A few ideas from A-Z. Add your own as a comment!

A – Acting class, Art show, visit an Antiques Shop

B – beach party, bazaar, bulletin board

C – Chatroom (mlrc, msn), attend a Creative workshop

D – Dialogue nights, Dragon Boat races

E – Exhibition, educational show

F – Food

G – Giving Tree

H – Home (help) visits

I – Internet Café, icebreakers

J – Job hunt

K- Kayaking, Kite-flying, Karaoke

L- lock-in, LAN parties

M – Marathon, Music event, murder mystery party

N – Night out

O- Organic Food Tasting, Open Discussion

P – Pasta night

Q – Question and Answers

R – Retreat, religious event

S – Service, Swimming, Salsa

T – Tourist for a day, Temple visit

U – Understanding

V – Volunteering

W – Walkathons, Websites, Wilderness walks

X- X marks the spot – Treasure Hunt / Scavenger Hunts!

Y – Youth bulletin board

Z – Zoo trips, Zany–do (hair-do) days

Add your own as comments…

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As your volunteers learn and grow, they will begin to exhibit characteristics that will identify them as effective volunteers. While not an exhaustive list, the following characteristics are the kinds of traits you want to see in your volunteer team:

• Good listening skills
• Empathy for teen perspectives on life
• Enjoyment of working with other teenagers
• Solid spiritual, emotional, and relational foundations in their own lives
• Patient, flexible, and affirming
• Perseverent
• Principled, but not judgmental
• Good relational skills
• A sense of humor
• Dependable

Set specific standards for leaders in your youth ministry. While your staff can be made up of people with various gifts, abilities, and personality styles, it shouldn’t be open to just anyone. The quality of your ministry will depend upon your ability to develop, articulate, and positively enforce your standards for what constitutes a qualified youth leader.

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To “vet” is to make a careful examination of something or someone. When it comes to finding youth ministry volunteers you need to both vet your program as well as your prospective volunteers. It also makes a handy acronym for three crucial components of working with volunteers in youth ministry:

Vision
Expectations
Training

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Vision: Have a vision for your youth Ministry.

People are best recruited to a vision, not just a job. Help your prospective volunteers to see their responsibilities as a means to an end, not an end in themselves. Help them to see that they are a meaningful part of a team that is fulfilling Gods purpose among your youth. What you are excited about in your youth ministry that you can share with potential volunteers. What are the benefits and “payoffs” you can share? Present your vision of youth ministry and why volunteer leaders are needed in fulfilling that dream.

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Expectations: Clearly outline your expectations.

• Be honest about what you expect, about time demands, and responsibilities. While we often want leaders badly, we should not minimize the responsibilities. Trust that God will provide people who will be able to rise to the needs of the ministry.
• Create a variety of positions and roles to match the needs of your ministry with the variety of gifts, talents, and interests of volunteers and considering the amount of time each volunteer has to offer.
• Make a list of all tasks that need to be done to achieve a successful youth program, regardless of the size of the task or the significance along with the time required for each to be accomplished.
• Prioritize – rate them according to importance and whether they are required or optional. Some tasks may be ad hoc and other tasks may require someone to fill a position for a predetermined length of time in order to fulfill them.
• Develop job descriptions for your leaders that summarize expectations and provide estimates of how much time it will take to fulfill their particular responsibilities.
• Make a list of those ad hoc, or event specific roles that could be handled without a long term commitment. Those who cannot commit to long term service might be able to take on a specific event, project or task on an ad hoc basis.

Be clear about what kinds of people you are looking for. The old acronym F.A.T. suggest that you should look for people who are:

Faithful
Available
Teachable

It is important that they are faithful both to Christ and to the youth ministry. They need to be available and ready to commit a portion of their availability to the youth ministry. And finally, they need to have a teachable spirit. They should see themselves as both teacher and student, leader and follower.

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Train, Nurture, and Support

Adequately prepare your new volunteers for service and then continue to train them and provide a supportive and nurturing environment.

• I DO -YOU WATCH
  (Observed leadership)
• I DO – YOU DO
  (Shared leadership)
• YOU DO – I WATCH
  (Trained leadership)
• YOU DO – I GO DO SOMETHING ELSE
  (Owned Leadership)

This model requires time to train and develop your volunteers. It also needs to me personalized for each volunteer as they each will need varying amounts of time to work through the process based upon experience, gifts, and familiarity with the youth and youth program. Some can move to owned leadership in a relatively short time, while others will take much longer. Be patient. As long as there is a love for youth, it is worth the efforts to nurture them in this journey! There are also many good volunteers who have no desire to function at the owned leadership level. Remember that training is not just dispensing information to a group of people; it’s helping people to develop into servants who are more effective in their ministry with youth.

