The 5-minute countdown began to fill the projector screen. My students had already piled into the room and everything seemed to be in order. Music was playing, students were laughing, and the smell of pepperoni pizza and jr. high boy was in the air (not exactly a pleasant aroma, but an aroma none the less!). It was looking to be a regular night at our church’s youth group. Everything was ready to go: I had the lesson all planned, the games selected and the sound system cranked up. Absolutely everything was where it was supposed to be…everything that is, except for one crucial element…my volunteers!
With only 5-minutes to go before the start of the program, not one of my youth ministry volunteers were anywhere to be seen. So of course I did what any intelligent youth worker would do in this complex situation…I panicked! My mind raced with about a million thoughts at that moment: “what am I going to do?”, “how am I possibly going to be able to pull this off?”, “Should I leave too? I mean, if I slip out of the room, no one will even know that I was here!”. What happened next was one of the most stressful and cray moments in my youth ministry career up until that point. It was at that moment that I realized clearly what I would have to do…EVERYTHING! It was as if in that moment I had become the poster boy for the slogan “do it yourself!” I had to do it all. And when I say that I “did it all”, I literally mean that I did it ALL! I led worship, ran the games, gave the announcements, did the skits, taught the message, facilitated the small groups and cleaned up when everything was all done. There is only one thought that comes to mind when I think back on that fateful night at youth group: now I know exactly what hell must feel like!
After all of the students had gone home and the youth room was put back in order (and by “put back in order” I mean “after I peeled leftover pizza off of the ground”), I collapsed onto the couch in my office and exclaimed to God: “that’s it…I give up! You’ve got the wrong guy! I didn’t sign up for this. You don’t need a youth pastor to do this job, you need Superman!” It was in that moment that I had experienced my very first brush with one of the biggest youth ministry mistakes that we can make as youth workers: DOING YOUTH MINISTRY ALONE!
With only 5-minutes to go before the start of the program, not one of my youth ministry volunteers were anywhere to be seen. So of course I did what any intelligent youth worker would do in this complex situation…I panicked! My mind raced with about a million thoughts at that moment: “what am I going to do?”, “how am I possibly going to be able to pull this off?”, “Should I leave too? I mean, if I slip out of the room, no one will even know that I was here!”. What happened next was one of the most stressful and cray moments in my youth ministry career up until that point. It was at that moment that I realized clearly what I would have to do…EVERYTHING! It was as if in that moment I had become the poster boy for the slogan “do it yourself!” I had to do it all. And when I say that I “did it all”, I literally mean that I did it ALL! I led worship, ran the games, gave the announcements, did the skits, taught the message, facilitated the small groups and cleaned up when everything was all done. There is only one thought that comes to mind when I think back on that fateful night at youth group: now I know exactly what hell must feel like!
After all of the students had gone home and the youth room was put back in order (and by “put back in order” I mean “after I peeled leftover pizza off of the ground”), I collapsed onto the couch in my office and exclaimed to God: “that’s it…I give up! You’ve got the wrong guy! I didn’t sign up for this. You don’t need a youth pastor to do this job, you need Superman!” It was in that moment that I had experienced my very first brush with one of the biggest youth ministry mistakes that we can make as youth workers: DOING YOUTH MINISTRY ALONE!
Maybe your reading this post and the story above seems all to familiar. Perhaps you are a youth worker who is used to doing things all by yourself. You might even have a running joke with your ministry friends that you are the “jack of all trades” at your church (you run music, design graphics, teach, lead worship,run games, juggle chainsaws, etc). Maybe you’ve tried to find volunteers to serve with you in your ministry, but after failed attempt after failed attempt, you have decided that it’s easier if you just do things by yourself. But here’s the problem: you were never meant to do youth ministry on your own!
Doing youth ministry alone lends itself to all kinds of problems, the first of which is rapid burnout! We might be able to fool ourselves into thinking that we can do it all, that we can take on everything that comes our way, but the truth is that we are human, we have weaknesses and we can grow tired and drained when we attempt to do TOO MUCH. I can’t tell you how many friends I know that are no longer working in youth ministry because they simply got too burned out from trying to accomplish everything that needed to get done on their own steam. In fact out of five close friends of mine, all of whom started out in youth ministry around the same time as me, only two of us are still working as youth pastors! The rest of them have taken on far less stressful jobs like professors, insurance salesmen, lawyers and the like (this is the part where you laugh at my super funny joke).
Doing youth ministry alone lends itself to all kinds of problems, the first of which is rapid burnout! We might be able to fool ourselves into thinking that we can do it all, that we can take on everything that comes our way, but the truth is that we are human, we have weaknesses and we can grow tired and drained when we attempt to do TOO MUCH. I can’t tell you how many friends I know that are no longer working in youth ministry because they simply got too burned out from trying to accomplish everything that needed to get done on their own steam. In fact out of five close friends of mine, all of whom started out in youth ministry around the same time as me, only two of us are still working as youth pastors! The rest of them have taken on far less stressful jobs like professors, insurance salesmen, lawyers and the like (this is the part where you laugh at my super funny joke).
Yesterday my friends Dennis Beckner, Nikkie Schuster and I got together for the first episode of the YOUTH MINISTRY HANGOUT. We chatted about youth ministry, life and Chewbaca from Star Wars. Here’s the point: YOU NEED TO GET CONNECTED! Ask yourself the question “do I have any youth ministry friends to help share the load…or am I doing this all on my own?” Don’t do youth ministry on your own. Join a local network of youth workers and get plugged in. Recruit some volunteers that you want to do life with in your church. It’s time to GET CONNECTED!
If you want to get to know other youth workers just like you or chat about your youth ministry, join us Thursday’s at 12PM (PST) for the YOUTH MINISTRY HANGOUT! Also check out episode #1 of the YOUTH MINISTRY HANGOUT for more thoughts on connecting with volunteers and building a youth ministry team.
