Hey everybody, welcome back to episode three or 12 or whatever it is, but this is the episode for the booster roadmap when we talked about development and youth ministry, and so this is your first time getting in. You need to rewind the clock a little bit. You've got to catch 1:10 about discovery and 1:11 about buildings because it's not going to make any sense if you're jumping in. The middle is. This is the third part of a five part series that we're calling the youth ministry roadmap, so here at y and B, we are all about helping healthy youth workers, healthy youth pastors put their hard work, the most meaningful experience in their ministry that they can. And for us that's all about the roadmap. So today, but my buddy Chad[inaudible], and then we're going to talk about what it means to develop your youth ministry to develop your youth ministry. Chad catches up a little bit, the last few episodes, talked about what it means to discover, to build and then walk us in today on how development is a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. You know, as we've talked about, right, with this discovery phase, we're asking all these questions building phase, right? I think a lot of times where you think of student ministry, we'll often think of this building phase, right? Like creating new things, getting things going. It's, it's the like week to week of students ministry, right? And there's a lot of different things that you're going to build, right? One of the first things that we'd really encourage all of our listeners to build, and hopefully you've thought through this, is that kind of mission vision strategy of your student ministry. So if you haven't built that yet, that would be one thing that we really, really want to encourage you to do, right? To take these questions that you've, that you've got to begin to build it and that's going to be so, so crucial as we start thinking about this development phase. Right? And so the first question that I'm going to ask you, Zach, and we'll talk about a little bit, is how specifically is the development phase different than the chat? Like, this is kind of the turning point, I think for a lot of folks that maybe heard the first two sessions, they were like, yeah, these guys are great. It's on board. You know, I get in there, I have my interview, I asked questions, who is the church, what do they want, how can I succeed, and then they just get off the building and I think that's great. The problem is they never stopped building. I think for a lot of our friends in youth ministry, it's all about what's next, what's new, what's the innovation, what's the tech, what's the hack, what's the way to get more or this or have or do, and an encouragement and maybe even in our tone if we could just share, if you are in the development phase, if you built everything in that first year ish in ministry or in the new place that you're serving, take a pause and find a way to step back and I think that is the fundamental difference between build and development is the building phase is the constant kind of frenetic, frantic. I gotta get it done. What's next? We're going to be this teaching series, this next event, and that's why I think it takes a year. You've got to live that full year of ministry from camp to camp from January to January, and then only then after you've kind of lived that full year. Can you begin to step back and say
Speaker 2:what's most important?
Speaker 1:What are the things that we are doing that matter the most? What are the things that I can do and refine and without changing everything began to find key processes, key areas to fine tune and develop. Because after a year's worth, hopefully there's enough track laid on the rail that you can, you know, have a teaching series or weekly program, uh, you know, week to week, month to month, or maybe you have at least enough adult leaders that you feel like that you have some basis covered, but you wish they had more training. Or you've got some leaders in the ranks of your students that seem to kind of stand out, but you want to know what to do with them. And that's where I think this development phase for us as a way for us to kind of tackle these individual processes that contribute to the whole, I think builders are swinging with both hands, you know, it's hammer in one hand and it's glue gun and the other. I think the development phase is standing back and beginning to Chisel, beginning to examine, beginning to evaluate because everything is going to happen, but now how does it happen? Well, and how does it happen in a way that contributes to making that vision flourish and fulfill? Absolutely.
