry may focus on being a mini-seminary.

Having a ministry that's focused allows you to know what opportunities to say "yes" to and what to say "no" to. If the ministry is focused on helping students succeed spiritually and academically, it means you say "no" to starting up a skate park but "yes" to a donation of new computers. Not that a skate park is bad. In fact, if you start getting skaters coming to the ministry, it might mean partnering with a ministry in town that hosts a skate park in its parking lot. Being focused requires that you network with other ministries and resources in order to truly be representative of the body of Christ. If you look at Jesus' ministry, he knew his purpose, he knew the people he was called to reach, and so his ministry was laser focused. His focus allowed him to fulfill his call.

Component #4–Practices

Once you know what your focus is, you can develop your practices. Practices are the tangible programs, events, habits, and customs of the youth ministry. Good practices are grounded on good beliefs. For example, you have a greeter team not because the ministry's had one for five years, but because the volunteer team wants to make sure that every kid who walks through the door feels welcome. They realize that if students feel welcomed, they may be more open to hearing from God.

As the leader of the ministry, you should be able to explain how a mission trip, service project, drama team, tutoring ministry, or Bible study are in line with the focus of the youth ministry (#3). You should be able to articulate how these programs or events address the needs of the students (#2) and how they are connected to your primary purpose (#1). If you can't make a clear argument, then you have to question if this practice is right for this ministry at this time.

A rookie mistake in youth ministry is starting with practices without working on the first three components. Inexperienced youth pastors take ideas and events that they've seen in other ministries and transfer them into their context without evaluating if that's the right decision. Too often, youth pastors implement what they've experienced or what they've picked up at the latest youth ministry conference. But they fail at knowing why they're doing what they're doing. So when a parent pushes back about the high cost of a mission trip, the youth pastor weakly defends his or her actions with, "But we've always done one," or worse, "But other groups do them and see life change." A stronger response comes from knowing how a mission trip fits into the ministry's primary purpose (#1) and this particular audience (#2) and being able to explain it clearly to the parent.

Here are just a few examples of practices and when it might be helpful to use them in ministry. These aren't clear-cut categories, but general suggestions to get you thinking.

As was said at the beginning of this section, there is no formula for a philosophy of youth ministry. Your philosophy will change and evolve as both you and the ministry learn and grow. By grappling with these four components, you should be on your way to having a good explanation of why the ministry does what it does and laying a strong foundation on which to build a ministry.

DEVELOPING A PHILOSOPHY OF LEADERSHIP

A leadership philosophy is a combination of your values, beliefs, and principles that direct your decisions and actions as you lead others. We all have a philosophy of leadership, whether we can articulate it or not. It shows up in how we treat those around us, especially how we treat those who have little or no power. Jesus gets at this in Matthew 19:14 when he rebukes the disciples with this comment, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

If you want to know someone's philosophy of leadership, watch their actions and listen to their words, as well as their silence. Some leaders reveal a philosophy of leadership marked by strength and power, while others portray a value of collaboration and community. And still others embody a laid-back, avoid-conflict-at-all-costs kind of leadership philosophy. As with the ministry philosophy, it's crucial that youth workers do the hard work of explaining what their approach is to leadership.

One way to formulate a leadership philosophy is to consider three touchstones: knowing, being, and doing. What does a leader need to know? Who does a leader need to be? And what does a leader need to do?

Touchstone #1–Knowing

The first touchstone, "knowing," requires that a leader have a sufficient knowledge base from which to make decisions. A youth leader doesn't need to be an expert in all areas of ministry, but he or she does need to have a curious mind about themes such as adolescent development, Jesus' style of leadership (and others in the Bible), team dynamics, change management, character qualities of a godly leader, decision making strategies, conflict resolution, family systems, and more. These topics, and others, play a role in guiding leaders as they think about ministry. You don't need a degree in youth ministry to be a youth pastor (though it helps), but you do need a strong, reliable knowledge base to guide your decisions. A small group with senior girls and 6th-grade boys probably won't work. Do you know why? And a volunteer team won't stay around if you always tell them what to do but never ask their opinion. Do you know why? The ministry vision changes every six months and attendance keeps dropping. Do you know why? A strong leader is inquisitive and constantly learning.

What do you think a youth leader must know to be effective?

Touchstone #2–Being

Knowledge alone provides a skewed compass. History is replete with leaders who had knowledge without character; some who carried out horrendous acts in the name of God and were able to motivate others to join them. So along with knowledge, there must be a focus on "being." In the Name of Jesus author Henri Nouwen writes: "Immediately after Peter has been commissioned to be a leader of his sheep, Jesus confronts him with the hard truth that the servant-leader is the leader who is being led to unknown, undesirable, and painful places. The way of the Christian leader is not the way of upward mobility in which our world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross." (Nouwen, 81)

In order to succeed as a youth ministry leader, one must seek to embody certain core values and character qualities, such as a respect for humanity and creation, a deep love for adolescents and their families, a loyalty to God and God's call, integrity reflected in a connection between knowledge and behavior, or courage to live out the vision and call of God. (In the next chapter, we'll explore this further.)

