![]() ![]() Calendaring: This is when I schedule upcoming special events like social events, service events, retreats, and trips. I also meet one-on-one with my boss to celebrate what God's doing in our ministries and troubleshoot any problems I'm facing. These meetings help us stay informed about what's happening in each area of ministry as well as the church as a whole. Staff meetings and one-on-one's with my boss: Each week, I attend a weekly staff meeting with my colleagues at church. Set-up and clean-up: Every program also requires room set-up and clean-up. Still others I use it for formal training. Other weeks I use it for meeting one-on-one with leaders. Some weeks I use this time for recruitment. Since I know this, each week I spend time investing in adult leaders. Investment in adult leaders: Good ministry cannot happen by yourself. This gives me an opportunity to interact with teen's families and to show teens that I care about their lives outside of church as well. For example, this Friday, I'll be attending one of my student's Christmas concerts. Supporting teens outside the walls of the church: Whenever possible, I try to attend events that teens are involved with. ![]() In addition to giving me more face-time with teens, these events also require additional preparation time during the week. Extra events: Approximately twice a month, we hold an extra event like a social or service event or a book club. Additionally, even though I'm not the person who leads this, each week I also write the curriculum for our confirmation's Sunday school class. ![]() Preparation for time with teens: Though there's no hard and fast rule for this, in general, it takes me approximately two hours to prep an hour of face-time with teens (regardless of whether that's a one-on-one meeting with a teen or one of our weekly programs.) This prep time can be spent on a variety of things including reading background material to prepare for whatever it is I'm teaching on, writing a talk or discussion, reading the book I'm discussing with one of the girls I mentor, creating experiential activities, or even buying supplies for games or experiential activities. The other two are with teens I want to check-in with, follow-up on something with, or need to meet with for something like a Leadership Team Interview, discussion prep, or a one-on-one debriefing of our summer mission trip. My goal is one such meeting each week day work day, which amounts to four of these meetings a week. Time with teens outside of weekly programming: In any given week, I also meet with a lot of teens one-on-one. Time with teens in weekly programs: In my context, I lead three weekly gatherings with youth each week – Sunday school, an hour long Leadership Team meeting, and a Wednesday night gathering. So here's what an average week as a youth pastor entails: And from random people on vacation whenever I find myself in the “What do you do?” conversation. After doing so, I almost always get the question, “But what is it you do during the day? You know, when we're not around?” I've gotten the same questions from parents. While it made me chuckle, I couldn't help but think, “This confusion is real.” People really don't understand what it is we do.Īnd this is true not just of people outside the church, but inside the church as well.Īt each of the three churches I've worked at, there's come a point when I've had to explain to the teens I serve that I actually work for the church. Earlier this year, this youth minister meme began showing up everywhere in social media: ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |