This is the time of year when many people think about how the year has gone and what they will do next year.
It is also a time when some people, quite rightly, review their time commitments and decide to give up. And when we say to our church leaders that we feel we’ve had enough, they probably try to persuade us to keep going because they cannot see a replacement for you in the church. But why do people give up the job of youth ministry?
Busy busy!
People’s lives are busier in the current climate — in our church we are finding more and more people who are reluctant to commit time to service. They simply don’t have it to give. Such people need to be given, at least, a year off with no guilt being put on them. Other people give up because assumptions are made that they will turn up every week, face the joys and trials of teaching a youth group, and no effort is made to encourage or support what they are doing. It is not uncommon to find that youth ministry is effectively an isolated box in the life of the church.
Leaders feel unconnected and expected to soldier on with little or no support. They give up because they’re fed up. Such people both need and deserve the support of a group of non-youth leaders who will pray with them and encourage them.
A more subtle kind of person who gives up is the one who comes to the end of the year and really isn’t sure if it is his/her gift and is quite convinced that there are other more gifted people waiting in the wings. Such people need some kind of review process, whether it be with the minister or the elder(s) to establish whether this person is right to carry on. So often in ministry, once we have the person in post, we assume they will serve forever and every year they come to this point and wonder whether it is right to go on. These people can be very gifted, but aware of their own weaknesses and frailties and need some reassurance and, perhaps, pointing in the direction of some kind of training.
Bite the bullet
There may be one other kind of person — the one who lacks commitment and whose diary is a figment of his imagination and who rarely turns up when he should be around. There are two choices here. If this person is too difficult to carry and is causing more stress and work for the rest of the team, then the bullet must be bitten. It is time for him to seek out other avenues of service within the church. The other option will be to put in place things that will improve his effectiveness. The one thing that mustn’t happen is nothing.
You may have different versions of how you review your staffing for the coming year. However you do it — DO IT. Give your team the sense that they are valued and, if you would like them to continue, tell them that they are valued members of the team. Don’t just assume they’ll turn up in September.
