How to Get Leaders On Board with Your Youth Ministry Vision

Imagine a youth ministry that's not only led by a passionate youth pastor but also one where every leader & volunteer is fully aligned with the youth ministry vision. This isn't a dream; it can be your reality. In this episode, we jump into how you can foster this reality, emphasizing the importance of building genuine relationships with your leaders. We share with you how to cultivate these powerful motivators to inspire your volunteers and leaders to fully invest in your ministry's vision.

We chat about strategies for proactive engagement, encouraging you to actively seek out ideas from your team. We also highlight the crucial role of trust — earned over time by being true to your word and leading by example. This can be one of the turning points that inspires your team to invest wholeheartedly in the shared vision.  Join us on this enlightening journey. You'll not only emerge with actionable insights but also an enriched perspective on youth ministry leadership!

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You may also enjoy these episodes:

(#075) Youth Ministry Mission Statement - Vision Casting for Your Youth Group

(#087) Youth Pastor Just Hired! What Should You Change About the Existing Youth Ministry?

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

People follow people. People don't necessarily just follow ideas. So you could have the most incredible idea, the most incredible vision, and you would have a really hard time getting people to follow along, getting people on board. Or people are digging their heels in or saying, oh, this isn't the way we normally do things. That might be a little red flag waving, saying you have not put in the relational time and energy and there is no shortcut on this one. Today we're talking about four ways to get your leaders on board with your vision in the youth ministry.

Speaker 2: 0:44

Welcome to the Ministry Coach podcast, where every week we bring you actionable and practical steps that you can implement into your youth ministry. My name is Jeff Lascola and this is Kristen Lascola.

Speaker 1: 0:55

And today we are talking all about how to get your leaders on board with your vision in youth ministry. So today I'm going to give you four ways to do that. So let's jump right into the content. None of this banter right, it's already too late. Well, we banter at the end or throughout or right now, oh no the banter found us.

Speaker 2: 1:17

You're bantering on your own.

Speaker 1: 1:20

With a B-B-I-S-Self-Temper.

Speaker 2: 1:21

Excuse me, I'll let you two be with yourselves.

Speaker 1: 1:24

You three B-B-I-S-Self-Temper, hi. All right. Number one you have got to put in the work relationally Before you're ever going to get anyone in on anything. Today we're talking about vision, but it could be anything If they're going to be in on your vision. You have to put in the work relationally first. And why is that? Because it's so much easier to follow someone you like and someone you love, and it's amazing what we will get on board with with people that we love.

Speaker 2: 1:58

It's like I don't know where you're going, but I'm going with you you know, and a lot of the things that we put up with, not saying marriage. I'm not saying marriage. Why would you say marriage? Because I thought you would assume I wouldn't have even thought of that.

Speaker 1: 2:09

Why was I wouldn't have? Why was that the first thing that came to your head? Guilty as charged.

Speaker 2: 2:16

The things that you will put up with and kind of overlook when someone else has so many other wonderful attributes. And is you that you?

Speaker 1: 2:24

love them. Now you're talking about marriage.

Speaker 2: 2:27

Number two.

Speaker 1: 2:28

No, I'm not done Like our senior pastor. I love him. He is amazing. He has so many chips in the bank with me. It's like you tell me where we're going and I'm coming along. I don't want to ask too many questions. I trust you, I love you, let's go. You know it would be. I think it's like the opposite when you don't like someone or they haven't put in the relational work with you, it's like go ahead and sell me on this idea. I don't know, let's see. And you're already like in this place of like needing to be won over rather than I'm won over. Where are we going? My bags are packed, I'll follow you wherever. So it's amazing. People really follow people and I think that's the whole point of what we're getting at People follow people. People don't necessarily just follow ideas.

