Terry Linhart's Blog, page 22

How many hours a week should a youth pastor spend with teens? (w/ free book giveaway!)

What is the rule of thumb for you in your ministry?  What do you shoot for each week?

Last week I share a few of my personal opinions and they have generated quite a bit of response online and with some youth workers at a training event this past weekend.  I discussed how the platform discussion, the “sage on a stage” model, has leaked into youth ministry circles and changed the paradigm for youth work from a coaching model where adult leaders lead from the middle of youth.  Then I discussed how the platform drive (to be known by other youth workers) takes up so much energy and focus that we can end up spending more time (and more dreaming) on that than we care to admit.

At the end of the second post, I made the statement that my rule of thumb as a youth pastor was that I wanted to spend at least 20 hours of my week with teens.  I was blessed to be at a church where I only had to be in the office for whatever I needed to be successful in youth work.  So, that looked like Monday, a few hours on Tuesday, Wednesday, and then Friday morning. Thursday was my day off.  Tuesday and Friday were essentially “second shift” days to connect with teens from 3 p.m. on. Our youth group met on Wednesday nights and small groups happened on Sunday nights.  Volunteer training took place on Sundays or Wednesdays before/after the large group gatherings.

So, I thought I’d conduct a basic survey to see what’s happening among youth workers who read this blog.  I invite you to post a quick comment to these questions: 

How many hours a week are you expected to be in the office?
How many hours a week do you spend investing in/mentoring other adults (volunteers)?
How has your teens’ busy schedules inhibited your ability to spend time with them?
If you could spend X hours a week with teens, what would it be?

AND, I WILL RANDOMLY SELECT ONE OF THE COMMENTS AND THAT PERSON WILL WIN ONE OF MY PAPERBACK BOOKS (OF THEIR CHOOSING).  So, you can pick from What Can We Do?: Practical Ways Your Youth Ministry Can Have a Global Conscience, Evangelism Remixed: Empowering Students for Courageous and Contagious Faith, or Middle School Talksheets: 50 Ready-to-Use Discussions on the Life of Christ (or the high school version).

I will announce the winner on Thursday, February 28th.

 

 

 

 

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Does our desired youth ministry “platform” face the wrong audience?

There’s been a lot of discussion recently about “platform” and the steps needed to reach a larger audience.  Surprisingly the platform conversation has entered into the world of youth ministry, which presents youth workers with a significant problem:

The platform as it’s being defined isn’t about working with youth and it isn’t facing an audience of youth. 

The push to be on the platform (again, in its current definition) is one to be known among peers.We want to be heard, validated, recognized, and respected.  This push for recognition is true in many occupational fields.  In education circles, we had teachers who “lived” for the conferences and wanted to be known as a seminar speaker or validated in their work (to be “sought after”) by their peers.  I saw this desire in myself too in my early years and wonder now if it was because teaching and youth work can often be thankless never-ending jobs and we’re looking to others to see if we’re doing ok.  Or maybe we want something more?

Let me give another example of the platform’s audience and how it misses the intended audience:  Did you ever purchase a textbook in your early days of college and start reading and felt lost?  Do you remember thinking “this author has no clue that I’m an 18 year old who has never had this subject before”?   The reality is that many textbooks are written to impress other scholars in the field, not educate undergraduate students.

The platform is designed to reach other youth workers, not minister to youth.

Of course we don’t start out that way at first, but over time, whether due to a lack of support or our own insecurities, we tend to want to be recognized by other youth workers.  Perhaps youth work doesn’t satisfy our drive for “success” or we aren’t getting the encouragement and support as youth workers.  Perhaps our leadership drive is for youth work AND recognition that our youth work is effective.  I can certainly understand all of this as many of us in youth work have a strong drive.

I’ve done a quick scan of the word “platform” and “youth ministry” and find that most of the youth workers writing about it are working to get into the blogging world.  Now, obviously I’m writing this analysis from my own blog (part of my own platform, I guess), so please see that I’m calling for balance here for all of us.

