One of the earliest things I learned about ministry is that if you do not take initiative, you will fail.  While there are ministry responsibilities that must be accomplished, there is also a good bit of time where you must use your time wisely.  Whether it is getting a jump on a future talk, visiting a school, or communicating with parents, there are always things that need to be done.  Sometimes I feel like seminaries should offer time management seminars to prepare future ministers for the immense demands on their schedules.  The truth is that the minister’s work is never done.  Usually there is more to be done than can be done.  This can be tough if you are a personality like mine where you want to do it all but simply run out of time and energy to accomplish everything.  Something that helps me to reconcile this is to think about why I am not accomplishing all that I need to accomplish.  Here are the reasons that I have found cause us to feel like we are not doing enough:

1. We are not working hard enough.  Let’s be honest, sometimes we can just be plain lazy.  Maybe we are just coasting through because we think we have it all figured out.  Maybe we feel like we deserve to slow down a bit after a crazy season of ministry.  The problem is that because there is always something to be done, we must find ways to continually expand our ministry impact.  It drives me crazy when ministers fail to respect the position that they have been given.  Ministers must be professional and diligent in our work ethic if we are to maintain the standards set forth for our office.

2. We are trying to do too much on our own.  I confess to doing this so often.  Sometimes I feel like I cannot get to the important stuff because I am stuck doing the busy work.  The truth is that if I had leaned on a ministry team, I would not be running around last-minute to get cups because they could have been picked up.  Over the past year I have realized just how many things I should actually be able to delegate to small group leaders or to volunteers.  I would love to have more time to dream and to get creative, but so often I am exhausted from getting all of the little things done like fueling the vans.  Allowing others to do ministry alongside you allows you to do more ministry.

3. We are doing pointless things.  We are all stewards of our time.  We must decide how to use it and how to prioritize the things we do.  As a result, we must also take some time every now and then and think about whether we are actually doing the things that will have the most impact.  I have spoken with student ministers who use 16 hours a week to prepare their talk on Wednesday nights.  That seems unbalanced.  Other ministers I know spend the majority of the time on a program that has terrible attendance, but it is part of church tradition.  It is so important to make sure that you are making the maximum impact that you can make.  Truthfully, a quick lunch with a student may make more of an impact than twenty Wed. night talks.  I tried to make a list of everything I did throughout a whole week.  When I looked at the list, I realized that I was spending too much time keeping one program working so I purchased a curriculum that cut my work on that program down by 75%.  Now I have more time to write thank you notes or hang out with students after school.

4. We don’t plan ahead.  I actually love to make the calendar for the year.  I love looking at the blank squares and seeing them come to life with activities and teaching topics.  I do this because I understand that if I can plan June in December, I will be saved from running around like a headless chicken when June comes along.  Planning ahead allows us to have a distinct advantage of getting our tasks accomplished because we have the time to think about all that is involved.  Planning ahead also allows us to get people into place that can help make the event or program happen.  We did so much planning ahead this year for our Fall Retreat that I actually got nervous the day before because everything was done and that seemed impossible the first year that we did the retreat.

In college I worked at a camp where I had to use every bit of energy that I had each day.  The last bit of life I had in me was that which allowed me to lay my head on my pillow.  I was exhausted, but I was also proud of the fact that I left nothing on the field that day.  I try to have those kinds of days in my current job.  I want to leave the office with no regrets.  I want to feel good about taking that day off because I maximized my ministry time and was able to accomplish all that I could possible accomplish.  I hope that is your goal as well.  Your church and the Kingdom of God will be better off for it.

One of the unexpected blessings of this past year has been the opportunity to spend time with other youth ministers in our area.  It’s unexpected because I would not have guessed that it would make such a huge impact on my own approach and understanding of ministry.  I have gained so much from spending time with my fellow ministers.

Truthfully, the idea to get the network going came out of my own shortcomings.  I was noticing that I had a hard heart towards many of the other local youth workers.  When their programs out shined mine or when I lost students to their ministry, I sat in judgment rather than celebration that the Kingdom of God was increasing.  As I recognized this dark place in my heart, I knew that the only way to resolve it was to open the doors of relationship with these men and women who were, after all, trying to accomplish the same goals that I was.  All it took was a few phone calls to recognize that restarting the network was something that resonated with all of the other youth workers in our area.

The previous network failed primarily because it was not built on relationships.  It was more informational or sales oriented.  With this in mind, we have tried to keep our meetings agenda free where we can discuss ministry and life in an organic way.  Over the past year we have become more comfortable with one another.  We have also gained more respect for one another.  Great evidence of this is that we are developing an unwritten rule that calls us to communicate with other ministers if a student comes to our church from theirs.  Imagine the benefit this brings as we seek to help the student down the journey of faith.

