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After three years of youth ministry I had a hard conversation with my pastor and associate to the pastor. It was about the struggling high school ministry at our church and they asked me, “Are you willing to make a change?”. In a church that was rapidly growing our high school program was not. On top of dwindling numbers there was a lack of energy and commitment.
They suggested I look at moving the program from Sunday to Thursdays. At first I wanted to push back on their idea. It seemed like an insignificant change, it meant a new schedule and I questioned whether they were fully aware of the obstacles a midweek ministry would face. Nonetheless I had to make the change.
Six years later the high school ministry is growing deeper and wider. Little did we know that changing from a Sunday to a Thursday gave us the freedom we needed to grow, and invest in this next generation. A simple change lead to big gain.
Right now there is something you need to change in your ministry to take it to the next level. It could be something BIG and it can be something SMALL. To make any change is difficult and to do so you need to be willing to face the obstacles change will bring. Some of those obstacles are:
FEAR
The reason you are afraid to make that change is because you fear:
Change will bring most if not all of those things; however, that’s okay because IT help you grow. You cannot allow fear to hold you back from altering your ministry, canceling an event or taking a break. When you overcome your fears you make bold moves to create big change. To overcome your fears surround yourself with people to cheer you on and trust in God to lead you.
LIMITATIONS
Sometimes you don’t see the change because you’ve been stuck in the trenches of youth ministry for too long. To create more capacity as a leader you need to gain new insight. I try to gather new volunteers and ask them questions such as:
A new perspective on what you’ve always been doing will help you see how you’ve limited yourself. It will help you see all of the details you’ve been missing in order to create growth.
PRIDE
You might be the reason why your ministry cannot change. It’s not that you don’t want to change, it’s just that you cannot take the ministry where it needs to go. This doesn’t mean stepping down, it just means entrusting certain responsibilities to key leaders. Allow their skills and talents to take it to new limits. If you think you can do it all you’ll end up not doing much.
A lack of trust, limitations and fears are all things that can hold you back from making your youth ministry into a movement. God has asked you to lead this next generation to make a difference, that doesn’t just mean thinking outside of the box. To lead a movement you need to know whether or not you are willing to change.
What are some other obstacles that prevent us from changing?