Speaker 1: 3:19

So, you could have the most incredible idea, the most incredible vision and you would have a really hard time. If you notice that you're having a hard time getting people to follow along, getting people on board, or people are digging their heels in or saying, oh, this isn't the way we normally do things, that might be a little red flag waving, saying you have not put in the relational time and energy and there is no shortcut on this one. There is no shortcut for relational collateral, and if it's inauthentic and if it is part of a strategy, people a lot of times can pick up on that. So here's some questions to ask yourself. Do you, would you, consider your leaders biggest fan? Did that make sense?

Speaker 2: 4:07

I knew what you meant.

Speaker 1: 4:09

I don't know if that's what you said, though.

Speaker 2: 4:11

Do your leaders consider you their biggest fan?

Speaker 1: 4:15

Yes, thank you translator and creating that affection between you guys. And I think it's not that, if that affection and relationship it's there, it's not like you're having to. You'll notice. You're not having to get people on board, they're already on board. You know, and that's kind of what I was saying about our senior pastor, chris, it's like I'm already on board. You just tell me where we're going. You don't really need to convince me of what are we doing next? And well, I have this new idea and it's just like I love you. So tell me what we're going to do. It's not getting on board, it's I'm on board always.

Speaker 1: 4:53

It's a perpetual state of on board.

Speaker 2: 4:55

And, like you said there's, they've built up that trust that maybe, when there is something a little more off the wall than you Might normally think of, it's like well, I love you and I trust you, so I'm gonna be on board with this idea too.

Speaker 1: 5:07

Yeah, because if they're sold on you, they don't really need to be sold on the vision. You know, I think it. They will just follow somebody that they love and so really I can't overestimate how important it is that we're putting in that relational work with our staff, with our leaders, with our interns, whoever you're overseeing, but they have got to know that your Relationship with them is high priority. So people never want to be seen as a means to an end or part of a master plan or part of your strategy. So your volunteers and your leaders come because they love God, they love ministry, they love students and they love you. They're not waking up thinking about the vision. That's your job. You wake up thinking about the vision and you don't really. If they love you, you don't really need to sell them on it. You're just kind of guiding them along of, hey, this is where we're going and they will eagerly follow if there's a Healthy relationship already there where they know I'm your biggest fan. I'm not asking you to be my biggest fan, you know, and I think that's how leadership sometimes works. It gets a little backwards where we're like love my plan, get on board with my plan, love what I'm doing like you know, like be committed to it, like nobody's committed to a plan, they're committed to a person. And how are they committed to that person when they know that person is their biggest fan? So it's that's kind of where the whole vision thing has to start is have you put in that relational effort and time? And Some leaders are so strategic, they're like operating up here and they just have like goals and systems and Plans and visions and like people are down here to them and they're just like come on, guys, but it's like People, just. It's just harder for people to connect when it's like I don't know, you have all these plans and are we a part of it? Do you care? But if you put people first, not the process first, it should never be processed over people. It's always people over process, right, every single time and every single thing that we do. Leadership wise, right, mm-hmm right, good, all right. Number two create vision together.

Speaker 1: 7:24

So this one is a big one for me and my leadership. I always remind my staff over and over and over and over again guys, if I am the creative and all be all of, I am the house of all the ideas, we're in bad shape because I only have so much like. I'm not the end, I'll be all. You've got to bring your voice to the table because I will be our ceiling. And I think we have to be really honest with ourselves as leaders to say you might not be the smartest person in the room, you might not be the most creative person in the room. You of course, have something to bring to the table, but don't forget, everybody else does too, and so you don't. Again, you don't really have to get anyone on board with your vision if the vision is shared among everybody. I don't wanna be the only generator of ideas, because I have one perspective.

Speaker 1: 8:17

I sit in one place, like, imagine you and your staff are in this bus and you're traveling toward the future. Well, no matter where you're sitting on the bus, you see you're sitting next to someone having this conversation. You're looking out this window. Oh, this thing rolled under your seat. You had a different experience than the other people. So, in the same way, your ministry, everyone's sitting in a different seat. They have different conversations, they have different students, they met a different parent, they heard something different. So you need all those people and all those perspectives to chime in and I can't tell you this year alone, especially one of my interns right now, arden like she always has amazing ideas.

