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Does Your Job Description Match What Your Really Do?
Christopher Wesley
Dec 17, 2018
If you put ten youth ministers in a room I’m willing to bet you’d get ten different job descriptions. It’s something that’s had me puzzled for years, but over time have realized that:
Every church is in a different environment which leads to different responsibilities (e.g. rural vs. urban)
Not everyone is on the same page with what youth ministry should cover (e.g. religious education, confirmation, CYO)
The landscape of youth ministry is changing as the development of lay ecclesial staff increases
When you don’t have clarity it’s easy to lose focus, get frustrated and lose hope. Job descriptions should be a priority because it’ll help your staff answer the WHY, WHAT and HOW of what you want them to do. If you haven’t created a job description for your position or you are looking to update them make sure they include:
THE OVERALL PURPOSE OF YOUR POSITION
Why does your position exist? This is a question we should be asking ourselves on a regular basis. It allows us to sort through what matters to our day to day tasks and roles. The answers to that question protects us from doing tasks that might take us away from our overall mission.
Don’t get stuck in the details, that is what your roles and responsibilities do. This should be a statement that paints the bigger picture, for example:
Overall Purpose: The Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry is responsible for growing next generation disciples to be active and future participants of Insert Parish Name Here and the Universal Church, this will be done by providing faith formation and service opportunities for middle, high school and young adults.
Know the WHY behind what you do so that you can have clear direction and remember that your job is a part of something bigger.
SPECIFIC ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Now that you know the WHY it’s important to know the WHAT. Your specific roles and responsibilities are a response to your overall purpose. If you are going to grow next generation disciples or interact in the community you need to know what that looks like.
How many roles and responsibilities should be on your job description? That should depend on the size of your church, whether or not your are full time and the resources you have available. No matter what your job is there should be three responsibilities that should be on every job description:
- Working and collaborating with staff at the parish
- Managing, recruiting and training volunteers to carry forth the mission of the ministry.
- Advocating and promoting initiatives of the ministry
They promote teamwork, delegation and communication. You might not have a big budget, or a large staff, but these three positions expand your capacity.
CLEAR EXPECTATIONS SURROUNDING YOUR SCHEDULE AND BUDGET
After the WHY, the WHAT it’s now figuring out the HOW. How is the job going to get done? That means knowing when you work, when you are off, and what resources you have to work with. Too many times I meet church employees who feel burnout because they feel pressured to do everything without anything.
When you have your schedule and budget on the job description it helps you figure out how you will get the job done. You don’t have to provide great detail, but it helps develop a game plan. It gives you permission to rest, and it’s a guide to have tough conversations whenever you feel like you are working too much or don’t have enough.
Job descriptions are key because it not only protects the employee, but gives the employer a way of measuring the productivity of his or her staff. Even if you do not have paid staff, providing a job description gives your entire team clarity. It also allows you to serve your team better because if tasks aren’t being performed you can look at it to figure things out. Provide job descriptions and you’ll provide clarity and with that clarity come confident employees.
It takes time to develop a solid job description and at Marathon Youth Ministry we can help. For further guidance just shoot us an email at questions@marathonyouthministry.com.