LEADERSHIP
and the
COMMITMENT LEVEL MODEL

1. Bringing Change to an Existing Model
2. Developing Leadership for the Model
3. Handling Changes in Leadership
4. Implementing a Youth Council
5. Involving Leaders in Different Age Groups
6. Appointing a Youth Ministry Director

1. Bringing Change to an Existing Model

The church grouping to which I belong has come to the conclusion that "the traditional weekly, church-based, youth group meeting" doesn't work anymore." As a consequence, nothing is happening at all, although there is talk of organizing "home cell group". John Ritchie .

I agree in part with this conclusion. Although I feel that it is premature to close ministry down without some alternative being introduced as soon as possible. In fact, it is generally more wise to keep an existing ministry going while changes are introduced. The danger that this church may face is that when they want to start up some alternate ministry to "the traditional weekly, church-based, youth group meeting" they could find that they have lost contact with their core group and with many potential attenders.

In one sense, the traditional meeting is alive and well. Even if a group is only attracting a handful of people, at least that is a handful of people in an area who are being ministered to through the local church, and we all know what Jesus was able to do with eleven group members back in Palestine.

Our group's transition to commitment level programming took place over about a three year period, hardly over night. I don't think there are many churches that would stop Sunday morning worship services, while they look for a more contemporary form of worship. Rather they would continue meeting, possibly introduces changes as they are discovered, or begin a second service, such as a seeker-sensitive worship event. I suggest a similar strategy is followed in a youth group that wishes to transform their youth group meetings.

I once heard a youth worker talk about closing down a youth group and relaunching it after the old one has been laid to rest! I consider this a bit risky and not the best approach to take...although in certain cases I guess it could become necessary.

2. Developing Leadership for the Model

"I appreciate your youth ministry model explanation. The main drawback I see is in the need for adequate and multiple leaders and the organization stuff (admin) this model seems to require. For a church with no youth pastor or only a part-time youth pastor this model could be overwhelming."

Our youth group is not staffed by full-time workers. I lecture in youth ministry at a Theological College which means that I am in demand to speak at conferences, camps, church services, etc. Also I am rather busy with lecture preparation, presentation and managing distance students. I give two Friday nights a months to the youth group and two Sundays to the Fellowship. Sometimes I squeeze three Fridays in over a month, but this is rare. Obviously you cannot lead a youth group part-time (as in not attending each week). So we have appointed a young married couple to leader the group. They are busy, career orientated young adults who work long hours and do not have a whole lot of time to visit youth or lead mid-week programmes. What we have done is to structure the ministry around them.

I believe that the commitment-level programming strategy will work at whatever level of leadership the group has. And each group's leadership will implement the model to the extent that they are able to (given their constraints in terms of leadership potential, size of core group, spiritual state of youth, etc.). In the beginning we tried to make the most of the contact we had with youth without adding extra meetings. We were running the main programme together with follow-up and discipleship groups on the same evening - to make it easier for the youth leader in terms of time commitment. However, we have changed that as it was not working too well. The major problem was that the core group were involved in Bible study when the new youth, including visitors, were arriving at the group. They were not available to make contact with and develop relationships with the newcomers. Also, it limited the time the groups needed for their respective ministries. So we moved the growth group to a Sunday afternoon. This is working a whole lot better.

We implemented a care programme within the group to share the load of the youth leader in contacting and following-up on youth (both group members and newcomers). The leader has assigned to each young leader (we have about six leaders apart from the leadership couple) between five to eight people to care for. The leadership couple take responsibility to follow-up the newcomers and then hand them over to one of the care leaders. We are finding that this takes some of the pressure off the lay leader, and is a fulfillment of the Biblical role of leadership which is to "prepare God's people for works of service" (Ephesians 4:11f).

The model looks neat on paper. However, in real-life spirituality growth is not so neat. Spiritual growth happens: (1) in spurts (my three year old son grows in sudden leaps, not gradually), (2) through pain (my son experienced growing pains in his knees) and (3) individually (my daughter's walking and talking happened at a different pace to that of my son).

But the model is still helpful as it gives us a framework to ensure that all the bases are covered with regard to the ministry of discipleship that Christ has commissioned us to be involved in. We need to be set up to handle the various stages that people will pass through, or at least have programmes that can kick in when needed.

As leaders, we never feel that we are doing enough. In fact, I do not know of a youth pastor who goes to sleep at the end of an evening feeling like their job is done. There is always more that can be done: more youth to visit or more work to put into a youth talk. But with a comprehensive strategy we can ensure that we are working effectively to reach and disciple youth in Christ Jesus.

