There are several reasons for addressing risky behavior in your youth ministry team:
You need to protect your students
If one of your volunteers is crossing the line of respectable or even appropriate behavior, you need to protect your students above all else. They don’t need another bad example and they certainly don’t need to become involved in this risky behavior with all possible damaging consequences.
You need to protect your youth ministry
Risky behavior often comes at a price for your youth ministry. It may not do so much damage at first, but when left unaddressed it can have a big impact. If you allow one person to get away with breaking your code of conduct, how can you address other issues in the future? What message is the acceptance of this risky behavior sending to your students, their parents and other youth leaders? I know for instance of youth leaders who quit because they could not in good conscience represent a youth ministry that tolerated certain risky behavior.
You need to protect your volunteer or leader
If you are sure that your volunteer or leader is showing signs of a pattern of risky behavior, you owe it to them to address it. You need to protect them from themselves. It’s not a guarantee that they’ll listen, take you seriously or actually change your behavior, but you need to try. When left unaddressed, these issues can quickly grown into far more dangerous behavior with possible lasting consequences on the live of the person involved and those around him or her. Do not underestimate what you see happening. Every scandal we read about in the newspaper starts with ‘small’ risky behavior. Help break the pattern before it’s too late.
Do you find it hard to address risky behavior in your youth ministry team? How do you go about it?
