Leading a preteen ministry team takes special know-how. Preteens are a valuable part of the church, and so are the people who serve them! Learn more about leading a preteen ministry team well.
Many books, conferences, and articles address the topic of leadership. One top leadership expert is John Maxwell. He served as a pastor for years and focused much effort on building his leadership team. And that helped take his church to the next level. I’ve read several of his books and implemented many of his leadership principles. We all can learn a lot from Maxwell.
Recently I had lunch with Greg Baird, who served as a children’s pastor at Skyline, the church that John Maxwell led. While surrounded by a highly effective leadership culture, Greg had the awesome opportunity to receive mentoring from Maxwell.
At a young age, Greg was exposed to great leaders and implemented leadership principles into his children’s ministry. He soaked up principles that are taught at executive levels throughout the world. As a result, Greg’s leadership reach has flourished.
After meeting with Greg, I pondered leadership development for preteen youth workers. What’s unique about building and leading a preteen ministry team? A lot of leadership is the same, whether you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or you lead tweens. But some principles are unique to leading preteens.
3 Tips for Leading a Preteen Ministry Team
1. Recruit long-term volunteers.
Avoid recruiting leaders who serve once a month or one month on, one month off. Preteens need to build relationships with leaders. They need leaders who understand relational ministry. The more consistent your team, the more effective you become. You can get away with more of a rotation schedule with younger kids, but not with preteens.
I recommend asking leaders to serve one service every week. Another option is to ask leaders for a nine-month commitment and give them the summer off. Recruit a summer team who can give relief to the school-year team.