Speaker 1: 8:59

She always has like I'll be like stuck on something, like shoot, what are we gonna do? I can't think of a third team for this competition. This doesn't make sense. And she'll be like on her phone and she's thinking and she's like what about this? I'm like, oh, yeah, almost. Oh, what about this? Yes, and she has great ideas, my admin Caitlin. She always can fix the problem. Like I was like we have no drivers for camp. And she goes yes, we do, because this person is a bus driver for this school district and they have a friend and that means they have the correct license. And like it was like yes, yes, yes. You know, like when more voices are in, things always get better.

Speaker 1: 9:40

So don't hoard the microphone to the vision. You know you want everybody speaking into that. So a question to ask yourself here is are you regularly including your staff and your leaders? We're doing a series right now, because one of my leaders said you know what was really good small group discussion when we talked about this. I'm like then we're doing it, let's go, and we're in the middle of it right now and it's going fantastic, and so we have to be the leaders that bring that. Everybody has a microphone at the table when we start to talk about vision.

Speaker 1: 10:16

Now, it doesn't mean every single person's idea has to be used all the time, but it's a collaborative effort and then again, you're not selling people on your vision. It's hey, this is our collective vision as a staff, as a youth ministry, and I feel like I always say with more leaders, your program will be better. I always say the more leaders you have, the better your program will be. Bring them all. We need a lot of leaders, good leaders, obviously. But same as with vision vision always gets better the more voices that are speaking into it and that can get overwhelmed. You might be like, oh my gosh, like that, too many cooks in the kitchen, but it's. I always say this about leadership with stuff like this, it's a drip, not like a hose, so it's not like this is the vision.

Speaker 1: 11:06

Talk Everyone. Give me all 300 of your ideas. It's just you ask as you go along. So you're doing an event and you can't think of a fun theme and you don't really know, so you ask people to chime in on that or you're kind of stuck on content and, hey, tell me what you think our students want to talk about. What should our next three series be? You just bite it off chunk by chunk. I think people get overwhelmed because they're like, oh my gosh, like I have to ask everyone everything all the time. No, just make sure that that is just folded into your DNA. That's your DNA as a leader is. I'm always asking, I'm always bringing people in, and when people have a voice, they're automatically bought in so much more.

Speaker 1: 11:48

You know, like when you let your kids help you cook, they will eat it. You know because they helped, and so it's the same thing If your leaders help cook the vision, they'll eat it, you know because, it's theirs, and it's way more exciting and way more invigorating to be invested because you were a part of it, not you had to adopt somebody else's.

Speaker 2: 12:13

Yeah, I think it was important that you said you ask them. And I think that needs to be very specifically asked them, not so much just general, like hey, if you guys ever have any ideas, just you know, throw them my way.

Speaker 1: 12:24

Oh, I love when leaders say my door's always open, right which is yeah, it's yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:29

that might be true, but until some especially certain people like introverts specifically a lot of times they might have really great things to bring to the table and really good ideas, but they will never share them unless they're actually asked like that directly asked that question. Yeah, so make sure that you are Asking specifics, yeah, not even general, like what do you think we could do better at her? I mean, maybe that would be good, I don't know, but like you know, like not you know you're totally right.

Speaker 1: 12:56

I am because I asked them recently Okay, fill in the blank, if I were in charge of this ministry, I would. And it was way too broad. I thought they were gonna come like all right, here we go, because I would have a ton. You know, I look at other ministries. Oh, I would do this, this, this, this. Well, I'm a pastor, so I think that way. But I asked them that and it was way too broad. I thought, oh, look at this shared vision. You know you're in charge, what do you do? And they're like I don't know. Right, I like it the way it is. But when I asked them what series should we do next.

Speaker 2: 13:28

They have an answer.