3. Handling Changes in Leadership
Recently I took over from the youth pastor of our group for an interim period and then handed over to the new youth leader when he arrived. It was not an easy time, but I believe that it was a successful transition because of the following:

A. Show Support for the Previous Leader
I made it a point to never run down the previous or the new leader, to be affirming and supportive of them and their ministry in the group. The first transition worked well because we had worked together for a while and shared a similar heart for ministry among the youth.

B. Spend Time with the New Leader
When the new leader arrived I spent a lot of time sharing with him about where the group had come from and where it was going. This helped us to develop a sense of oneness in terms of our personal relationship and well as our ministry philosophies. At times I wondered whether he was grasping our concept of commitment level youth ministry, and even needed to back off at times and allow him to do things his way. I would remain on the sidelines as a coach when necessary.

C. Positively Promote the New Leader
In all my interaction with youth I would always refer them to the new leader. Maybe this is what John the Baptist was trying to do in getting people to look past him to Christ (it is significant to note that he battled with this same issue at times, he even had doubts at some stage as to whether Jesus was who he said he was). It is very easy to undermine the new leader and what he is trying to accomplish. We should be careful to not allow youth to play us off against them.

4. Implementing a Youth Council
The vision is for our whole church to be run with a commitment-level philosophy. That means that every age group within the church should eventually be functioning according to the model. Even church services should be targeted at different levels, such as at seekers and at believers. Specifically for youth ministry, this means that the pre-school, children's, teenage, and young adults ministies need to adopt the model. In order to co-ordinate all ministry among youth it is important to introduce a Youth Council. Read more about implementing the Youth Council.

5. Involving Leaders in Different Age Groups
A final emphasis of the combined model is the involvement of leaders in the younger group. For example, some of the teenagers can be involved in the leadership of the children's group depending on their spiritual maturity and gifting. The same happens with young adults in the teenage group (this implies that we need middle-aged adults to be involved in the young adults group). I am convinced that each generation should be reaching back to pass on what they have learned to the generation following behind them - this is the heart of Paul's discipleship by multiplication emphasis in 2 Timothy 2:2: "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others" (NIV).

6. Appointing a Youth Ministry Director
In order to ensure effective co-ordination of all ministry among youth in a local church, the leadership should consider appointing, either in a part time or a full-time capacity, a youth ministry director. The job description for such a position is as follows:

A. Description
In seeking to provide comprehensive ministry to the whole spectrum of youth within the church a Youth Ministry Director shall be appointed with oversight of all youth ministry (we shall define the phrase youth broadly, including people from birth up to the age of around 35).

B. Scope
At present, the following ministries are involved: pre-school, children, teenagers, young adults and young mothers. Ministries shall be age-defined and involve various purposes within each age-group, ie. outreach, worship, fellowship, discipleship and ministry.

C. Functioning
The Director shall function through a Youth Ministry Council consisting of a representative from each age-specific ministry, as well as youth specialists within the church, such as social workers, counsellors, parents or concerned adults.

D. Responsibilities
The Youth Ministry Director shall have the following responsibilities:

(1) Consult
To develop each age-specific ministry according to the commitment level philosophy of ministry (ministering to people at each level of spiritual commitment) - where ministry is extensive in scope (reaching and discipling youth) and intensive in depth (caring for and developing youth and leaders); to communicate a vision for ministry that is relational, incarnational and purposeful with each group; to help each ministry create strategies and programmes that accomplish their objectives; and to inform the church on these ministries, allowing youth to impact adults and adults to impact the youth.

(2) Coordinate
To ensure continuity between the various ministries so that the transitions between the various groups are as smooth as possible and that as few youth are lost to the church as possible; to provide a unified sense of purpose and direction in terms of focus and curriculum (without necessarily studying the same material); to organize combined events that bring the different groups together, and to share resources between the groups.

(3) Care
To shepherd the leaders of the various ministries by giving them ownership, rewarding them verbally and visually, never allowing any unfair criticism to be directed toward them, and standing up for them as their advocate while allowing fair criticism. This will also require being involved in their lives as a spiritual mentor and friend.

(4) Communicate
The Youth Director will report to the church, as represented by the churches leadership team. A representative from that leadership team may be a part of the Youth Council.

Read about the Role of Leaders in the model.

Read an Insider's Perspective on ministry organisation at Windsor Fellowship.