What character qualities do you believe youth workers must possess?

Touchstone #3–Doing

It's one thing to "know" what to do and to "be" a person of character, but a true leader must actually "do" the work of leading. James 2:18 states it this way: "But someone will say, 'You have faith; I have deeds.' Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." This "doing" flows out of one's knowledge and character. Leaders get themselves into trouble when they preach one thing and actions take a different direction. To be a leader marked by integrity, your actions need to be aligned with your brain and your soul.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Youth Ministry Management Tools 2.0 by Michael A. Work, Ginny L. Olson. Copyright © 2014 Ginny L. Olson and Michael A. Work. Excerpted by permission of ZONDERVAN.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

OUTLINE FOR YMMT V2

Chapter 1 - Introduction to Management of Youth Ministry
A. Why management is sometimes difficult for YM people
B. Theological underpinnings of youth ministry management
C. If you’re new to youth ministry: the first steps you need to take.

SECTION I – STRATEGIC FOUNDATIONS OF YOUTH MINISTRY

CHAPTER 2 – STARTING POINT OF YM MANAGEMENT
A. Philosophy of youth ministry
B. Philosophy of Leadership
C. Vision and Mission

CHAPTER 3 - STRATEGIC PLANNING
Developing a strategic plan for your youth ministry
A. Demographics of your community
B. Demographics of your church
C. What’s a SWOT analysis and how can it help you?
D. Values, Beliefs, Assumptions, and Guiding Principles
E. Goals: SMART
F. Evaluating a youth ministry

CHAPTER 4 - PLANNING
A. Short-term planning
B. Long-term planning

SECTION II – ORGANIZATION AND YOUTH MINISTRY

CHAPTER 5 - EVENTS
A. Types of events
B. Creating
C. Guidelines
D. Risk management
E. Contracts, forms, budgets
F. Marketing

CHAPTER 6 – COMMUNICATIONS
A. Target your communication
B. Tools for communication: websites, texting, emails, etc
C. Designing and prioritizing marketing

CHAPTER 7 - FINANCES
A. Budget basics
B. Financial policies
C. Developing a year-long budget
D. Fund-raising

CHAPTER 8 - GENERAL OFFICE PROCEDURES
A. Office set up
B. Office protocol
C. Filing systems

CHAPTER 9 - RISK MANAGEMENT
A. Foundation of risk management
B. Safety policies
C. Necessary forms: Registration, permission, medical release
D. Background checks
E. Insurance coverage

CHAPTER 10 - WORKING WITH BOARDS and COMMITTEES
A. Type of Boards: advisory, governing, policy making,
B. Board responsibilities
C. Selection of board and committee members
D. Governing policies
E. Running meetings

CHAPTER 11 - WRITING ON THE JOB
A. Writing reports for annual meetings, governing boards, etc.
B. Correspondence: How to write your resignation, a thank you, an invitation
C. How to put together a proposal
D. Writing reference letters
E. Intellectual property

SECTION 3: PEOPLE AND YOUTH MINISTRY

CHAPTER 12 - TEAM: RECRUITING, SCREENING, AND DEVELOPING
A. Philosophy of team
B. Job descriptions and expectations
C. Recruiting volunteers
D. Screening
E. Orientation and evaluation strategy for new volunteers
F. Developing the team

CHAPTER 13- STUDENT LEADERS
A. Philosophy
B. How to develop a team
C. Roles and expectations
D. Teachable moments in developing leaders

CHAPTER 14 - INTERNS
A. Getting your church on board
B. Preparing for interns
C. Recruiting and screening
D. Internship development plan
E. Evaluation

SECTION 4: YOU AND YOUTH MINISTRY

Chapter 15 – Employed as a Youth Minister
A. Resumes, cv’s, and Linked In – making yourself known
B. Job descriptions
C. Researching a position
D. Interviewing
E. Salary
F. Job reviews
G. Negotiating: a raise, vacation, schooling, etc.
H. Professional boundaries
I. Leaving: when it’s your choice and when it’s not.

Chapter 16 – Managing Your Life in Ministry
A. Time Management
B. Setting priorities
C. Planning for your future

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Whether you love or hate the management inevitably involved in youth ministry, you're going to return to this book time and time again. Its practical tips will lower your anxiety, lessen your headaches, and leave you with more time to build relationships with your team and the teenagers you serve. — Kara Powell, Executive Director of the Fuller Youth Institute