I don’t do anything.
Most people assume that youth ministers truly don’t do anything. My favorite is when an eighth-grader asks me over lunch, “So what do you do all day? Play video games?”
Well sometimes my job does actually require that I play video games, that’s not really what it’s all about. But the other day a friend told me literally I don’t do anything.
I had a bit of concern for him and the future of his job when he finished his statement: I don’t do anything that I can ask a student to do instead.
That is brilliant!
So often youth ministers get bogged down in details and little tasks that they forget that part of their ministry is empowering students to do ministry!
What are the next five things you have to do for your ministry today? Are any of them things that you could ask a student to do instead?
Now don’t hear me incorrectly. I’m not saying that you should get a student to sort through your junk email box, or deal with an upset secretary, or even make that phone call you’ve been putting off for the last four days.
Don’t give students jobs that you don’t want to do. Instead ask yourself “can a student truly do what I am trying to?”
For a while, don’t have any limits on this. Ask yourself, “Could a student do my next Wednesday night talk? Could a student come with me on this hospital visit I need to make? Could a student write some of the devotional material for our next retreat?”
Don’t hog all the ministry yourself. Instead try to have the attitude of not doing anything.
Don’t do anything that you could ask a student to do instead and empower them for ministry!
