Many youth ministries struggle with finding and keeping great leaders. Today’s guest on the Multiply! Podcast is Bob Johnson. Bob has been the Youth Pastor at First Baptist Church in Glen Este, OH for 19 years. He has built a strong leadership team, with the standard tenure of his leaders averaging 8 years. On today’s episode, Bob shares his experience and insights from years of creating and retaining great teams.
Takeaways:
Why is it important to have a leadership team?
- You cannot do it by yourself
- You have a responsibility to God
- You have a responsibility to parents
- You have a responsibility to develop and lead your youth staff
- You have a responsibility to students
– God does not need us, but He does choose to use us
– You need to develop leaders and students at the same time
– As a pastor, you are not called to do the work of the ministry, you are called to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry
The Process:
- Look for commitment in the church
- Look at character, faithfulness, and a love for youth
- Go to your pastor about pursuing those people
- Go to those people and ask them about joining the team (give them several weeks to decide)
- Let them know what you expect of them
- Get them trained and discipled
- Have monthly meetings
- Evaluate events and decisions
- Public recognition – thank them and appreciate them
- Have yearly commitments
Errors people make in recruiting youth leaders:
- A blanket plea to the entire congregation
- Creating a second church within the church