Speaker 2:When I think of this process, one of the things that pops into my mind is the difference between working a in your ministry and working on your ministry. Right? Do you say say more about that. I think that's a really key kind of distinction for a lot of sense. I think a lot of times when we think of the building phase, we're working inside of our ministry, right? It's the week to week stuff that we're doing, right? We're riding the sermon, we're, we're planning for the next event and and, and hear, hear me, and this is sometimes just changing an event from year to year is not actually development, right? A lot of times it's just rebuilding, right? That you're doing the same thing over and over again, and even though you may walk away from that event and go, okay, that was bad. We won't ever do that again. Right. Rappelling off the side of the church. Bad idea. We won't do that again. Right? Got It. Yeah, but that's not really development, right? Development is that working on your ministry, right? Not necessarily the inside. So it's taken the step back, right? You're more in some of that administrative role. You're in that management role of creating the system, right. That everything works into and so not only are you looking at that event and going, okay, that was a fun event, right? Because there can be a lot of fun events. You may throw an event or a series that you're like, man, that was awesome. Right? But if we step back and we look at it and we start to examine and go, that wasn't of this bigger system and what we're trying to do, it misses the mark. And so a lot of times we're taking things that are almost there. Right? And really going, okay,
Speaker 1:what, what is this doing for the overall vision of where we're going? Well, I think the real key difference here, maybe in kind of a visual way is this the move from having a task list to a goal, like what are the things that I have to get done and one of the things I wish I could get done, and if you never have enough time to move from task to goal, then you've got to find a way and that that maybe that's your first goal, is we're doing too much and you just start hacking and slashing and say it. I have no time to actually work on it because here this friend, if you have no time to work on your ministry, it's never going to get better. It's only gonna get better. If you create enough space for you to stand back with, this is the, um, the great author that has this line about porch time versus workshop time and if you are always in the workshop, you can never stand on the porch to see some of the things that you've made. And I think for a lot of our listeners that are youth ministers, they are always building, working in the trenches, in the grind and there's no time for what you're talking about. Systems and processes that move us from the things that I have to get done to the things that I think ought to get done that are most important, the things that will transform and do. And so that's a real key kind of transitioned and thinking,
Speaker 2:well, it, it, it's important that we see are that we see our ministry in these systems and processes rather than just events and programs. Right? And that's part of it. And why is that? Cause I think that's one of the things that we're getting to volunteer time. We get to end of this five. And so I know, I know that everybody's vision is different, right? Everybody's strategy's different, but I'll give you one like let's say for you. You said by the time every student that walks out of my student ministry, right? Let's say that for you, you want them to know how to study their Bible, right? Like, I'll just give you that one, right? Then you have to understand if that's a goal for you have for students walking out, is to be able to study their Bible thing. You've got to systematically think through, alright, from seventh grade or sixth grade to twelfth grade, right? What's the progression that they need to go on over these next seven years? Right? Now answering that question, does it come in one event? Right? We have to step back or even one grade series. Yeah. If you figure to do it in one great series, you're not going to make that happen, right? We'll just have a great Bible series in April and we'll get it covered. But when you can step back and you can go, okay, I know and I understand that this is a big goal for us, right? How to use your words, this goal plan, then then we're able to start to evaluate, right? Um, and, and develop these processes of looking at our small groups, right? And Go, how do our small groups answer that? Where in our teaching plan does it answer that process? And as weird as it sounds, where does that lock in? Right answer that question because here's the truth. You may look at that, lock you in and go, it doesn't at all. And I'm not saying that that's enough to throw it out, right? Because it makes me answer other questions that you have in your ministry. But at the end of the day, we want to look at all the things that we're doing in this bigger system and go, that's why I do it. One of the biggest reasons that I think youth ministers look at things like lock ins or whatever is and they hate them is because they can't answer the why. Yeah. But for the youth minister, that that can answer the why, right? As much as we hate staying up late at night and all those kinds of things, if you can answer the why and it is so important for the process, you would be thrilled to do though. Right now I'm not, I'm not a big proponent of lock ins, right? For my own selfish reasons. But if you're looking at it, the best way that we can answer this problem is through that than youth minister. Let's do it. Right? And, and so that's part of this looking back is developing. It's looking all of these processes, it's setting these goals and it's figuring out for you what are some of the angles. So real practical and here's a real life. And for me, um, I wanted every single one of my graduating seniors to be able to lead a small group. That was one of my goals that, that was a high watermark for you, that if you had a graduating senior, Kalita small group, that was an indicator of success. Because for me, I saw a bigger structure across the the American church that most