The critique (unfair, I think, of course) of youth ministry is that it’s not making much change in the lives of youth and that the local community is rarely impacted or changed because of a youth ministry group.  Perhaps we should desire to build a “platform” within the local high school, community, and families of our church or community? What kind of transformation would then happen?

Here’s my stall by the side of the road, a personal philosophy that I’ve never shared in print, but firmly believe (and teach) about youth ministry:

Youth workers need to spend half of their worktime (20-25 hours a week for full-timers) with youth.  

What if you decided to invest 25 hours a week with youth (take an adult along with you whom you can show how to do this and then turn him/her loose in a few months) and worked to build relationships, do basic pastoral counseling, see teens from your school give their lives to Christ?  Isn’t that why we got into youth ministry?  To work with youth?

I grew up in a ministry that espoused the 25 hours minimum time with kids rule.  I would say it was the secret to our success as a ministry.  When people would come to visit us and see how we did what we did and they say that rule of thumb, they were shocked.  Then we’d be shocked that youth workers would be… well…. working with youth.  Even now as a professor I can’t help but get out of the office and go hang out with students.  My home this past weekend had multiple teenagers hanging around each day.  This is what we do! And no matter our titles, number of followers, or SEO abilities, this is the life-on-life dynamic that makes youth ministry transformational.

As churches and ministries condense and work towards efficiency, anyone can run a program, anyone can show a video (what I call “host teaching” … don’t get me started on this one), and anyone can develop a blog (do churches now pay youth workers to blog?).  The invaluable youth worker is the one who can live among youth and their families, can teach without technology, and has the expertise to help youth grow, learn, and become mature.

Richard Dunn advocated for a side-by-side “pacing” approach to youth ministry.  If maturity, or a “sticky faith”, is our goal, then this is what will be required. Dunn wrote in Shaping the Spiritual Life of Students: A Guide for Youth Workers, Pastors, Teachers and Campus Ministers, “You can’t tell a kid into maturity.”  To help students grown in maturity and faithfulness will take time and presence.  And more time and more presence.

I want to be an encouragement to you to consider your schedule next week and how you can spend 6 more hours with teens than you did this past week.  Here are four ideas:

Go hang out in your community where teens hang out.
Go see an event or game at school and meet as many kids as you can (start with the friends of your own teens).
Plan a fun event (walk the mall, hang out at the Pizza place – and buy) for about 3-4 teens in your group and a few friends.
Think of two teens who would benefit from a one-on-one conversation with you in a safe public place.

If you added these 4 activities to your weekly schedule every week, you’ll be surprised what may happen, what you’ll notice/learn, how you’ll grow closer to youth, and how God will use you in their lives.

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Is the “platform” the right shape?

 Social media and the publishing industry have developed and championed the now commonly-used term “platform” as something leaders should nurture. Platform is “about leading a tribe of engaged followers” (Michael Hyatt) or “a group of people who are likely to buy your book, if you should ever publish one, because they already know of you and they like something about you” (Rachelle Gardner).

For those who have authored books, this makes complete sense.  When publishing companies are able to invest little to nothing in promoting titles these days, authors have to carry the promotional load.

Without careful thought, though, the concept of platform has leaked over into ministry circles and is reshaping the images of what ministry looks like. Modeled after itinerant speakers, authors, and those seeking notoriety with larger audiences, when we speak of the ministry platform we often implicitly mean a stage with multi-colored lights, various musical instruments, and a gap between the leaders and the audience.  Though the weekly program is an important element in youth ministry, I don’t think it’s THE platform that we should seek.

For the youth worker, what is the shape of that platform?

We automatically think of the stage and available microphone, beckoning us to come and fill in the emptiness with our music, witticisms, or insight.  We are fascinated by the idea of the spotlight focusing on us, the blue beam acting like a tractor beam as all eyes are locked on our every gesture and story from our own life. 

But is that the right image for a youth worker?  Is doing something like a TED talk the pinnacle moment of youth ministry?

I think platform is a potentially dangerous topic in youth ministry for a variety of reasons and, before I get going too far here, I invite you to read David A. Zimmerman‘s fantastic analysis of the problems inherent in an all-out assault on building a platform without thinking about some of the outcomes of that pursuit.

