When considering youth ministry involvement, most of the time people are either “in” or “out”, that is, leading students, or not involved at all. Unfortunately it means we often miss out on valuable assistance from people keen to help the youth, but without a desire or ability to connect relationally with teenagers. I love Doug’s approach in chapter 15 – offering people a few levels of involvement that cater for both ends of the spectrum.
People are identified as being on the “cheerleading team” – those who bring encouragement and affirm what the ministry is doing; the “resource team” – those offering practical assistance and equipment; the “prayer team”; and the “hands-on team” – those that actually connect with students through the programs and small groups.
I’d love to see our youth ministry implement a similar system. The “resource team” would be a great way of locating specific equipment when the need arises, but also offloading some of the low-level coordination of events to others so that pastors and leaders and more freed to minister relationally – something that always seems to be restricted by the amount of time doing admin.
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