American churches have small groups and it's vital that they have leaders and I was looking at my own church that was struggling to find adult small group leaders. And so my question was, where in the process of the church are we teaching people to lead small groups? We're teaching people how to be a great participant in small groups, but nobody's teaching them how to lead small groups. And so for us, that was part of the process to the point that second semester of senior year, um, our, our senior started leading small groups, not only in their own but in other areas of our student ministry. We would take high school students to summer camps with our middle school students, those kinds of things. But along the way we're going, how are we teaching at Howard do developing that way when they walk out? Right? And so everything that we do is planned and it's thought out. And so that's taking us from a building phase, right, of getting things going. You have to have a Wednesday night, you have to have these events, but then going, okay, how do we find tune them to fit these goals and really make them, I'm not just the event better but the whole system better and that's what we're trying to think. That's right. Well
Speaker 1:and I think another case in point, Chad that relates to for a lot of folks, this kind of move is the difference between getting enough leaders in trade cheerleaders and I think for a lot of folks that they they're consumed with. If I only had more volunteers, if I only had more volunteers, but the move from building which is just I need some volunteers to developing is I need volunteers to fit this role, to lead this group, to help drive, to help run security. You've begun to move from just having like a gaggle of volunteers to having like specific areas in which you need volunteers, which ups your recruitment process, which up here training process and allows you to develop leaders and not just have leaders. That's why I think for so many folks you've got to get out of that first year mindset. I think to borrow from a teacher adage, a lot of youth ministers will do Youth Ministry for 20 years. Some of them will do it for 20 years and some will do the first year, 20 times and I think for a lot of us like we get caught up in like like camp year seven should be amazingly better. Indifferent than can't be your one. Not just in a new theme, but who's involved at what level you're leading at what level you're adults are leading, at what level of your students are engaged, like do not be guilty of doing the same year multiple times. I think for a lot of folks that end up only being at a place for a few years, it's because they've run out of things to do because they haven't begun to develop the systems that make the space for the improvement that need to happen. And so again, this may be a turning point for you, listener, and I hope that you're writing down notes and you're like getting worked up with ideas. But here's the next wrinkle we want to give. You only tackle one key process at a time. I think that if you have just moved from an idea, okay, I built everything and I and develop everything. All you're doing is you're building on top of building, you're just calling it something different. This is the key moment of like, okay, my Sunday morning isn't as good as it could be. But I believe, I believe if I train up better volunteers, eventually it will be. Or this is the, like if we, if we had a better structure or system for the way in which we had a midweek, right. I can for a lot of folks that they want to have like an amazing high energy, powerful midweek for you. Maybe, you know, listen, we don't have the kids involved to start our own kind of student band yet. That's okay. I've got some college kids that can come in once a month and then we can use some new youtube tracks and games with other times because we're really gonna. Focus on fostering an environment of fun. We know that if it gets to be fun, kids are going to show up whether the band is good or not and then from there, enough kids show up. We'll have people that we can recruit to put in a band so don't. Don't try to make it more fun and a band and this and new leaders all at the same time. Seasonally, whether it's a course of a couple months or a semester, pick out some of these key processes, these key areas of development to develop and so trying to develop everything at once and I think that is the wisdom of its all built. This ship is going to float, but now we're going to make it cruise. I think that's the shift we want a lot of our folks to kind of work through is not just trying to like go from like a frantic like what am I going to do to like wild and frenetic. Like let's fix it all. Like pick out things one at a time. I think. I think back to the season in the very beginning of 2017 when my best friend Chad told me, okay, you said you were. We did a lot in 2016 and the beginning of 2017 you were going to do a lot less and you held me to it. You held me to do less in a season instead of trying to do more so we actually couldn't work on stuff to make it better and I and I'm, I'm thankful for that because my tendency was let's just do new will, will bolt on, we'll add on, we'll refurbish and he said no, let things actually wait and develop instead of trying to tackle all of it at once
Speaker 2:and you continue to to fine tune that. Right? You, you continue to look at the system, the process, and your vision and strategy. Right? And you continue to come back to these questions. All right. Can we talk
Speaker 1:about the practical a little bit? Can I give some, some kind of step process here? So, quick review phase one, discovery, asking the questions, phase two, building, getting the ship to not think phase three, noticing the leaks in the development chat. Higgins walked to the practical shows where some leaky Portsmouth. So