I would like to suggest a new image for a youth worker’s platform, the hub in the center of a wheel.

Over time the relational center of youth ministry has been ditched for the stage with lights inside a religious building.  We’ve move from the corner stoplight where we meet teens in the neighborhood to the spotlight where teens are to come to meet us.  If ALL that we have is a prepared program where we hope that a lot of kids show up and get something out of it (and I certainly did this as a youth pastor), then we’re missing the important element, THE platform for adults who model Jesus’ ministry approaches with others.

As a teacher, I’ve been challenged by the image of the hub.  The classroom is only part of the platform for me, one spoke of the wheel. But it’s easy to forget that and “just do our job,” to not get out of the office and spend time with students.  Leadership isn’t complete when only done from the front of the room, though that’s a large part of what I do (and why I get paid, I guess). But to lead people means that I need to be in the middle of people.  To reach youth means we need to be in the middle of youth.

If you kept track of your time this coming week, how much of it would be spent “up front” or planning that upfront time and how much would be spent in the midst of those with whom you minister/lead?

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NYWC – my favorite youth ministry conference for youth workers

I am so excited for the National Youth Workers Conventions this year for three reasons:

Though I’ve enjoyed all of my times at various conferences, NYWC has become my favorite conference one.  I feel at home there.  Run by a nonprofit organization, it’s heartbeat is to serve, encourage, and inspire youth workers (at a great value price-wise) and I like the authenticity, energy, and diversity.  The NYWC has always been a highlight for when I was an a parachurch leader, then an urban youth worker, and especially as a full-time youth pastor in a local church.It continues to be so today as a veteran youth worker and professor of youth ministry.
My excitement is high this year because we’re bringing the whole youth ministry program from Bethel College!  It’s always better when you can bring a whole team of students and volunteers to a conference.  I love taking my students to NYWC and seeing their eyes light up as they talk about the seminars, as they share about how God has stirred their passion for Him and for their calling to youth ministry, and as they build closer relationships with one another.
Nashville.  The Nashville NYWC has consistently been a time where God has touched my heart in a special way or where He has led us in a new direction.  I can’t tell you the stories here, but I’d happily do so in person.  Plus, who doesn’t love Tennessee?

Hey, here’s the latest promo video for NYWC. Hope to see you at San Diego or Nashville this fall!

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NYWC 2013 from Youth Specialties on Vimeo.

 

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A Sunday morning testimony via Rascal Flatts

I’m not a big country music fan, but I live in a home with two people who LOVE it.  Kelly told me about the song “Changed” by Rascal Flatts and I think it’s a fantastic example of the transformation that Jesus Christ can do in our lives.  And that we can stand up, raise our hands, or write that we’re changed.  Because we are. Changed.  Enjoy.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

II Cor. 5:17, NLT

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First of the Youth Specialties’ YS Roundtable episodes – Duffy Robbins

I have the privilege of coordinating the Academic Support Network for Youth Specialties and serve as host of the YS Roundtable video show.  The YS Roundtable show provides a special opportunity to sit down with some of the leading youth ministry educators and have them share from their teaching, research, or latest book.

Our friends at RemedyLive shot the series of videos at their studios and then edited it all together. These first 12-15 episodes serve as a pilot “season 1″  and we’ll see how they go and then make some refinements for a potential second video series. And, yes, we’ll try to actually have a round table in future episodes.

We’re excited to have Duffy Robbins from Eastern University kick the series off as we discuss discipleship in youth ministry and his latest book, Building a Youth Ministry that Builds Disciples: A Small Book About a Big Idea.

You can find these videos over at the Youth Specialties blog.

YS Roundtable :: Duffy Robbins from Youth Specialties on Vimeo.

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Another “Not So Newlywed Game Show” Idea

One of the most popular posts on the website was my first idea for a game to play (and it’s a good one!) at a marriage retreat.  Since it’s Valentine’s day, I thought I’d post another one for those who are running similar events.  These questions are a bit different from the first one, so I’ve provided a couple of alternative ones at the bottom and you can use whichever ones you like best.

