Home Youth Leaders Articles for Youth Leaders Why You Should Address Risky Behavior on Your Team

Why You Should Address Risky Behavior on Your Team

It’s not just our students who demonstrate risky behavior. We see it with the volunteers and leaders in our youth ministries as well sometimes.

They’ll post a pic on Facebook that goes a little too far, send a tweet that’s a little too flirty, spend a little too much time with a particularly attractive student or drink a little bit to much at a social gathering. Risky behavior. What do you do as a youth leader if you witness this in your youth ministry team?

If you are anything like me, addressing these kind of issues with your team members doesn’t come easy. There are many reasons we tell ourselves to not talk about it, to try and ignore it, or to wait.

It’s not so bad, I’m just being over sensitive.

She would never do anything really wrong, she’s just being playful.

It’s just a small error in judgment, that’s all.

It would be really awkward if I had to tell him to stop doing this.

He’s the pastor’s son, I can’t call him on this.

She’s going through a rough time, I need to cut her some slack.

He’s a godly man, I’m sure God will convince him if he’s doing anything wrong.

It would communicate real distrust if I would bring this up.

And the list goes on…sounds familiar? It is really tough to address risky behavior we witness in our team, but it’s a necessity nonetheless. Sure, if it’s really a one-time slip, you can let it go. We all make mistakes and there should be room for failure. But is it really a one-time deal? Or is there a pattern forming?

We can tell ourselves a million times that it’s not that bad, but in my opinion if it’s worth worrying about, it really is that bad. You don’t need to judge, you don’t need to make it bigger than it is, but if you are uneasy about a team member’s behavior, you need to take action.