Life of a youth pastor .

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I wrote the email, but they will never know.

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This week my inbox continues to receive a handful of the same looking emails… and they are all from my small group leaders. It could be surprising, but it’s not, I planned for this to happen.

Partnering with parents can sometimes feel unreachable, but it’s just like anything else we do, if it seems unreachable perhaps we haven’t reached for it yet. I focus my small group strategy by always training with a weekly WIN for my small group leaders. When they walk in the door for the leaders meeting they see the WIN on the board and the WIN was emailed to them earlier in the week. I make sure my WIN(s) revolve around the subjects found in the book Lead Small. This ensures I don’t forget anything that could reinforce our strategy when training and equipping leaders.

This year the bulk of my WINs will revolve around partnering with parents. If you don’t know why that’s important or how critical it can be, perhaps I can convince you. A mom of high school student recently said to me, [Read more…]

#winning

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When your leaders win, you win. When you win, your church wins.

You want your leaders to feel like winners don’t you? They work with students every week for months and sometimes years at a time. This can be discouraging and feel more like a weekly task rather than an eternal investment. I want my leaders to feel like they have won each week. To do this I have developed a WIN calendar for them. Each week the WIN is a little bit different, they are made aware of the WIN earlier in the week through an email or our app. During our meeting (pre-game show) we discuss the WIN for the week and why it’s important.

Do you give your leaders a tangible WIN each week? Here are a few WINs that I rotate through:

  • Make contact with the parents, ask how you can be praying for them.
  • Attend your students lunch or extra-curricular activity.
  • Throw a small group party.
  • Tell a student how much you care about them.
  • Send an email home reminding parents of upcoming events.
  • Talk about camp in small group and how to sign up.

These wins are much more effective in and through small groups, more than they ever would be from the stage.

“Did I win?”

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Believe it or not, your small group leaders ask this very question every single week. Often a small group will end with your leader feeling frustrated or defeated because they couldn’t get through all their questions or even end with a prayer because someone was laughing, the juicy gossip was flowing, or simply no one wanted to talk. The small group leader walks away feeling like they lost. The feeling of defeat is the last thing we want our leaders to experience.

It’s playoff season in the NBA and everyone wants to win. My favorite basketball games are the ones that are point for point back and forth across the court with only seconds to spare. Almost every team has the same end game in mind when mere seconds are left…do whatever it takes to get the ball in the hands of the best player to take the shot before the buzzer. There is not a doubt in that player’s mind – this shot will win or lose the game.

As a leader of leaders, it’s my job to set my small group leaders up for the game winning shot. As time dwindles on the clock in small group, our leaders need to know how to take the game winning shot. The win for a small group leader needs to be clearly defined each week.

If we want our small group leaders to walk away feeling as if they won, we need to set them up for the win. Tomorrow I will share some wins with you that I have implemented for my ministry. #winning!