The game idea is based off the old Newlywed Game Show, which means you’ll need to act (and dress?) like a game show host…. and you’ll need an assistant writing down the answers in marker on decent-sized poster board.  Once you learn how the game runs, this format is a great opening to have some fun, build repoire, and get to know some people from your group. The format ‘works’ so if you think any of these are lame, feel free to edit/add your own!

 NOT SO NEWLYWED GAME SHOW (AGAIN)

5-6 couples upfront.  Ladies leave first.  Have someone off stage writing down the answers on half-sheets of poster board so that the back row of your room can read them when held up (will take a large marker). 

Men, questions are worth 10 points.

If your wife could change one thing about you for the better, what would it be?



Your body.
Your salary.
Your ability to listen.
Your housecleaning ability.


What is the subject of your most frequent argument or “discussion”?
If your wife let you make one change to the decorations or furniture in the house, what would be the first thing that would go?
For 15 points, if your wife wanted you to take her out to her favorite restaurant, where would you take her? 

Bring ‘em back in!!!!

Go through each one, have the women answer the question, then have her husband put up the answer to see if they’re correct.    If so, they get the points. If not, be sure to ask the obvious follow up questions (get the laugh if you can).

Before the men leave, announce the scores of the couples.  Then have the men leave. 

Women, questions are worth 10 points.

If your husband had received his “15 minutes of fame” in life, it would have been because:

He was arrested due to mistaken identity.
He won an athletic competition.
Failed an audition for American Idol in a big way.
Someone posted a YouTube video of his backyard accident while showing off.


If your husband could purchase any car or truck for him to drive, what would he choose to buy?
What’s the best gift that you’ve ever purchased and given to your husband?
What movie does your husband quote the most?

BONUS QUESTION – (worth 20 points) 

If your husband could do one sport well for a day, which of the following would he choose?

Play basketball like LeBron James
Play baseball like Albert Pujols
Play football like Peyton Manning


Play golf like Tiger Woods
Drive a race car like Tony Stewart

 Have the men come in and go through the answers for each of the four questions (like you did with the women’s guesses).  Then, announce the total scores of the couples before heading into the bonus round.  Then, read the BONUS question and ask couples in reverse order (lowest score first) and build the suspense, etc.

 ——–

If you are running a marriage retreat, you can then award a prize and applaud.  Have the couples sit back with everyone else and then announce that you’re going to give each couple a chance to play the game on their own by answering three questions for each other – just them (but in the room there).  You can either put these on a screen or whiteboard or pass out slips of paper with them on there.  Each person in the couple is to answer each one, going back and forth.

Besides the romantic times and the birth of any children, what has been the meaningful moments with your spouse that you have cherished?
As you’ve watched your spouse mature during your marriage, what has been the most impressive change you’ve seen in them?
What is one thing (you can pick two, if needed) that you’re excited about for the future of your marriage?

Give everyone about 7-10 minutes to answer the three.  Then you can wrap-up with a well-prepared 5-minute talk (be encouraging!) and transition to the next event on the schedule.

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OPTIONAL QUESTIONS:

(watch the number of either/or questions you have.  They work well, but too many in the game doesn’t allow for the ‘creative’ moments)

Who “gives in” to an argument first?

Which of you “texts” the most on their cellphone?

 

 

 

 

 

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Supervising for sustainability

I ran across an axiom that my church uses when starting or helping other churches.  They look for demonstrated sustainability before they end their supervision. They don’t just quit when the group says they have it, they want to see it demonstrated and sustained.  

Don’t cut the supervisory ties until the person or group has shown that they can be on their own …. by being on their own.  

Consider how often we supervise someone until they say, “I’ve got it, I’ve got it!” and we believe that they indeed have it … until they falter. It’s one thing to have the knowledge in mind, it’s quite another to know how that plays out in real life and what role the emotions play.  My son can say he knows how to drive, but he has to show me that and do so for a few seasons before we’ll let him get his license.

