4 ways to encourage your leaders for sustainable ministry
As we move into the sustainable season of ministry during COVID-19, how can you encourage your leaders to serve in new ways?
Minutes after they won their first ever NBA basketball championship, Chicago Bull’s Coach Phil Jackson grabbed a tearful Michael Jordan and whispered in his ear “you did it the right way”. Michael Jordan was a basketball megastar, but his team had never won the championship. What changed in 1990/91? It was his decision to trust his teammates. For years he had only trusted himself to win games with great success. But in that 7th season, he and his coach deliberately worked on using the strengths of the whole team. What resulted was the first of six NBA championships.
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Wise Christian leadership in the different seasons of COVID-19
Seek to lead people boldly through the seasons
There have been some Michael Jordan-like efforts by youth and children ministers in the reaction season of COVID-19. Amid stressful change, new skills have been acquired and plans enacted to launch adapted ministries. Amazing creativity has been unearthed, new collaborations between churches started and a renewed focus on discipleship relationships. God’s leaders have experienced deep joy in prayer as they depend on God’s grace and guidance and sovereign power. Now as the weeks become more predictable, youth and children ministers are pivoting their patterns and priorities for the season of sustainable ministry.
One key priority in this season will be to adopt the lesson Michael Jordan embraced in 1990/91 (I apologise if the basketball analogies are not working for you). During the reaction stage, ministers did everything. They were the technical experts, Zoom hosts, preachers, online game researchers, care pack delivery drivers and decision makers. Many went back to ‘doing’ ministry rather than leading the ministry through volunteer leaders. This was a wise decision as everyone was adapting to a unique world moment. However, as we enter the sustainable ministry season, church leaders need to pivot their focus from themselves to volunteers, for their own benefit and that of the ministry. The daily question has changed from “what ministry can I run this weekend” to “how am I equipping and encouraging God’s people to serve”? Effective ministry in this season will depend on our answer to this question.
Leading volunteers in this season requires creativity and careful thought. Everyone is experiencing quarantine fatigue, Zoom exhaustion and emotional ups and downs. We cannot run teams online as we used to before social isolation. But the goal remains the same. Our role is to equip our leaders for works of service (Ephesians 4:12), encourage, comfort and urge them to live lives worthy of God (1 Thessalonians 2:12) and point them to Christ as the model and reason we serve young people (Mark 10:45). The challenge is doing this in new, creative ways. We do not want volunteer leaders to feel sidelined or simply delegated to but engaged as part of an engaged, functioning body with common goals (1 Corinthians 12:12-14).
What can we do to equip and encourage God’s leaders during the sustainable season? Here are four ideas that will help you:
Coach the team
The basketball coach grows the skills and performance of players and teams. They delegate the role of logistics to the team manager, so they can focus on the players.
Similarly, our volunteer leaders need a coach. Leading ministry teams is so much more than organising rosters and running Zoom meetings. The coach grows each leader as a follower of Jesus and shepherd for Jesus. We grow leaders by praying with them, reading the Bible with them and working with them on their godly character, Biblical convictions and how they are serving Jesus. The coach grows teams by building godly culture, modelling godly activities and regularly celebrating the grace of God in Jesus and the work of the Spirit in our ministries.
The sustainable season is a great opportunity for team training. Youthworks Ministry Support have a selection of online training options for your team, or we can help you write your own. Now is the time to coach leaders because we know that godly leaders and teams leads to effective ministry.
Adjust the locker room chat
The locker room is where the team meets and talks. Often the TV pictures show coaches talking and talking while players count the bricks on the wall. The great coaches get their players talking.
Who does most of the talking in your leader’s meetings? One of the challenges we all face is generating conversation on Zoom. we have done lots of talking over the last 6 weeks. The sustainable season is the time to adjust the locker room chat, giving your leaders a bigger voice and reducing your own voice. Zoom leaders’ meetings need more planning than physical meetings. Communicate with leaders before the meeting the topics being discussed and how you want them to prepare. During the meeting utilise breakout rooms so they can chat without you there. Fight the temptation to aim for efficiency. Instead persistently aim to grow the voices of the team, because we know that invested leaders leads to effective ministry.
Pass the ball
In game 5 of the 1991 NBA finals the scores were even. Coach Jackson challenged Michael Jordan, “Paxton is open: pass the ball”. Michael responded. Instead of trusting himself to win the game, he passed to Paxton five times and the rest is history.
Youth and children’s ministers have been holding the ball through the reaction season. Now is the time to pass the ball. Passing the ball is not simply delegating tasks like running a small group. Passing the ball is looking at the important things you are currently doing, such as writing small group material, ringing parents, hosting youth group, and asking leaders to step up and lead this for the team.
Passing the ball is always risky. Leaders may not be ready. They may drop it and some can fail. But often the issue is us because we don’t like giving up control. The reality is we cannot single-handedly do effective ministry throughout COVID-19. We can do effective ministry if we pass the ball and invite leaders to serve in significant and real ways.
Write the new playbook with your leaders
Basketball playbooks are full of x’s, o’s and arrows. Some coaches prepare all the different plays and give them to players to memorise and enact. Other coaches develop plays with their teams. The sustainable season provides a unique, God given moment to review our ministry playbooks. Social isolation has blown away the chaff and shown us what is important. Take this opportunity to involve your leaders in reviewing and writing the new playbook for the ministry.
Start by exploring the biblical principles that shape the ministry. Explore what Jesus says about leadership and gospel ministry, how the early church worked, the role of God’s church in this moment of salvation history. Unpack the doctrines of revelation, humanity, mission, salvation and ecclesiology in relation to your ministries. Work together to clearly articulate the ‘why’ and ‘who’ of the ministry. Then empower leaders to turn these principals into ministry practices. Brainstorm what new gatherings and small groups might look like, rethink camps, build training systems, evangelism pipelines and transition strategies for 0-25 years olds. What may result may be very similar to pre-COVID. The difference will be that the playbook will be developed by the team starting from the Bible not institutional history.
The sustainable season is upon us. How will you do this season “the right way”? Our goal is not to win a basketball championship. We lead boldly to bring glory to Jesus and see young people trust and follow him now and for their entire lives.
