I realized too late that we were short one youth leader for our female students at youth group. I made a scheduling error for the leaders and as I was teaching the lesson I noticed we had no one to lead the middle school girls breakout group. Now, as much as I love them and want to see them grow, I don’t think I’m a particularly gifted discussion group leader to twelve-year-old girls! This is the reason I have a team to begin with.
Youth ministry requires a team. It is impossible to pastor middle schoolers, high schoolers, girls, boys, and their parents alone. But, your time is limited, you’re stretched thin, and finding the time to recruit, organize, and it might seem that training will take away time from the students you’re called to serve. To the contrary, investing in a team will mean the ministry has more hands to serve more students, meet more needs, and equip students to know Christ. In fact, Jesus himself invested in equipping others to join him in ministry (Mark 6:7-13; Luke 10:1-24). Following, I offer some categories for building youth teams that push the ministry forward for the sake of God’s glory.
Recruiting Leaders
Building a team starts with recruitment. Start with prayer and input from church leadership. Take some time and ask church leadership to pray alongside you for wisdom about potential leaders. Then, ask for input from them regarding who they think God could be calling to serve, and if they have any concerns regarding the people you are considering. Once you’ve built a collaborative list, start recruiting!
As you begin recruiting, it’s essential to have a clear pitch regarding the ministry vision, their personal fit and expectation, and the length of the commitment when you ask a potential youth leader to pray about serving. Have a philosophy of ministry document that you can share with potential leaders showing them what the goals of the ministry are to ensure alignment between you and the potential leader.
If you don’t have a written philosophy of ministry, it’s worth it to pursue one in collaboration with church leadership, if not for leadership recruiting, then simply to help you stay on mission by referring back to it. Answer questions like these proactively in recruitment: What is the length of the commitment? How many events does the leader need to attend? What age group will they be working with? How do you see a potential leader’s gifting playing out for the benefit of the students spiritual growth?
I usually begin by asking a potential leader if they’re interested in serving on the team. Before I lay out every expectation or commitment I want to ensure there is a desire to serve the church and the students. If they’re interested, then a phone call or coffee meeting takes place to discuss the philosophy of ministry and the expectations. It’s important to remember that you value their potential service because of who they are, not because of what they can do for you. So, be flexible if they are eager to serve but need some accommodations with time or aren’t able to contribute as much as you hope. It’s always better to have the right team and work out the logistics later instead of saying no to someone who will be a blessing to your students for the glory of God!
Equipping Leaders
Once your team is in place, embrace the biblical exhortation to invest in them! One of the minister’s callings from God is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:11-13). Don’t burn leaders out on busy work or unnecessary hurdles; serving in youth ministry ought to make them more godly than before they began. Further, the more spiritual investment they receive, the more they are able to pass that investment onto the ministry for God’s glory (2 Tim. 2:2).
First, invest in a regular meeting time to meet as an entire team. Don’t prioritize youth group logistics during this time, although you’ll be tempted to do so constantly. Prioritize prayer for the students and celebrating the good things you’ve seen happen in the ministry first. Then make the time an investment in your leaders.
One trap here is pushing for youth ministry specific investment exclusively. Yes, we want to equip the team to face the specific challenges of youth ministry, but your leaders are also Christians trying to grow in godliness. If your budget allows, buy them all a book on prayer or Bible reading and spend your time in that meeting reviewing it together. Teach them how to write testimonies and take turns sharing them during the meeting. Real investment in your leaders is investment in them, not just investment in youth ministry competencies. After all that, then take the necessary time to discuss current ministry needs.
Second, invest in the specific youth ministry passions your leaders have. If a leader wants to take a group of girls aside for discipleship, consider how you can equip her to make that pursuit seamless? Maybe she needs resources or guidance on who to disciple. Or perhaps she has questions about how to handle a relational dynamic. That leader can often do more for those girls spiritual lives than you ever could. It’s absolutely a part of your job description to invest in opportunities your leaders want to create to disciple students. In doing so, you’ll help create a culture and environment where leaders can boldly pursue their passion to serve. Further, the reality is no youth leader stays forever. If their time on your team has equipped them to serve somewhere else in the church then you can rejoice at how God is providing for your local body.
Valuing Leaders
We know that youth ministry is one of the most rewarding endeavors God could call us to. Even so, it’s important that we express gratitude for the massive investment it is to serve in the ministry. If you are offered a budget, prioritize taking the team out for dinner and ice cream every semester as a thank you (I do mini-golf). Or, a simple potluck can do the trick! Handwritten thank you notes with a gift card for Christmas and a constant commitment to recognizing them publicly for the work they do (Rom. 13:7) can often reflect more leadership principles than any meeting agenda or discipleship plan can!
Following the Great Leader
Most importantly, don’t lose sight of who the real leader is. We don’t ultimately build up leaders so that our students have more adults to look up to and learn from. Instead, we build up leaders so that we have more people pointing students to the true and perfect leader in Christ Jesus. We want more godly leaders who can invest not just in a ministry, but in eternity! We invest in training leaders because we want to invest in the kingdom of Christ built on his beautiful work on the cross. And youth minister, Christ himself built a team during his earthly ministry. By pursuing leadership training, you will find yourself pursuing Christ and trying to imitate your Savior for his glory, praise God!
We hope you’ll join us at the 2025 Rooted Conference in Chicago, Illinois October 23-25 for more gospel-centered equipping for youth and family ministry.
