How To Challenge Yourself As A Leader

It’s easy to get comfortable and that’s a good thing, right?  It feels good for a while but it doesn’t last forever.  The problem with hitting cruise control in youth ministry is you start to lose influence, which means losing purpose.

Courtesy of Steve Snodgrass/Creative Commons License

As a leader you need to look at ways of challenging yourself.  That means growing as a leader, learning and making sure your ministry continues to grow.  To keep things slightly uncomfortable; yet, highly effective you need to:

DELEGATE RESPONSIBILITY

Your ministry can be limited by your leadership if you are doing all the work.  That might feel comfortable because you know how it needs to get done.  But, in the end you’ll burn yourself out.

Delegating is a challenge because it means learning to trust others.  When you trust others you can bring your ministry to a new level because it means new ideas.

TAKE ON THE BLAME AND SHARE THE GLORY

When you are the leader people will look to you to explain why things go well and why they go bad.  The comfortable reaction is to take the glory and distribute the blame.

When you take the blame and share the glory you show people that you care about the team.  It communicates that you have their best interest at heart.  It’s challenging because it might mean taking the heat when you don’t deserve it, but it will show your team that you care about them.

ALLOW FOR HONEST FEEDBACK

When you don’t ask anyone what they think it’s easy to come to your own conclusions.  Receiving honest feedback means confronting brutal truths.  Confronting brutal truths means being open to change.

When you open yourself up to honest feedback you communicate, “Your opinion matters.”  It shows that people can approach you and contribute to the health of your ministry.  It also prevents you from growing stagnant.

DO NOT FEAR FAILURE

Once you find the right system it’s easy to just put it in cruise control.  The problem is that you lose relevancy and no one will want to be a part of your ministry.

Taking risks doesn’t mean you are reckless it just means you know that you need to keep growing.  Look at failure as a learning opportunity.  Remind yourself and your team that it’s not the end.

Youth ministry gets messy because it’s constantly changing and growing.  Do not let yourself get too comfortable.  Set goals, delegate responsibility and continue to challenge yourself to be better at what you do.