Most youth ministries encounter at least one crisis a week which a typical Youth Director can handle. But sometimes crisis just can’t be solved alone. We are here to help!
Common situations we can help with:
Click on the case studies below to get help now!
Case Study #1 – THE VISION-LESS YOUTH MINISTRY
The Situation: Christ Church has just hired their new youth director Jeff, and they are thrilled. Jeff seems to be everything the previous youth director wasn’t – theologically informed, responsible, wise-beyond-his-years. Within weeks of arriving on the scene, Jeff immediately begins to promote his vision for the youth ministry, a vision very different from the previous youth staff person (whose vision was very different from the one before). Everyone is hopeful that Jeff will be able to accomplish what no youth staff person before has done: Build a thriving youth ministry that lasts after he is gone. But with a track record of changing youth workers every 2.5 years (each with his or her own “new and improved” vision), the church is unlikely to move its ministry strategically forward. And it is very likely that this church will find itself, two years from now, having moved no further in establishing a sustainable youth ministry.
The Diagnosis: Christ Church needs a vision for its youth ministry that transcends the pet priorities of the short-term staff people who cycle through the ministry. Until that vision is clearly established, this church will remain chronically stuck, unable to sustain any forward momentum.
The Solution: Youth Ministry Architects works to build a sustainable foundation for ministry through a time-tested visioning process that results in key control documents that tether the youth staff, volunteer leadership and the leaders of the larger church to the ministry’s agreed-upon goals. Through regular coaching and troubleshooting, YMA consultants help churches develop the intentional forward momentum that is essential to long-term sustainability.
Additional Resources:
Case Study #2 – The Unsuccessful Search
The Situation: First Church has had 5 different youth directors in the past 6 years. Each search was entered into with high hopes of finding just the right person. Over the past few years, the youth who have remained active in the program have become increasingly cynical about the church ever finding a “decent youth director” who will stay around. A search committee has been established with a commitment to “do it right this time.”
The Diagnosis: Like many churches, First Church assumes that working hard doing the same things they have always done will somehow result in a different outcome. This church doesn’t need another search for a youth ministry superstar to solve all its problems. This youth ministry is in need of a climate overhaul. They must step off of the treadmill of putting all the weight for the success of their youth ministry on their staff. Instead they must hire staff to support and enable the youth ministry that long-term leaders in the church have been called to do.
The Solution: Youth Ministry Architects works to build an infrastructure that can establish positive momentum for a youth ministry. This structure includes clarifying the church’s vision and goals as well as recruiting and training an appropriate number of volunteers who will continue to serve in the youth ministry when a new youth staff person arrives.
Additional Resources:
- Article on assessing your success
- Article on hiring mistakes.
- Contact us to schedule an assessment.
Case Study #3 Pool of Drool (The Search for Sunday School Boredom Busters)
The Situation: When St. Alban’s Church found it difficult to recruit Sunday School teachers, they developed a rotating schedule with different adult volunteers filling in each week. Initially, this approach seemed like the perfect solution. Youth got exposed to a broader range of adults, and no one had to carry the overwhelming responsibility of teaching every week. Though the teachers enjoy the flexibility, they complain that the students are often listless and bored; and when they are not, they are disruptive. The Youth Director, Barry, has tried every kind of curriculum imaginable. In fact, he makes it a point to purchase something new at the Christian Bookstore every 6 weeks.
The Diagnosis: It’s extremely difficult (if not impossible) to build momentum with adult leaders changing every week. The church and the youth ministry need the consistency of one (preferably two) dedicated leader(s) for each class, with a consistent volunteer base of one adult for every five active youth. Though the curriculum needs to be engaging, purposeful and age-appropriate, an exclusive focus on finding the “right curriculum” will not likely be effective apart from a consistent leadership team in place.
The Solution: YMA helps churches devise strategies for developing sustainable volunteers, ensuring that the appropriate number of volunteers are recruited and trained (even if the first few attempts at recruiting are met with less than stellar results). YMA will also work with stakeholders in Church Education Program to create a template to identify and teach the church’s core competencies and locate creative resources and appropriate curriculum.
Additional Resources:
Case Study #4 The Sinking Ship
The Situation: At All Saints Church, the youth membership and involvement have been dwindling steadily for years. The church hired Jenny as their youth director two years ago, because of her youthful enthusiasm, heart for kids, vibrant outgoing personality, and caring nature. They thought she was the perfect fit and hoped she would infuse new energy and life into the program, thereby increasing youth involvement and enthusiasm. But after two years, the numbers continue to decrease and Jenny is losing her spark for her job.
The Diagnosis: Youthful enthusiasm and creativity are simply not enough to turn around the momentum of a struggling youth ministry. Often churches in this situation simply have too many competing programs for the staff and budget capacity of the church. The turn around process requires specific, deliberate steps which work together as a part of the youth ministry’s long-term strategic plan for building a sustainable program, sometimes involving the difficult work of eliminating one or more of the current less-than-effective programs.
The Solution: YMA’s 3-day assessment process pinpoints the unique challenges preventing them from developing the kind of ministry to youth that the church desires to have. The assessment integrates information received from a wide variety of stakeholders in the youth ministry and offers a strategic implementation plan, complete with a 12 to 18 month timeline. YMA is then available to walk alongside its client churches as they experience the predictable pitfalls of implementing a clear, strategic plan for the first time.
