From Good to Great Youth Ministry Part 1

So I’m in my third go of reading Jim Collins’ book Good to Great. This is a book I find that has helped me organize and simplify the youth ministry at our church. And after this third go around I thought I would share some of my insights from the book and how it applies to youth ministry. I hope this will be helpful to some of you.

Jim Collins wrote this book by compiling a team of researchers to examine many different companies. Over the span of months and years the researchers compiled data that put some companies in a “good” category and some companies in a “great”. After comparing the “good” with the “great” the team came up with several factors of what makes a great company great. So if you haven’t already I encourage you to check it out but here is the first factor.

Factor #1: Level 5 Leadership

Summary:
This first factor can be read about in any leadership book, what the researches generally found is that all “great” companies had what they called Level 5 Leaders. These leaders are described as passionate, meaning they did everything possible to make sure their company would succeed. They were not only passionate about what they did but made sure that everyone around them and then followed them succeeded as well. Being a Level 5 Leader means having a great sense of humility, when things went poorly they looked at themselves, when things went great they attributed it to factors other than themselves.
They found that some people are just born as Level 5 Leaders; however, for the rest of us, this is something we can work on, if aware of our strengths and weaknesses. But the one thing they found is that the majority of Level 5 Leaders that they examined came and grew from within the company, only a small percentage came from the outside.

How this translate:
After reading this chapter about Level 5 Leaders I asked myself, “How am I viewed by my ministers, coworkers, teens, parents, church members, etc.” Not that I’m self-conscience about who I am, but I was curious to see where I am as a leader. I was also curious as to whether or not I’m raising Level 5 Leaders in ministry.

In youth ministry it’s easy to find youth workers who make it all about them…but can you really blame them? It’s so tempting to take all the credit, it’s so tempting to jump in the spot light and it’s so tempting to point the finger when things go wrong…because we are underpaid, our helpers are volunteers, teenagers are apathetic, the media has more money, parents don’t care, etc.
This chapter about Level 5 Leadership is a good reminder for us all to examine who we are as a leader. Some good questions to ask ourselves are:

1. When something goes wrong, who or what gets the blame and is it justified?
2. When I leave this ministry will it sink or swim?
3. What drives me to do this ministry?

Next Characteristic of Good to Great: First Who…Then What