Speaker 1: 13:29

What teams should we do for this? They have an answer, so yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:33

Even if that's asked in a group. Let's say you have five leaders, ten leaders. You ask a group of ten people what sermon series do you think we should do next? You'll have the extroverts who will automatically throw it out whether it's a good idea or not those extroverts will throw their ideas.

Speaker 1: 13:49

They might not even like their idea, but they just say it.

Speaker 2: 13:52

I need to speak words because there's an opportunity. But it's the introverts that if you were to say okay, we haven't heard from you. Like what do you think? There? A lot of time not all the time, but a lot of times there's something that's really just under the surface, but it's like they kind of need that permission to let it out.

Speaker 1: 14:08

So okay, okay, you're an intro, you are also becoming an introvert. I am, I Know also. Did you shave your beard?

Speaker 2: 14:17

I did.

Speaker 1: 14:19

And I'm like I could see so much of your mouth today.

Speaker 2: 14:23

Here's what my mouth looks like.

Speaker 1: 14:24

Your mouth is we know when we went on the Thanksgiving vacation.

Speaker 2: 14:29

I kind of just let it go and it got too scratchy and when you were talking, I just was looking at you like I don't know I don't know what is different.

Speaker 1: 14:38

Okay, and I figured it out.

Speaker 2: 14:43

Now we all know your mouth All right.

Speaker 1: 14:45

Number three earn trust and prove yourself Over time. So that's another way for people to buy into the vision of the youth ministry is that you prove Yourself over time, meaning this you, you're trying to build trust by delivering what you promise, like never over promise and Undeliver or under deliver, say, do what you say you're going to do and Be the leader that you're asking your leaders to be. So I think people again, it's hard for them to get on board with someone's vision when they, when that person Like is all talk. I guess you could say so. I've heard little murmurings over the years of people who work with different leaders and They'll just like oh yeah, there they go again. Nothing's gonna come of it, you know, and it just sort of takes the wind out of people's sails. But if you're the leader that's excited for this and we're gonna do this together and we did it together and then we're gonna celebrate that we did it, you know it's invigorating and one of my leaders said you know it's, nobody wants to be a part of a half-baked plan. That was one of my leaders named Andy and I was like, yeah, that's so true. And so when we bring this like fully baked plan to the table and we say we're actually gonna make this happen. People will catch on over time. That's like no, they do what they say they're going to do. And then like then let's get on board with the vision.

Speaker 1: 16:17

But sometimes, if you work for a leader that never follows through, you're like get on board with what you're not gonna do. It Cuz I can't tell you. I hate the feeling of we talked and we brainstormed and we got excited and we were about to pull the trigger and then we never talked about it, ever again. Yeah, like that drives me insane, because you got me all juiced up and I was ready to go and I was like Bought in and I was gonna run alongside you and I was gonna follow you wherever you were going and you were excited and then Not only did you say like, and here's what leaders won't do, they don't go.

Speaker 1: 16:54

You know what? That was not a good idea. Let's, let's adjust it, or you know, I just don't think we're ready for it. They just will never bring it up again. They just totally abandoned it. And I'm like what was all that? One in a million talk back there and it just over time, it just makes you a little desensitized to their enthusiasm. So it's like, oh yeah, the boy who cried wolf, yeah, you have a big new, great idea that will never do and we'll spend an entire.

Speaker 1: 17:22

He must have gone. Oh my gosh, when a leader comes back from a conference that should be.

Speaker 2: 17:28

I'm here's a bunch of things that you guys need to do right but it fizzles, so like as it bubbles up.

Speaker 1: 17:35

Yeah and then fizzles and it's like what? That whole, that book we were reading, or that, that plan we were baking that you just abandoned, or the Test we were supposed to all take together, like it's just like. So I think it's just, if you Say you're gonna do something, do it, and if you change your mind which we're allowed to do offer that explanation of you know what. Guys, I was really excited that I second guess this. Now I think we should pivot and do this instead. That's better than just never bringing it up ever again. I mean, I can't.