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Insecurity
We may feel like we are imposing on others, or that others might think we are less than capable if we ask for help.

Lone Rangers Mentality
Remember, even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. It takes work to recruit, develop, and train and maintain a healthy volunteer team. Sometimes it seems easier to simply do things ourselves. As it says in Ephesians 4:11-12, the job of a leader in the Church is to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry”. The word “equip” means “to make strong, ready, and prepared for action”. Its out job, not just to do by example, but also to equip.

Control
We have less control when we give it away to others. Our youth ministry volunteers may not do the job the same way we would do it. It may be done differently, or not as well as we would do it–but it may be done even better! The best Youth leaders don’t demand carbon copies of themselves, but instead develop the unique gifts and talents of their volunteers to their fullest potential in ministering to the youth they serve.

Role Confusion
Volunteers need guidance and more importantly support until they learn the ropes. They will have a lot of uncertainty and need a lot of encouragement. Their expectations of results can be unrealistic and they may doubt their gifts and their ability to serve the youth. Clear expectations, procedures and systems for handling common issues, and carefully defined roles go along way toward helping to alleviate their uncertainty.

Shortsightedness
It may seem easier to do it ourselves, rather than hassle with finding leaders, training them, supervising them, etc. But if we don’t, we’re virtually guaranteeing ourselves a short-lived ministry. We’ll just burn out.

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• They can develop relationships with kids that you would not be able to reach on your own.
• They can model a variety of personality styles and expressions of faith and devotion to God for your youth.
• They can reveal the biblical model for team ministry. Although Jesus’ mission was to reach out to all people, he spent the majority of his time with his twelve disciples.
• They will energize and motivate one another.
• You will be encouraged both by the tasks your volunteers accomplish and the personal support they can provide.

Have you experienced other benefits? If so add a comment with your own observations…

Get Help on Your Youth Sermons

Creative Sermon Ideas
This 100 Page e-Book Includes All The Help You Need To Prepare Powerful, Life-Changing Youth Sermons That Will Turn Your Preaching Around And Make Your Youth Sit Up And Listen! Includes 7 Complete Sermons.
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Should you involve volunteers in youth ministry?

Are you doing the work of ministry to youth by yourself or do you involve others? And what roles do you delegate to others? One of the common misconceptions is that you involve others to do those jobs that you don’t like to do – as a chance to lighten your workload of the meaningless and time consuming tasks so that you can focus on the REAL ministry! This is a big mistake!

1. You need to involve volunteers in meaningful ministry opportunities!
2. It’s likely that involving others will take as much time, if not more time, rather than less time.

So why involve others?

Today’s youth are multi-faceted, and come from a variety of backgrounds, family situations, and personal experiences. They have numerous interests and a wide range of needs. To meet these diverse needs and engage the varied interests of youth, you need a team of volunteers with multiple gifts, of various personality types, and with diverse life experiences — all with a common love for God and youth. A successful youth ministry helps teens by building relationships with caring, growing Christians who can share God’s love with them.

Too often we think that since we are the youth minister, we have to be the leader and do everything ourselves. Many churches have the same idea – that they hire a youth minister to take care of their youth with the expectation that he will do everything needed.

Moses had the same misconception. You can find him struggling with this same issue in Numbers 11:10-17. He complained to God because he felt overwhelmed with the responsibility of leading God’s people. The work was never ending and the time was never enough! It seemed his position demanded more than he had to give. If you have been in youth ministry for any period of time, you know how he was feeling!

Moses asked the LORD, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant… If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now…”

In Exodus 18:18-23, Jethro, the father in law of Moses” went to him and said, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. ..Select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men… —and appoint them over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens…That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”

The needs in your ministry, no matter what size your group, will always exceed your ability to meet those needs. Our first reliance should be upon God’s provision. But it should not stop there…we need to involve others in meaningful ministry as well.

When you share the burden with others your load may not be lightened, but your ministry WILL be multiplied.

Get Help on Your Youth Sermons

Creative Sermon Ideas
This 100 Page e-Book Includes All The Help You Need To Prepare Powerful, Life-Changing Youth Sermons That Will Turn Your Preaching Around And Make Your Youth Sit Up And Listen! Includes 7 Complete Sermons.
–> I want More Youth Sermon Ideas…