I’ve thought about this with my students in the youth ministry program at Bethel College.   What we’re teaching them toward (and what the internships they participate on reveal whether they have it) is a career of sustainable leadership.  We use role plays, simulations, and semester-long practical experiences to help us determine the answer this key question:

Can those we teach (or supervise) show up day in and day out, lead well, and be consistently effective? 

It’s what parents work toward as well.  We raise our kids so that they can be functioning adults and parents themselves.  High school sports, college academics, and summer jobs all play a role in developing the tenacity necessary for sustainability.  It’s the important developmental trait of developing efficacy, the ability to produce an effect (or “get it done”).

Grab a cup of tea or coffee and sit down with a blank piece of paper and pencil (the most creative combo!) and sketch out the names that come to mind as you do the following exercise:

Look at who you teach, lead, and parent.  Who among those have you cut loose on their own too soon but probably need some more time with you so you can help them grow toward sustainability?
Who has demonstrated consistent sustainability but still is getting close supervision from you?  What if you let them go and moved on to the next group of potential leaders?

You may also want to list the issues/problems that are keeping them from that sustainability.


Who among those you lead, teach, or parent have strong potential for sustainable leadership, but need closer supervision and mentoring?

List the potential that each person holds.  Are there people around you who may have potential but you don’t know them well enough to determine that yet?

When done, you can go over your names and create a list of “next steps” to do this month.  I’d love to hear back from you about how this went.  I’ve done this myself and the exercise has help me define how I need to be spending my supervisory efforts for the coming weeks.

 

 

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Leadership lessons from the Headlines: The Harbaugh brothers

The 2013 Super Bowl will feature a first: Two brothers coaching opposing teams for a professional sports championship.  That’s not the most remarkable aspect to the game.

Each coach made a risky change to personnel in order to win.  

Mid-season, though Alex Smith was faring adequately at quarterback, but he went out for a while with an injury.  Backup QB Colin Kaepernick stepped in and showed what he could do.  And he showed a lot. When Smith came back healthy and ready to start, San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh made a decision to keep Colin Kaepernick as the starting quarterback. The effect was immediate as Colin demonstrated a more potent capability in throwing and running.  More importantly, he had earned the confidence of his fellow players that he could lead them to the Super Bowl.  They played better for Kaepernick.  And the players were right. They wouldn’t have made it to the Super Bowl without Coach Harbaugh’s decision.

John Harbaugh, coach of the Baltimore Ravens, fired offensive coordinator Cam Cameron and replaced him with former Colts (read: Peyton Manning) head coach Jim Caldwell.  But it was a tough decision as Cam was a mentor to, and close friend of, Coach Harbaugh’s.  Even when Caldwell’s offense only scored 17 points in the next two games combined,  Harbaugh didn’t panic or flinch.  The rejuvenated and confident quarterback Joe Flacco had a more wide-open playbook to work with and the offense became less predictable.

Three leadership lessons stand out to me from this story:

1. Leadership requires decisiveness.  It seems obvious, but I see more indecision at times than I see decisiveness.  I have watched loyalty to friends overlook a list of gross indiscretions (see Penn State for this at its worst) and I’ve watched groups fail to reach their potential due to a low capacity in leadership 0r a lack of fresh learning among the leaders.  And I’ve probably been guilty of all of these.

2.  Sometimes it is about capacity. This is the stark reality that we face:  Some people just get things done better, faster, or with more excellence than others.  We’re not all the same. Not everyone is a leader. Not everyone is an organizer. Not everyone is a good counselor.  Some do things “good.”  Others do them “better.”  A few do them “best.”  For the 49ers, Colin Kaepernick was the best option and may be one of the best quarterbacks in the entire league in 2 years.

3.  However, we can learn greater excellence.  This may seem to contradict #2, but it doesn’t.  We can’t allow our weaknesses as excuses to wallow in mediocrity in our strengths.   Settling for average where God has gifted you to be “better” is poor stewardship of your gifts.  Cam Cameron got in a rut in play-calling and couldn’t work out of it. I get in a rut in my teaching style sometimes, doing the same ol’ thing that I’ve done before, and need a fresh change from time to time. But we can’t do this if we’re not teachable! 

