City Restoration Development

I find that youth workers go through three phases of development. These phases are described below. Try and determine which phase you’re in.

Self Focused
In the first phase of youth ministry many youth workers are concerned with being liked. We want the students to see us as cool and someone who can relate to them. This thinking leads us to do things to get students attention, things that we should not do. This thinking doesn’t come from us; it comes from parents, pastors, and church leaders. How many times have you heard a church leader say, “the students really like him”, or “the students just don’t connect with her”? At their core most pastors just want students to like the youth worker. It’s sad but oh so true. If you are in this phase don’t worry. I was in this phase for a couple of years. Realize being like is not the goal, and move towards becoming more of a mentor for students. Most youth workers go through this phase, but the desire to leave this phase is key.

Student Focused
In this phase you are all about the students’ growth. You are motivated by the students growing in their spiritual lives and want them to have healthy relationships. You work tirelessly with students; you program and create new and exciting ways for them to experience Christian community. The problem here is forgetting about your adult volunteers and the tendency to be Super Youth Worker. I see lots of folks in this group. They have great hearts, and they love Jesus and students, but they usually have little impact because they are working alone. If you’re in this group, you may become frustrated because you don’t see much fruit from your labor, or you feel as though you are the only one doing work in the youth ministry.

Servant Focused
Most youth workers never make it to this stage. In this phase youth workers focus on partnership. They realize they can’t do it all and they look for others who share their values and create ways to work together. It’s why you tend to see older youth workers with larger adult volunteers staffs. These youth workers tend to focus on a few key areas of strength and let others handle other areas of the ministry. They are effective but they don’t look like they are trying very hard. They build up a core of support within the ministry through the idea that everyone can have an impact on youth if they are connected with their passion and lead from it.