Pastor Kevin

Three steps to a great leadership meeting.

One of the questions I get asked a lot by Youth Pastor around the country is "What should I do to train my leaders?"  Another question I get a lot is "When I meet with my volunteer workers, what should I do with them?"

Well, here are the three steps to take, in every leadership meeting you do.

Inspire them.

No one wants to volunteer on the Titanic.  

People want to be a part of something that is going somewhere. Something that is successful. Something bigger than themselves.  So when you meet with your team members inspire them with the vision of your ministry, small and large victories that have been won, and personal stories of life change.  

Inform them.

When you meet with your volunteer team, let them know where you are going and invite them to join you.  What is the theme for this semester?  What are the topics you will be talking about?  What are the big events you are going to be doing?  What are the goals you are shooting for as a ministry?   

Remember no one wants to follow someone that does not know where they are going.  So let your team know where God is leading you, then invite them to join you on the journey.

Give them a part to play.

No one wants to be a bench warmer.  The people that are volunteering for you are giving their time, their energy, and their money to be a part of your team.  So when you meet with them, inspire them with the game God has called you to play in, inform them of the game plan, them give them a part to play on the team.

Maybe it is praying before every service, being on the worship team, setting up the room, cleaning up the facility, or monitoring the students.  

No one wants to be on a team and not be a player.  So make sure your volunteers clearly understand the game plan for the next month and the part they play in making sure your ministry wins.

On the next blog, I will talk about the schedule we have at Oneighty, to train our leaders each year, month and week. 

Lessons learned from a paintbrush and paint can.

I became a full time Youth Pastor in January of 2000.  That spring my Senior Pastor called me on the phone and told me to come to his office because he had something he wanted to give me.  As I walked down the hallway my mind started racing. 

What in the world is it?

Maybe he’s going to give me a raise. Maybe he is going give me more opportunities to speak on Sunday mornings or give me the position of Associate Pastor of the church.  I couldn’t wait to see what my Pastor wanted to give me.

When I stepped into his office, my Pastor stood to his feet and said “Kevin, I have something to give you.” He reached out his hand and handed me a paintbrush and paint can.  Then he told me “There is a church picnic this weekend, so I need you to go out in the field and paint the baseball backstop, so it looks presentable”.

I thought to myself, paint the backstop! Are you kidding me?

As I walked outside, holding the gift from my Pastor I remember thinking, “ I didn’t go into full time ministry to paint a fence. I didn’t become a Youth Pastor to do manual labor.  I went into ministry to make a difference.  I don’t need to be doing this, this is the janitors job.”

But, the more I painted the more I began to realize. Painting the backstop would be a janitor’s job, if we had a janitor.  But we don’t.  It’s just the Pastor and me. 

He is the Pastor of the Church. He has a message to prepare.  The backstop needs painted and I’m the only one that he can turn too.  So, as I stood there in the hot sun painting that backstop, I began to pray, “Lord, I thank you for my Pastor.  Thank you for giving me this opportunity to serve him, thank for allowing me to help him, so he can do what he needs to do.”

From that day on, I always looked for opportunities to serve my pastor.  Sometimes, I did what some people would think are very menial tasks, things like setting up chairs, mowing the lawn, or taking a sick church member to the hospital. 

But the more I served him in the small, the more my Pastor gave me opportunities to do the bigger things.  Eventually, I did get a raise.  I started preaching more on Sunday mornings, and even became the Associate Pastor of the church.

I can’t tell you how thankful I am for that paintbrush and paint can. Those two items taught me one of the greatest ministry lessons I’ve ever learned. 

As a youth pastor, my job is not to build my own little kingdom, and look out for my own interest.  No.  My job as a youth pastor is to faithfully serve my leader, doing anything and everything I can do to free him up and to serve his interests, so together we can build God’s kingdom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old book, new dreams.

Tonight I was looking through old books that I've read that impacted my life, that I might want to read again.  In my search I came across John Maxwell's "Your Roadmap for Success".  I read this book about seven years ago or so and actually went thru it with a fine tooth comb.  I answered all the questions and really thought long and hard about my calling and what I wanted to do with my life.  It was a great book.

As I sat in my office looking thru the pages, I came across something I had totally forgotten about. In the book John asked the question - If you could do anything, and money was not an issue, what would you do?  Written on the back page of the book were these words.....

 

If you can't read my writing (which I'm sure you can't) this is how I answered the question - what would you do if you could do anything?

If I could do anything, and money was not an issue, I would ...

Speak to Youth Leaders

Write a book to leaders and students

Reach 1,000 per week

Be at Church on the Move (this will never happen, but have a church like it)

As I sat in my office looking at the writings that I penned more than 7 years ago, I thought over my days events.  I prepared for a big youth leader meeting we are doing for our 180 volunteers this weekend.  I spoke to my publisher about a few questions I had about the four books I just published.  I spent time in prayer for this first week back at Oneighty, in which we will minister to more than 1,000 students each week and I did all of this sitting in my office as the youth pastor of Oneighty, the student ministry of Church on the Move.

WOW!  God is so good.  To be honest I never in my wildest dreams believed I would be here doing what I'm doing.  I am so thankful to God for all his goodness.

This month, I'm going to dream again.  I'm going to read that book, go through it with a fine tooth comb and see what God does in seven more years!

Let me ask you a question - if you could do anything - anything at all - what would it be?  Who knows in a few years...you just might be living a dream.