This is part 6 of 10 from our series. This post will be focusing on the involvement of a youth minister outside of the office and regular youth group activities.
I wanted to focus on this topic a little bit because of a situation I was in not long ago. Our pastor decided to allow a group of people from the parish work to make our parish a more professional business environment. They came out with an employee manual. There were a few things that I could talk about from this manual but there is one that I wanted to focus on. The manual required that any full-time paid employees were required to have at least 30 hours of set office hour time through out the week. Before this time, I was not required to be in the office any set time. I did my job, kept the program active, and came when I needed something.
Right after the meeting we had to implement this new policy, I requested to meet with our pastor to discuss it. To be blunt, I was not going to sit in my office for 30 hours a week. I met with my boss and a lady from the parish who was heading up these new changes. In discussing my regular weekly hours and what I did, I mentioned taking kids out to eat and going to sporting events. Right away I was stopped and told that “those extra leisure activities do not count as work.” I fought the battle a bit and won, but that initial misconception of what my job really is helped me understand a bit more about the average joe in the parish who has no idea what youth ministry really is. Do they really pay someone to hang out with kids? Well it’s much more than that, but many see it as that. I am going to focus on three things; the best ways to be involved, being involved without being ‘involved’, and non-youth parish involvement.
The Best Ways To Be Involved
There are so many ways to be involved. Going to sporting events, plays, and school concerts are a few ways to be seen. Taking kids out to eat, calling them to check up, and engaging in conversation with them when you them are also great ways. To figure the best ways to be involved think of these things:
- Am I showing that I care by doing this?
- Is it something regular that will help build relationships with youth and/or parents?
- How big of a time commitment is it?
- Will I be able to take a break from it if other things come up?
- Is it necessary for me to get involved?
- Will I keep a good balance in my life between work and home if I get involved?
- How personal will I be able to connect with those involved?
If you can weigh these things out, it will help you much more. I play guitar and was very involved in helping with the school Mass at our private Catholic school in town. Since I was there every week, kids were used to being able to hand in applications, talk to me, and expect me there. I was also able to connect with new youth each week because of there being different singers and musicians as time went on. Unfortunately, it was requiring about 3 hours a week when I boiled it down. We practiced for about an hour, Mass was an hour long, and in between there I was stuck at the school because it wasn’t enough time for me to get anything else done. Ultimately I realized I only had about 20 minutes where I was talking and being able to connect with kids. Those 20 minutes were very valuable, but I was able to find other things that were a better investment of my time.
I would recommend writing down two new ways every six months to try and be involved and test them out. If it ends up really being helpful, than consider doing it regularly.
One big thing to help is to think about ways to be involved that do not add things to your plate. If you enjoy going to plays, then capitalize on that. If you are going out to eat for lunch every Wednesday anyway, then why not stop at the school and have lunch there. Sometimes it is not about planning more activities to connect with kids, but allowing kids to be part of your life.
Being Involved Without Really Being ‘Involved’
This is a hard one to swallow for some. We can NOT be involved in the life of all of our youth group. I recently learned at a conference about engaging in some students and be involved in others. They talked about hand picking students that are ready for the relationship of a mature Catholic adult in their life that will challenge them. They said if you have a small group of 6-8 people, you should have a goal of being involved in 1-3 of their lives and engaging the others. Meaning, when you make an intentional effort to connect with 1-3 of the kids outside of your regular meetings but when you see the others you are totally engaged in conversation with them. Jesus did this with the apostles. He had 12 in his group and hand picked the ones who were truly ready for relationship and the challenges that came with it.
Engaging in the others is the most important part of this. Yes you are sort of picking favorites, but if you truly give your attention to everyone who comes your way, they will notice that. Some of the youth will need your involvement to be the people that will become. At the same time, there will be great kids that have enough support and involvement in their lives and do not require your extra efforts.
Non-Youth Parish Involvement
I bring this one up because the funny thing is about my beginning story of office hours is that once I did talk them down to 20 hours a week, I would bet that I spend at least five hours a week helping the staff out in the office with duties that do not apply to my job. Since I proficient with computers I am called out of my office at least 2-3 times a day to help them with something. I just thought it was humorous how those were counted as youth ministry hours but going somewhere to connect with youth was not.
Be careful what you say yes to in the parish. Since you are so close to the other staff that are always looking for help, you will be asked. Whenever you are asked to be involved in something, ask yourself the same questions above. Will this take away from your duties as a youth director? It is important to work together as a staff, but I have found that if it has nothing to do with youth, they understand if you say no. Just don’t expect their help in similar situation!
Last thing on this topic is about calls on community service and projects. You will get TONS of calls from people who need lawns raked or their dishes done after a big event. I got to the point where I just told the person that I would send a quick email out with their information and opportunity. I was not going to be a hire-a-kid service and let that consume my job. You may get some grief about it, but you are setting yourself for a long and painful ride if you start something like that.
Set yourself up for what is important and that is connecting with youth and teaching them about Christ. Our next post will be on Curriculum. What do you start with when beginning a new youth group?
