Empowering Youth Ministry Leaders: 5 Reasons To Skip an Event

Need tips for empowering youth ministry leaders? Want to give volunteers (and youth!) more ownership in the program? Read on for surprising yet valuable ministry advice.

I’m four months into my role as youth pastor at a new-to-me church. And I’ve already missed a youth activity. I don’t mean I forgot to go. Instead, I purposely skipped the event to spend time with my family.

When I started this position, I told myself I’d do this very thing. In youth ministry, we talk about the need to empower other people to lead, disciple, and serve.

So my intention was always to raise up leaders (adults and teens) and then begin skipping activities. After all, delegating involves “creating holes” to allow leadership to emerge!

5 Tips for Empowering Youth Ministry Leaders

Here is what I’m learning this time around…

1. Giving control to another person is tough.

First please realize this… No matter if you intend to or not, giving up power is a practice in humility and vulnerability. It requires you to come face to face with the reality that others can do what you do. And they can probably do it better than you (because they are gifted and called to do it).

Sharing the responsibility also pushes you to open yourself up and confess that you need others. For me, that doesn’t come easily.

2. You will never find a good time to start.

I didn’t expect to be skipping a youth event this early. My timetable was a year. God’s timetable was dramatically different. Yet when you know that someone or some group is ready to lead, you just have to create a hole and see what happens.

3. Empowering youth ministry leaders helps them feel valued.

When you skip out as the leader, you’re communicating trust to your co-leaders. That translates into value and reinforces a culture of respect for your team and eventually the whole youth group.

4. Stay invested and interested in the activity.

Next up: Remember a key distinction. You can’t skip out on an insignificant event like cleaning up the youth room and then expect people to feel valued and empowered to lead. You need to give up something that is important to the mission of your youth ministry. It will make failure more costly and success more rewarding.