Meetings often get a bad reputation for being unnecessary, long or boring. But meetings fuel action, surface ideas and pull people together.
Many times, I find when I am leading a team of leaders in church, we are together only when we are on – preparing for the event, leading the event, or working with people. Though there are many “community” benefits to working together toward a common goal, the constant “go mode” doesn’t allow for deeper conversation or preparation.
A community focused team meeting will open up space for conversation without the pressure of immediate performance.
If you are the lead youth worker, volunteer or paid, it’s your job to pull your team together from time to time for connection, vision, planning and friendship building.
A community focused youth worker volunteer meeting will:
- allow you to invite other potential leaders to join you in serving in future ministry capacities.
- open conversation about the ministry to students in your church and how you can grow in it.
- allow the leader to share a vision of ministry and some practical steps for this season.
- give a chance for team members to grow friendships and sense belonging.
- give an opportunity for leaders from various areas (youth group, Sunday school etc) to connect and share.
- provide time and space for prayer on behalf of the students.
- allow the team to learn and grow together.
The format will vary as much as church styles and team configurations do. But here are a couple community focused meeting possibilities to get you thinking:
Early Saturday Morning – meet at the church from about 8:00 – 10:00, before the rest of the day gets too busy. Have some breakfast, plan, pray, connect and work on your ministry together.
Weekday Evening – meet for dessert in someone’s home (or at a restaurant) at about 7:00 pm. Play a quick, simple game, pray, have a devotion together and tell stories about the ministry.
Sunday Afternoon – meet together in a meeting format to discuss vision, planning and sharpening your ministry to students. Then have some pizza (or other food) and play a game together before concluding.
A meeting like this, even once a semester, will go along way toward building community in your leadership team.
How can a leader help develop the team?
It’s a question I’ve often asked. Sometimes teams read a book together. Other times, you can take a look at an article from a student ministry blog or magazine. You can read scripture together. Every time I lead a meeting I wish for something I can print out to quickly read and discuss. So here are some topics you might choose from for your next meeting:
- How your team can give more ministry away to students in your church.
- The importance of a funny bone in leaders – not taking ourselves too seriously.
- How the leadership team can stay refreshed in ministry – for the long haul.
- Why students leave the church and what we can do about it.
- A vision behind adequate funding for student ministry.
Here’s a new resource for you!
We have compiled the topics mentioned above and eight others into a new resource called STUDENT MINISTRY LEADERS DEVOTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT. This resource includes 13 one page printouts (or links) that can be shared with your team. Each sheet contains 1) a short thought geared to student ministry leadership, 2) a quote, 3) action steps, 4) discussion questions, 5) scripture and 6) a prayer.
We are offering it for $23.99 and it is available for immediate download once purchased. If it’s helpful to you, we’d be honored to have you use it for your ministry. You can check out a free sample here.
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