Leadership in Action - 'Tribes' Review pt. 6

"Find leaders (the ones that are doing things differently and making change) and then amplify their work, give them a platform, and help them find followers - and things get better."  

This quote from Seth Godin has caused me to question how I use the volunteer staff in our youth ministry.  Am I amplifying their work?  Or giving them the appropriate platform to lead from?  Probably not.  But I want to.  I don't want to be in control of every little detail...I'll go crazy and I'll suffocate the volunteer staff that I work with.  But the tendency in contexts like youth ministry is to let the pastor decide everything, or at least have him sign off on everything.  Either way, there is a better way to lead the volunteer staff and it starts with a change in how I operate.

As the youth pastor I need to understand that a majority of my job is to equip and empower our volunteers to do ministry.  Not to be my little minions, but to have the freedom to use their God given skills and talents to minister to the students of our community.  And if leading the volunteer staff is a majority of my job then that should be reflected in how much time I spend with them.  Right now, that's not the case.  We don't have regular get together's, I don't have scheduled one on one time with any of them, I don't have training materials that I'm giving them, and I'm not spending  much of my time improving in this area.

Here's the kicker, I've known that this has been a weakness of mine for over a year, yet I'm still here, talking about how it's a weakness.  That's pathetic.

So I guess I'm writing this as part confessional and part plan of action.  I want to change this weakness into a strength.  I want the volunteer staff to have their skills and talents amplified, I want them to be free to minister to our students in the ways they know best, I want them to be an integral part of where the ministry is heading, and I want them to be free to run with their ideas without having to run every single thing by me.

Here is my plan of action:

• Meet with my volunteer staff individually to:
• get their honest assessment of where the ministry is
• find out how I can better equip them to do ministry
• to discuss how I can empower them to lead
• Compile all the responses to determine where we are and what we need to fix/change
• Meet with everyone as a group to determine the process of implementing the changes
• Adjust on the fly and be committed to making this weakness a strength
• I want to be implementing the changes in our ministry by this fall

Those are my goals.

We can't let fear of change, or fear of failure, keep us from progressing and improving.

How would amplifying and empowering your team improve your ministry?