Speaker 1: 18:15

I've lost track of how many times that's happened to me, like in my ministry of like. So they just stopped emailing Like we were doing a project, and now it's just, it's not happening. Is that what I'm supposed to deduce from this? And you not only lose respect, but you lose momentum and you lose buy-in. So be really careful of not over-promising, under-delivering and that kind of brings us to number four be easy to follow.

Speaker 1: 18:45

If you want people to get on board with your vision and follow your leadership, you need to be easy to follow, and what I define that as is being clear and being organized. Don't keep them guessing and changing the plan constantly, like when people are confused or don't know how to participate, or like what this makes no sense. Or if you're kind of a last minute person, here's what I will promise you. You will need to pull that card at some point in your leadership. Oops, last minute change, scramble, people will hustle and get on board if you use that very infrequently.

Speaker 1: 19:24

If that is your MO, people are like checked out, and I think leaders just kind of be like it's fine and it worked, yeah, but you stressed everybody out and they can't do that Like. You can hustle like a couple of times a year and then it's like no, but I need you to be organized for the rest of the year. You know what I mean. Like we can't ask people to be in a perpetual state of being frantic about like oh no, this isn't set up. Everyone grab this and hurry and oh, 10, nine, eight, it's about to start and nothing's ready. You can't ask them to do that every week and then nobody's on board after that.

Speaker 2: 20:05

It's like no. At some point they might even put their foot down and just be like I'm not doing it.

Speaker 1: 20:08

Right.

Speaker 2: 20:09

And that's like put you in a really bad spot.

Speaker 1: 20:12

And I think that's a sign of bad leadership. And if you're constantly like counting on your team to catch you at the last second cause it's like you guys know how to hustle and bring it at the last second, it's like you're lucky you have a team that can pull that off. But it's not because you're leading them well, it's because they're just highly capable people. But, trust me, even if they're like, oh, it's okay, it's not okay, you know it's exhausting to work under that kind of leadership. So, again, if you want people to get on board with your vision, you make it easy to follow.

Speaker 1: 20:48

Hey, this is what we have coming up in six weeks. Give them fair warning. Not like hustle the week of and cancel all your plans and say you can't hang out with your family cause we gotta make this happen. Like that sucks, you know, and that's not leadership, that's mismanagement. But you can pull that card and we'll all have to because we all will drop the ball at some point. But that is like a breaking case of emergency kind of situation and it is forgivable when used very infrequently, but not all the time.

Speaker 2: 21:22

No, I have 100% agree.

Speaker 1: 21:24

Yeah, so that's all four of them, Jeff.

Speaker 2: 21:26

Oh, great. Well, you have the letter F. That had nothing next to it. Yeah, maybe future F for finish Finish yeah, so I would at this point, I would go ahead and check out the episode we did on casting vision, creating vision, and we did a whole episode based off of that, which would be good to kind of pair with this. If you're saying this is how you get leaders, your leaders, on board with it, well, what is it? And this kind of what might help you get in the right direction.

Speaker 1: 21:52

Yeah, and just to bring it full circle, just don't forget, it's you. You know what I mean. And I remember asking my leaders that I think I brought it up before. But this summer at our camp, I'm like guys, what is it, what keeps you sticking around and what do you like? And it kept and I hate saying this example because it sounds like a humble brag or something but they kept saying you, you, you, me. I'm like, oh, like they, they. It wasn't like. I think a lot of them loved the way things were run, but a lot of them loved just the relationship we had. And so if you're a leader lacking in a relationship right now, you know that might be like the goal for the foreseeable future of just like double down on relationship and build that, that Dynamic core team that people like can't leave, and then they'll be so excited for whatever you have in their future you know, and so make it about the people.