Over the course of the last year I have received ideas, encouragement, ministry opportunities, and friendship from our ministry network.  It continues to amaze me how easily things came together after just a few phone calls.  God has blessed our fellowship as we seek to work together to reach the students of our communities.  If you have not found a network of ministers in your area, maybe it is up to you get the ball rolling.  I guarantee that it may be one of the most beneficial things that you do in ministry.

This summer my group and I were preparing to make the long trek back to our rooms when I spotted one of my biggest pet peeves in the world: the irresponsible youth minister.  He had chosen to demonstrate his unprofessionalism by jamming nine of his students in an SUV and then topped it off by riding on top of the vehicle with his legs hanging in the sun roof.  I did not hear any ambulances in the next few minutes so I assume that he made it down the incredibly steep mountain just fine, but damage was still done.

There is a difficult balance that all student ministers must manage.  We want to be cool, hip, and laid back.  However, we also want to be respected and trusted.  Unfortunately, in trying to develop our appeal to our students, we tend to lose our influence with the parents and church leadership.  The sad part is that our lack of professionalism so often diminishes our effectiveness in ministry.  When it comes to acting professionally in ministry, here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Being young is not an excuse.  This is the regular excuse that is offered for why youth ministers tend to do really stupid things.  I’m not sure why this would work in our ministry context when it would never fly in most professional careers.  Imagine if a young doctor or young accountant showed up whenever he or she wanted to.  Imagine if they were the people doing wild and crazy things in the office during business hours or in staff meetings.  How long would they have a job?  Why is our standard for accountants, store managers, or lawyers higher than our standard for ministers?

2. Being a minister means setting an example.  In addition to the fact that you are teaching and living out the gospel, you are also setting an example for your students.  You are responsible for showing your students what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus.  This means that you must have personal standards that reflect faith in Christ.  It also means understanding that students are always watching you whether you are online or at a football game.

3. Just because you work with teenagers does not mean that you need to act like one.  Again, there is a difficult balance when it comes to working with teenagers.  I love to do some of the things that my students do like go to high school football games or play Call of Duty online.  I also realize that things that teenagers like to do such as pranks, breaking traffic laws, and listening to profane music are pretty much off-limits if I want to have influence.

4. Ministry jobs are actual jobs.  If you want to get paid and desire job security, it would probably be great to complete your job related tasks.  While ministry means hanging out and preaching the gospel, it also means planning, paperwork, and communicating.  If you don’t want to work in an office, become a volunteer.  I get so tired of hearing about youth ministers who are the class clowns of their church staffs.  Wouldn’t it be great if the student minister was the most organized one on staff?  Let’s raise the bar a little bit.

When I was in high school, dating and church seemed to go right together.  During my junior and senior year, our youth group was essentially a spin off of the show Friends with everybody having dated everybody at some point.  There were more love triangles on our trips than there were Bibles.  This type of thing was never really encouraged, but I can’t really recall anyone ever addressing it either.  Unfortunately, this prevalence of relationships most often resulted in drama and pain rather than spiritual growth and community.

When I came to Bluegrass, I hoped that we might be able to avoid this pitfall.  Fortunately, we have not really had this issue.  I’d like to think that it is somewhat due to my efforts in helping students acquire a healthy perspective on dating.  It’s not that I think dating is evil, I simply find it to be unwise if the couple fails to keep their relationship in perspective.

If you ask many of our students what I think about dating in middle school and high school, they will likely say that I think it is kind of stupid.  And I do.  Besides the fact that only about 0.1% of the high school couples will get married, I also think that dating has the ability to take over a kid’s life, lead them into temptations, and skew their future relationships.

Romantic relationships, particularly within the church group, also create a whole new avenue for drama.  Recently we had a guy who just sat by himself in the corner for a whole night refusing to be a part of the group.  Turns out one of the girls in the group decided to stop texting him that day.  Having experienced what I have and having seen what I have, when dating does arise in our group, I have a simple guideline that I ask to be followed.  I ask that if a romantic couple forms in our group, that they would meet with me for a quick ten minutes so I that I can remind them of a few things such as:

• Church events are not dates.
• Physical contact and church events don’t really go together.
• They are responsible for not letting this relationship cause drama while they are together or when they break up.
• I expect them to be able to act as independent people in separate groups and at events when necessary.
• They are not married, nor should they act as if that is the case.
• I want them to make wise choices when they are together and always honor their parents’ wishes in their relationships.