Volunteers are great. Ministry Partners are better. What's the difference? Volunteers are good, steady people who show up every week to make sure nothing gets broken but ministry partners show up to minister to broken kids.
If you have a team that is task focused instead of student focused, challenge them to build deeper relationships.
Start Small with Relational Wins
You don’t need to hand every volunteer a discipleship manual. Start with small relational goals.
Encourage them to talk to two students they don’t know this week. Help them ask better questions that move past, “How was school?” to “What’s something that made you laugh this week?” or “What’s been stressing you out lately?”
I recently learned of a fun game/activity you could do with a small group that’s just sitting around, hanging out and it’s called First/Last/Best/Worst. This comes from Matthew Dicks book Stories Sell: Strategies to Grow Your Business and Brand which is a great book if you want to tell better stories in your talks or preaching.
Pick a mid topic like cereal and students would respond with The First Cereal they remember eating, The Last Cereal they remember eating, The Best Cereal they remember eating and The Worst Cereal they remember eating. This will surely lead to getting to know students much better.
Just for you,
My first cereal: Captain Crunch
My last cereal: Cheerios
The Best Cereal: Lucky Charms
The Worst Cereal: Grape Nuts
Hit me back with your list!
Stay away from words that would be too personal such as Kiss, Date, etc.
Let your team see you model relational ministry from casual conversations to caring about their day/life to offering to pray with students.
And if your adult leaders feel overwhelmed by the size of the group, remind them — just focus on one or two students. Discipleship always starts small.
As the year begins to wind down and you evaluate your youth ministry and yourself, ask yourself, "Did I get the help I needed to become the best youth pastor I could be?" If the answer is no, maybe it's time to think about coaching.