Speaker 2:the first thing that I'm going to recommend it, whether you're looking at your ministry as a whole or you're looking at one specific area, right? Like you brought up leaders, um, earlier, um, you and I think that this process is done in both ways, right? We can develop on the small scale of something individually or we can talk about the large scale. So we've been jumping back and forth as we've been talking through this of small scale, big scale, all those kinds of things. And there's a building process right in each of those and there's a development process in each of those. Um, but let's talk through, I think the first thing that we do in, in either one of those areas is an evaluation process, right? And, and so, um, I, I think that that's the first part of development is the d, The evaluation process. I would encourage and recommend each of our listeners here in every area of your ministry that you take time for healthy evaluation, right? That you're getting feedback from your people, your examining yourself after every event. There should be an evaluation process for you, right? Because you need feedback, you need to hear, hey, how did it go from your, what did it look like from, from where you were at, all of those kinds of things. So we're, we're evaluating this process. Here's the big thing that I want you to think about in the evaluation process though, especially when it comes to your overall ministry. I think you weigh in three things very heavily. The first one is your vision, right? That you're evaluating on that of going, okay, does this meet the vision? Right, of what we laid out? All right, so this overall arching plan, did it meet the vision and here's what I'm going to encourage you to do. If you're doing things right that do not meet that vision, one of two things needed to happen. One good, don't do it anymore. Okay? Cut it loose. Or if it's one of those things where you're like, listen, I will be killed in the street if I cut it loose. Okay? Then the second thing is this, then you change your philosophy, not your vision. You change your philosophy of how you're doing that thing. Okay? And to where you can go, the next time we do it, it will meet this purpose. It may look completely different, right? One of the things that I've seen a youth ministers do for years is this, that they'll, they'll leave something, the same name, but they'll drastically change what it does, right? That's good. And, and I think that we've got to think through that process, right? Of going, all right, this doesn't Fit our vision, right? We've evaluated that. What do we do? All right, so in evaluation we want our vision to line up the next thing, and this is not in any sort of importance order, right? But I put this right in the middle because I think the, the, these two things need to come to it scripture, right? I, I, I think it's important that we look at our ministry and we go, Hey, is this where the Lord has called us to come to? Right? You know, because it's real easy to get so gung Ho on, on things that we go, what are we, what are we losing? Right? Where, where are we continuing to come to? What's the foundation of this? Um, hopefully for us, all of our ministry comes back to this place of, if of being founded, of, of us being able to look at scripture and go, yeah, this is a, this is where God's leading us to write the, the big thing that I want to put scripture in there for it is that in, in our evaluation process, we shouldn't just look at it and go, yeah, this is good in my own mind. Right? But we take time in evaluation of the process of praying through it, seeking the Lord, and going, God, is this still where you're leading our path? There's a lot of great quote unquote youth ministers that try to do this on their own with their own ability. And what happens is you may do it for a season and a May look great, but we will always continue to do things on our own skill, in our own efforts, and we're going to get tired. And so we come back to this place. We want our vision to line up with scripture and then, and then this final piece is our people, right? That when we evaluate with, with those big three things in mind, right? So this process here we hidden have vision. Is this where God's leading us, right? And we're falling. The scripture are, are people with this right? Do our, does our leadership above us understand what's going on? Why are people buying into it? Are Students excited? Right? When we can grab all three of these, pull these together and go, all right, now we're onto something, right? And then we continue to to ride with that. And so evaluation is not just was the communication good? Right? But we're looking at it at a bigger scale once again, right? We're not just building, we're looking at process, we're looking at systems, we're trying to move people right from one understanding to another understanding over seven years. Right? And that's a big thing. And so, so as we evaluate, we want to walk through that process and everything we do and look at our ministry and go, all right. For our adult leaders, right? Are, are they equipped to carry out our vision? Right? Are they, are they walking with his biblical mindset? Right? Our students connecting to them, are they connecting our students? Right? We're continuing to ask these questions along the way to evaluate a healthy. The next thing in this process of development that I'd point to is this, is that we build with succession in mind or I. Yeah. This process that we're developing, right? That we're constantly asking ourself, what am I laying the foundation for? Am I laying the foundation so it's easier for me next year? Or Am I laying the foundation that this continues when I'm gone and that's what we've got and that's what we've got to start building too, right? That this thing functions. If I'm not in the chair and I think I would offer to that,
Speaker 1:the way in which you could maybe evaluate that is if it can be done again without you, right? Like could the kids do camp again? If you were someone who was only marginally involved, could could students come through the life of your youth ministry and get connected in a small group. Here's some great biblical teaching. Learn how to read their bible better or how to shade or their faith with their friends. If it wasn't all on you and the move from bill to develop says, I need more people involved and were able to help make this even better, and then also we could do this again and again, even if I wasn't in the room. As soon as you start thinking that way, you're almost ready for the next phase that we have for you, which is to scale.