 

 

 

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Leadership lessons from the Headlines: Delta Airlines and its Frequent Flyers

©2012 Terry Linhart. All rights reserved.

Flying isn’t as fun as it once was.  It’s much safer, so I guess that fits into the ever-widening category of what we call “fun,” but flying now more like a stinky commuter train and less like a snazzy cruise ship.  Everyone is pressed: Customers into the smallest areas, employees by stressful jobs and average pay, and supervisors under the pressure of keeping the system running on time and budget.  Yet more people are flying than ever before, a number which will double in the next 20 years at the same time that customer satisfaction continues to decline.  And you can see why as airports dehumanize the experience and when customer comfort experience isn’t a priority.

Given the positive forecast for future growth, some airline is going to take a risk and make three steps:

Create an airline in-flight experience that is special.
Make sure their employees treat customers well and consistently so.
Develop a frequent flyer program that is superior to the rest of the industry to create a large tribe of loyal members.

If an airline does that, it will be able to charge a bit more on each route, pay their employees more, and people will still fly it because of the experience.  I may be wrong, but I think I’m right.

As it is now, each major carrier seems to be making moves to tick off its most loyal customers and Delta Airlines is now no exception.  For the loyal frequent flyer, the new Medallion frequent flyer program offered a lot of positives and the general sense I got from other frequent flyers was that it was the airline of choice for domestic flying unless you lived near a hub of another carrier (i.e. Dallas, Charlotte, Chicago).  Crews have become consistently friendlier and Kelly and I can’t recall a Delta flight where we had a bad experience.

Delta made some changes to its frequent flyer program that are baffling. And confusing.  Some would say “troubling” but I guess they are moving to a revenue-based system, which makes sense, so I’ll wait and see.  The changes have caused a lot of discussion, and some strong reaction from Delta’s most loyal customers.  The situation exposes three leadership lessons worth noting and applying to our own work in other fields.

Delta’s changes provides three lessons for leaders to learn:

1.  Be careful that your “bottom line” isn’t too obvious … or too much of your focus.  A quick analysis of Delta’s changes to the program show that it’s all about money spent … and money made.  Mostly.  In all sorts of leadership arenas, including churches, there is a bottom line.  It may be numbers of youth attending a particular group or event, number of sales, who is coming, or how many people follow you or read your blog (though I would argue that this isn’t leadership).

I remember speaking with a man who had attended church on and off and he was currently in one of his “off” cycles.  He wanted to grow in his spiritual life but he felt like churches were not interested in him, they just wanted to “convert” him … and then they’d move on to another customer.  Whether true or not, it was his perception and it’s one that doesn’t reflect how church functioned as a community in the book of Acts.

2.  Don’t forget to make following you or working for you special.  The airline industry, and our culture in general, has made travel less about the journey and more about “just getting there.”  What if our leadership was the same, where we failed to enjoy those in our group, appreciate them as people, and instead just focused on the task?  Would people care when we left our positions or would they look forward to a refreshing change?  What can you do this week to make your people feel valued and understood.  What if an airline made their customers’ experience, comfort, and special treatment their focus?  (And, really, maybe we say want that but prefer cheaper airfares with less service).

3.  Do your research before making changes.  Since the bottom line, revenue earning, apparently drove Delta’s decision, I am not sure if customer research would’ve mattered.  Delta says they spoke with hundreds of customers and it’s obvious that they are comfortable with some of their lower-level loyal customers seeking other airlines.  Whatever happened, the process is another reminder of how important it is for leaders to understand the change process and develop that necessary intuition of how to lead change. I’m excited to read Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard in the coming weeks (thanks for the recommendation Jon Swanson) and would recommend it to you as well.

We’ll see where the Delta switch ends up. I think it’s there to stay, but it won’t be without some customer casualties.  My guess is that it could’ve been rolled out differently, and gradually, and explained better so there wouldn’t have been such a strong reaction from the most loyal of Delta followers.  The old leadership axiom is that it’s not often what you say, but how you say it that communicates the real meaning. 

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