While I've never had the desire to be a diocesan director, they are some of my favorite people. I'll never forget one of them telling me, "If you love working with teens, you should be a youth minister, but if you love working with the adults who love teens, you should be a diocesan director."
The ones I work with have a big vision for ministry with young people and their families. They love the ministry leaders they are responsible for, even if they don't know how to show it.
The biggest challenge I see diocesan directors face is serving an array of ministry leaders. Some are full-time, many aren't. Some serve rural parishes, others urban or suburban. Add a variety of experiences and parish dynamics, and it's no wonder training them can be tough.
You have an office of one responsible for dozens, and in some cases hundreds, of parish leaders. So what do you do? How do you build up a diocesan-sized group of leaders? Here are a few things I've seen make a difference.
If a leader can't come to the training, the training has to go to the leader. Before you jump in the car to visit each parish, consider hosting virtual get-togethers. When you do have an in-person training, record it, break it into short pieces, and send them out the week after. A 5-minute video watched on a Tuesday afternoon does more than a full day nobody could attend.
Most parishes don't struggle because of bad lesson plans. They struggle because the leader is doing everything alone. Spend your training time on the things that keep people in ministry: recruiting and keeping volunteers, handling a difficult parent, and setting boundaries so ministry doesn't swallow their life.
I know it's tempting to introduce new programs and initiatives, but the skills that keep a leader in ministry will serve your diocese longer than any of them.
Attendance tells you who showed up. It doesn't tell you if training worked. Track a few simple numbers each year:
Most of this can be tracked with a simple follow-up phone call. A survey can gather the info, but a phone call invites a deeper conversation about what helped and how they are feeling. What you learn will shape your future trainings.
Every diocese has a handful of leaders you can't afford to lose. Check in with them personally. Consider getting them a coach. This isn't playing favorites. Your high-capacity leaders will often give the diocese more once they see the diocese investing in them.
When I was in parish ministry, I always appreciated the diocesan directors reaching out to me just to see what was going on in my life. They would talk about the exciting things they were learning, and even invite me to join them at workshops and conferences. It never felt like they were asking something from me. It felt like they were inviting me to grow as a leader.
None of this requires a bigger budget. If you're a parish leader, much of this applies to your volunteers too.
That director was right. This is what loving the adults who love teens looks like. It means going to them and investing in them. It means calling just to see how they're doing.
When we built M2GO, we wanted more than a library of training materials. We wanted a community that supports the leaders using them. If you are a diocesan director looking for help building and training your ministry leaders, take a look: https://marathonyouthministry.com/ministry2go