Training Adult Leaders Vol. 1: Communicate Your Expectations

One of the most important thing you can do in ministry is to communicate your expectations. As leaders we want to lead people where we are going and one of the most frustrating things about following a leader can be if you don't know where you going. I know as a youth pastor one of the best things I can do is to communicate to my adult leaders, parents, staff, spouse (family) and students what we see as where we are headed. If people know where you are going they will be better at helping you get there. If we don't clarify our direction then what happens is your adult leaders and those around you begin to have their idea of where to go. They may have some great ideas but if it is different than what your doing it will result in conflict and frustration.

Here is an example:

Youth Pastor (let's call him Mr. A) is passionate about discipleship and is gifted in that way. He sees that the midweek youth event should be designed for the purpose of spiritual growth. He realizes that there is a need for reaching out to the unchurched but doesn't feel that the mid-week event is the place that would be most effective to do that. Now everything that Mr. A does is going to be geared toward a discipleship result. There may be some evangelism that takes place at that program but the messages and the environment that is produced will be done to be more effective in producing disicipleship.

Now let's suppose MR. A hasn't communicated that to his parents, or leaders. Maybe there are some who feel that the best place to reach the unchurched is the mid-week program. What would happen if the leaders and the youth pastor never communicate what the direction and purpose of that event is? Well, it would result in leaders and parents frustrated that more unchurched students are not coming. Even though there may be some good discipleship going on the end result of how the youth event is measured is done with 2 seperate measuring scales.

Don't be like Mr. A and have a vision but forget to communicate it. In fact, I haven't met a youth pastor who has told me that they get complaints because they communicate too much. If you are a youth pastor that gets complaints for that I would say, "Great job!!"

Communicate everything your doing and why your doing it. Communicate what the end result your looking for at each program, or event you have should accomplish. Whether you use the Purpose Driven youth model, or the Northpoint Church in Atlanta Model, or the Mr. A Youth Pastor Model the goal has to be communication.

Here are some suggestions that I have put to practice:

1) Create google groups for your leaders and your parents to communicate with them.

2) Have an email list or database list for you to email your parents, leaders and students on a weekly or regular basis.

3) Put together a newsletter to send to leaders, students, and parents that you can send through your email list.

4) Meet with your leaders regularly. Have them over to your house and have fun with them. Don't only get together with them for trainging purposes. If you have fun together you will be able to lead together better.

5) Schedule regular Parent Gatherings to convey how they can stay connected. Remember if you have ways for parents to stay connected then let them know how you will communicate to them and then tell them if they want to know what is going on they will have to take responsibility to get connected. (This is a freebie: don't let yourself get beat up if a parent or youth doesn't know what is going on if you provide a way for everyone to know what is going on and you let them know how to do that.)

6) Actually email your students, parents and leaders.

7) Put the vision God has given you in print or on the web. Keep details of upcoming events in print (available) or on the web.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have used some of these ideas and if you have some others that have worked well for you.

Kevin Deming