Every day we communicate with others. We communicate with family, friends, people at work and so forth. We communicate with God and His Son too. We expect communication back from others when we are having discussion or when we work somewhere. This concept should be no different when it comes to Youth Leaders and heads of churches.

Here’s a story that goes with this:

A church got a new youth leader for their junior high youth program. This was the first time that this church was going to have a junior high youth program. The youth leader was excited to start her job. After a while, the youth became comfortable with their youth leader they started asking questions about the usual topics that they see and deal with everyday. Sex, drugs, alcohol, and so forth were some of the topics. As soon as this started happening, the youth leader would be in the pastors’ office asking what should be done and how it should be handled and if what she had said was appropriate. The pastors assured her that the answers she gave were appropriate and in line with how the church and their interpretation of the Bible felt about the subjects. The new youth leader would still come into the pastors office a few times every month to let the pastors know what was being talked about and asked in youth group. After a few meetings like this, the pastors tell her that they really have to mission statement or plan for Christian education for any age group. This was a shock to the youth leader but she continued to work with the youth and did not think anything about it all. Several months later, the youth leader was called in and told that she needed to step down as the junior high youth leader. No warning before hand. No discussion or questions about situations that happened.

This situation actually happened to me. The lack of communication I still find shocking and inexcusable.

In some aspects, churches have to be run like businesses. You have to find people that are going to make your organization look good. The church has to find someone who is going to a good influence on the youth of the church and so forth. At the same time, the church has to do their end of running the business. When they find the youth leader they have to go over different areas like job expectations, church expectations, and church dynamics. All these things can effect how a youth leader does his or her job.

Communicating job expectations is something that every business operation does. Churches are no exception to this. Different churches have different expectations of what the youth leader will be doing and not doing. An employee isn’t performing up to his or her ability or is breaking company policy. Most companies would pull the employee aside and let the employee know that they are not happy and try to figure out what is going on. Why should a church not handle things the same way? What makes the church any different from a business that is next door?

Church expectations and dynamics are another thing that needs to be considered and at least mentioned. This is a huge problem that I have personally run into at a church. When I would go into the pastors for advice and guidance, they gave me advice that was good, but apparently other people in the church did not agree. Sometimes what you want to happen is not what the church congregation wants to happen or agrees with.  Church’s have to take this into consideration too. If the congregation ain’t happy, then no body’s going to be happy! In a lot of ways, this statement is very true. The dynamics of the church can change what you do and don’t talk about or even possibly do as service projects. More conservative churches may completely different views than churches that are a little more liberal. This may change from church to church in any particular area of the country.

Again, when dealing with staff, even volunteer youth leaders, churches need to handle finding and dealing with them just like a business handles its employees. Handling church dealings like a business is not a bad thing. It can be extremely beneficial. You can gain so much respect and trust from people inside the church.

So, how can we fix this problem? Let your youth ministers know what is expected of them. This should be communicated as soon as the youth leader is hired. Constant meetings with the heads of the church and the youth leader is also a plus. At the same time, if the youth leader has certain ideas of how he or she would handle certain subjects, he or she should communicate that right away. For example, I tend to give every side of the story even on the tough issues, which it seems to have caused problems. If I would have been more up front about it, some problems could have been avoided. When problems do arise, DO NOT avoid letting the youth leader or ministers know what is going on. A lot of problems can be avoided by doing this.  

“So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”- Ephesians 3:17-19