Youth Pastors are always talking about what standards they should expect of the leaders on their team. We thought it would be helpful for you to see another youth ministry’s leadership standards. Great fruit has been seen from the leaders that subscribed to this culture.

*****

LEADERSHIP CULTURE – WHO WE ARE

We do youth ministry because we have a passion to see young people encounter Christ and have their lives changed. We don’t do it because it’s something to do; we do it because we want to fight for our teenagers. We believe in them. In everything we do we try to honour God so we can confidently say, “follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Cor 11:1)

EXCELLENCE
– We are on time (lateness is saying “my time is more important than yours).
– We are organised and use a calendar (schedule appointments, write in leaders dates, organise your time).
– We obey the law. We don’t endanger the lives of our teenagers.
– We sit in the front rows of church (positioned to get input, seen by our teens).
– We value Sunday church.
– We are organised in our planning and preparation for the responsibilities we have for our connect groups and youth services.
– We are contactable and return phone calls / text messages.

CONVERSATION
– Our words value and uplift each other.
– We only speak positive words.
– We speak life into others; we see what God sees in them.
– We have each other’s backs in every conversation. We are each other’s biggest cheerleaders.
– We speak words of life about our kids.
– We fight for unity in our team in the way we speak about other leaders.

LEADERSHIP
– We book in meetings with our Youth Pastor regularly, just to talk about leadership & life.
– We spend time hanging out with other leaders and building our team.
– We guard our team. We do not let offence in. We fight for unity. If we have a problem with our Youth Pastor or another leader we talk about it straight away, let each other say sorry and move on. We do not come to youth nights offended. We forgive. (We do not let the sun go down on our anger).
– We tell each other the fantastic testimonies from our groups. We ask our Youth Pastor & peers for help with problems. When things happen in our lives or related to our leadership we tell our Youth Pastor straight away (problems with teens, car crashes, family crises etc).
– We apply leadership in our praise and worship. If we are not on stage or security we are down the front in praise and worship. We engage in worship, and encourage our teens to do the same.
– As a leader it is our job to always love people as Jesus does. We don’t accept or condone their sin. But above all else we show love.

DISCIPLESHIP

– We understand that nothing impacts a teenager’s life more than time. We have a massive influence in our teenager’s lives through the time we spend with them.

– We have at least one form of outside contact (besides youth and church) with our kids each week.

– We contact our regulars every week with out fail. We also make efforts to connect our non-regular teenagers into the youth ministry (don’t shy away from cold calls).

SERVING
– We are here to serve the church. CHURCH COMES FIRST.
– We are the strike force of the church. Any ministry, any event, we will be there and will support it. If something needs to be done, we will do it.
– We do anything we can do because we believe in the vision and leadership of the church. This bears good fruit for our youth ministry.
– We attend Church on Sundays, morning and night.
– We bring our A-Game on Friday nights
– We fulfil our rostered responsibilities and if we are unable to we let our Youth Pastor know with as much notice as possible. Sometimes we may need to find someone to replace ourselves with.

ACCOUNTABILITY
– We are accountable to the leaders above us because we know this develops our leadership skills and our relationship with God.
– We do not try to be perfect. When we make mistakes we bring them to our leaders and we work through them. We don’t hide them.
– When needed we will be given time off. This is time to improve ourselves and our walk with Christ so we can confidently say, “Come follow me as I follow Christ.”

PERSONAL STANDARDS
– We honour God in the things that we talk about.
– We honour God in the way we approach our relationships with other people (both platonic & romantic relationships)
– We maintain a high moral standard in every area of our personal lives. This includes the movies and TV shows we watch, the places we go, the things we like & post on social media, & even the things we pin on Pintrest etc. We should also be careful with the lack of accountability on apps like snapchat especially if you have friends of the opposite gender

YOU AND GOD
– More than anything, we value our own relationship with God.
– We spend time with God, reading our bible, praying, journaling and attending church. We stay fresh in leadership by staying close to God.
– We honour our parents and our family commitments.
– We can only take people as deep as we’ve been with God.
– We minister out of a full tank. A full tank means means feeding ourselves spiritually.
– We have leaders who we can go to who will speak into our lives about our relationship with God and others.
– We have good friends that we serve God with, iron sharpens iron.
– We have people under us that we are discipling in their relationship with God.
– We are in the world and not of it. We don’t conform to the pattern of this world. (Rom 12:2). We’ve drawn a clear line in the sand and we stand for a different way of life. People notice we’re different, not by what we say but by what they see. We are different from the world because of our choice to follow Jesus, not because we have accepted a set of rules.