Additional Resources:
- Article on building the right foundation.
- Article on assessing your success.
- Article on getting parents more involved.
- Contact us to schedule an assessment.
Case Study #5 Chronic Complainers and the Prickly Porcupine
The Situation: Hannah has been youth director for 9 months at Westminster Church, the first full-time youth minister in the church’s history. Parents and kids describe her as a “porcupine.” Every time she is approached with a problem by parents, volunteers or youth, she responds with defensiveness, and a long description of how busy she is and how hard she is working. Despite all her hard work and effort, it is clear the youth ministry hasn’t grown as the church anticipated – in fact, the numbers have decreased by 50% since she started. Hannah attributes the decrease in participation to students’ busy schedules, uncommitted parents and the fact that so many different schools are represented in the youth ministry.
The Diagnosis: Westminster Church needs to establish crystal clear job expectations, including basic, measurable results expected from its youth staff. Without such documents and appropriate evaluation processes, Hannah will remain vulnerable to chronic criticism, unable to discern which concerns deserve her utmost attention. The church too will remain frustrated about the lack of results in its youth ministry, with no clear mechanism for holding its staff accountable for accomplishing the most important priorities of the ministry.
The Solution: YMA provides both youth staff and church leadership with on-going coaching in how to structure staff relationship to maximize the likelihood of an effective and mutually satisfying ministry. Though the creation of results-based job descriptions and the establishment of clear accountability, coaching and evaluation processes, YMA helps senior pastors take much of the guesswork out of the management of its youth staff.
Additional Resources:
- See sample job descriptions.
- Article on assessing your success
- Contact us to schedule an assessment.
Case Study #6 The S.O.S.
The Situation: The leadership of West End Church describes their church as far too “staff driven” with a strong desire to become more “lay driven.” But they have historically struggled to recruit and train volunteers. They have tried soliciting help through the newsletter, the bulletin, e-mail messages, even begging during the Sunday services but the vast majority of volunteers continue to come from the small pool of faithfuls who have served for years. Often, those who do volunteer complain of being overloaded and burning out. The youth ministry is no exception to this pattern. The short-term volunteers who served in the youth ministry couldn’t wait until the new youth director was hired, allowing them to step back from their volunteer work. Within months of his arrival, the new youth director realizes that all of his youth ministry volunteers have resigned, leaving the church with less hours invested in the ministry than before the staff person was hired. This youth director, a “kid magnet” filled with energy and creativity feels overwhelmed, recognizing that he now must not only minister creatively to youth but must build an organization at the same time. When the youth director suggests to church leaders that some programs might need to be cut in order to give him the capacity to develop a volunteer team, he meets with strong resistance and well-meaning suggestions that he simply “learn to delegate.”
The Diagnosis: West End Church has, unwittingly, set up its new youth director for failure without even knowing it. The church will need to ensure that the goals, structure, and programming for its youth ministry match the church’s capacity, avoiding the common pitfall of trying to provide a level of programming the church simply cannot afford. The youth ministry will need to create personalized processes for recruiting and sustaining volunteers, processes that move beyond blanket recruiting and wishful thinking.
The Solution: YMA consultants work with church leadership, ideally before a new staff person is hired, to ensure that the youth ministry’s goals, structure and programming is consistent with the church’s capacity. In addition, YMA provides proven strategies and coaching for how to develop a long-term, sustainable, enthusiastic volunteer team.
Additional Resources:
- Article on building the right foundation.
- Article on getting parents more involved.
- Article on time management techniques.
- Article on finding time for the most important work.
Case Study #7 The Whistler Blower
The Situation: At Third Church, the senior pastor has discovered that John (the church’s very popular Youth Director under whose direction the size of the youth ministry has doubled in the past 6 months) is involved in an inappropriate relationship with Susie, one of his youth group members. John, a 21-year-old college student has been working for Third Church for six months and started dating 17-year-old Susie a month ago. Though their relationship is a “secret,” Susie’s friends have been talking enough that now parents are aware of the relationship. When questioned, John’s response has been that Susie is almost 18 and just months away from graduating from high school. He suggests that people mind their own business when it comes to his private life.
The Diagnosis: John’s supervisor needs to address the inappropriate relationship and John’s detrimental behaviors immediately. John may need to step down immediately. In addition to a clear job description, John will need to know the church’s child protection policy and embrace a youth leadership covenant, clarifying appropriate limits for all adults working with youth in the church. After understanding the clear conflict of interest and inappropriateness of his behaviors, John will need to choose to stop dating Susie or be removed from his job.
The Solution: YMA can help Third Church in developing their own child protection policies and youth leader covenants to prevent ambiguity of expectations in the future. In addition, YMA can support the church leadership as they walk through the fallout of maintaining firm expectations (including perhaps termination) for their youth director. Should it be necessary, YMA can also provide support for the church in the transition between youth directors, including providing a variety of levels of assistance in the search process.
Additional Resources:
- See a sample Youth Leader Lifestyle Covenant Form.
- See sample job descriptions.
- Contact us to schedule an assessment.
