The other day I read a blog entry about the vacuum created when a youth pastor leaves. Unfortunately I can’t remember where it was or find it to give the link. The post basically said that most youth pastors create a ministry that is dependent on them. It is dependent on their speaking, discipling, charisma, gifts, and presence.
I have experienced this first hand throughout my life and want to always guard against it. I am not making any big announcement that I am going anywhere, but there will come the day that I will need a hip replacement and might not be able to stay up with HSM anymore. Here are some things we do in HSM to make sure it isn’t dependent on any one person.
- We don’t care how good you are at something; you shouldn’t do it all the time. No one speaks all the time, no one leads worship all the time, and no one plays any instrument all the time. Some areas are easier based on the people we have, but we want to set the precedent that we are always valuing multiple people and developing the next generation.
- Every position has an apprentice. We can improve in this, some grace groups are without co-leaders but again we want our movement to be reproducible in both people and DNA.
- Ministry (power, decisions, credit etc.) must be given away to others. You always hear to delegate for success and that means sharing the weight not just in title but everything.
I don’t want to be one of those people that makes my life and ministry sound like an ivory tower so I can’t pretend I accomplish this with perfection, but just wanted to get my thoughts up there.
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