Speaker 2: 22:59

Yeah, they'll charge whatever hill you have them. Next. All right, so let's do a question of the day, and this is coming off of the heels of Thanksgiving. We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving we did with family. We went to Oklahoma and to Texas and we had a great time in both. Great weather, no complaints. But when it comes to the thanks, I had a little Shakira moment there in my voice when it comes to Thanksgiving, dinner.

Speaker 2: 23:27

Thanks dinner, thanksgiving dinner. I Maybe I'm in the minority here. I'm not a big Thanksgiving meal fan. I feel like most of the dishes served like all the ones we had were excellent.

Speaker 1: 23:41

I loved, I honestly loved every single one there's not listening, jeff, she might know truthfully. No, that was good, it was very I loved everything.

Speaker 2: 23:48

There was not one thing I was like oh no, I'm not having that. I loved all of it. That being said, most Thanksgiving staples I feel like are a staple, because why would you ever want to have like Turkey? I mean, I don't think anyone wants to go the hassle of making it, but it's like if it was so great, like people make it sound, why don't we have it more often throughout the year? Like why isn't cranberry sauce serve?

Speaker 1: 24:13

I feel like we had the same exact conversation last year.

Speaker 2: 24:15

We probably did, but this is gonna be a little bit different question of the day is what is a Thanksgiving staple that you feel like? No, that should be thrown into the regular, regular momentum, the routine, the lineup of your Meals, like what is that for you? What are you laughing at? I get talked.

Speaker 1: 24:35

I don't know it was funny. Something about it was funny. Well, people eat turkey all the time, turkey sandwiches not, but that they usually buy deli. Yeah, they're not making. Where do you think it comes from? A giant bird?

Speaker 2: 24:48

No I.

Speaker 1: 24:50

Mean, they're not making it, but they're eating right. They're not making a giant turkey. I get that.

Speaker 2: 24:55

That's okay, that's true.

Speaker 1: 24:56

I will say I love stuffing and I would eat it, but it has some gravy on it. I would eat it like Once a month, right you know, if it were acceptable. I just think it's my favorite Thanksgiving side. I feel like people do eat mashed potatoes mashed potatoes.

Speaker 2: 25:15

But I said staple. I feel like mashed potato is a crossover food. Well, okay then turkey cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, stuffing stuffing.

Speaker 1: 25:25

I would eat, I would those are.

Speaker 2: 25:27

What else would there be?

Speaker 1: 25:29

like sweet potato pie.

Speaker 2: 25:31

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 25:34

Green bean casserole. What I?

Speaker 2: 25:36

think sometimes can make it into the regular world.

Speaker 1: 25:40

No, I think it does.

Speaker 2: 25:40

You don't think it does, I don't think so. Well, I was probably, I would agree with you. Stuffing would be the one that I would say hey, stuffing and then there's a good one into these other months.

Speaker 1: 25:50

Do you call it stuffing or dressing, depending on where you are in the country?

Speaker 2: 25:53

Oh really.

Speaker 1: 25:54

Yeah, I think a lot of people call it dressing.

Speaker 2: 25:56

I call it stuffing. Me too because you stuff it inside the turkey.

Speaker 1: 26:00

That's like traditional. What you're supposed to do is stick it up it is that way I got the name, I wonder?

Speaker 2: 26:04

I think so. Maybe dressing is a better term. Yeah, put in the comment section below. What do you think is in like an underrated Thanksgiving staple that should have its place on your table all the other months throughout the year? All right, and right now we're gonna do a community comment of the day. This comes from Kiana Ashley 137, who says I love this podcast. You guys are my best friends in my head.

Speaker 1: 26:28

Well, thank you, kiana, because you are our best friend in our head. It goes both ways. Yeah that was so sweet.

Speaker 2: 26:36

Thank you guys for watching and listening and we will see you next time. Welcome to ministry coach podcast. For every week, we bring you actionable and practical teps, teps, okay.

Speaker 1: 26:54

Today we're talking about five healthy youth. It's gonna get it.