Speaker 2:I'm going to step on some toes here. If you're looking at your ministry right now and you're going, ah,
Speaker 1:if, if
Speaker 2:I'm not just saying, if the next guy comes in there, I'm saying there was a void of a youth minister, right? Yeah. If it could no longer function, right? With the people in your church, then what you have built is not a youth ministry. What you have built is your way ministering to students. Okay. Yeah, and there's something very different, and I'm not saying that that's wrong, right? For you as a person, you feel like men, I want to minister to students and for some Pii, some goodwill come from that. Some good will come, but if you're trying to build a student ministry, right? Right. Then you're trying to build a system and a structure that functions inside of that church that, that church is able to minister to the students that walk through their doors and to the students in their community with or without you at the helm. Right? And, and so when we start to look at it that way and we're going, hey, I am playing a piece in this puzzle, it's not all about chat. It's not all about Zach, it's not all about you, right, and we're able to build this and, and, and allow this to run and work, um, without you, like holding onto the reigns dearly. And the final thing that I would point to in this development process that goes along with this is taking your ideas and your processes out of your head and onto paper because, and that's part of that process, that development process of what you're trying to do. I think a lot of youth ministers have all the great ideas in their head, right? But we want to get those out of her head and onto paper. It's hard to make a copy if it's not comprehensible. So write it down and type it up, send it out. It is okay for you to have a game handout for someone else to lead the game. That's a good one. It's also okay to have a small group leader have the questions that you were going to ask in front of them for them to ask, and it's probably even okay to have one of your great leaders who feels called and equipped to teach. And talk work with you and walk up on stage and take notes and teach and talk without having it to be you. That's good development for your ministry. That's good growth for your ministry. Get it written down if you believe in it enough to think it and rethink it and think it is probably good enough to write down. And here's what's great right it when we started taking things from her head to paper, it's going to make you think through the process. So I'll ask you this question, right Zach, if if me and you, we're going to start a business, right? And we needed to go to bank and get a loan. We're going to go see daddy working right at his bed and we're going to ask him for a small business loan. He's going to expect that we have a business plan, right? And it's going to be written and it's going to be detailed and it's going to explain who we are and what we're about and where we want to go and all those kinds of things. And so if the world would expect that to get a little bit of money out of their pocket, when we turned to parents, when we turned our leadership, when we turned to our leaders and we say all those stakeholders, we you to me say, Hey, we want to take these from here to there, why would we not do the same work? And the same effort that an entrepreneur and a businessman we would go through painstakingly to get a few thousand dollars that we would say what we do is internally important and we want to. We want to take the time to map that out, to put that on paper, to go, hey, this is what we're trying to do. Over a seven year processes. These students walk through our ministry. This is what we want to get and here's how we're going to do it. Right? And then we map out this vision and we have this process that we're walking through. And then over and over, we're developing that process. We're fine tuning in or asking the questions of are we continuing on this path and developing and that we're not just recreating something every year, but we're looking at it through a fine tooth comb of going, okay, this is getting us where we want to go, and that to me is the development process.
Speaker 1:Alright, that's episode three of our five part youth ministry booster or roadmap for developing your youth ministry for a healthy growing ministry. Join us back. Next episode we talk about what it means to scale.