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Transforming YOUth--From Little League to the Big Leagues: Developing a Long-Range View of Youth Ministry Leadership

Shane W. Parker

The varsity baseball team had struggled for years. They had gone through countless coaches, with countless strategies, but none of them worked. The school began to wonder if it was worth the expense and effort to continue offering the spring sport. The athletic director finally decided to hire a new coach and give it one last shot.

This new coach wanted to see his players, his team, his school be successful on the diamond; he had, however, a far different approach than his predecessors. Each previous coach focused on the molding and shaping of his team from the time they were in tenth grade until they graduated. Beyond this, there was no real interest in the players. The new coach focused on building a working relationship with the little league organization in the immediate and surrounding areas. He had a vested interest, and eventually a leadership role, in the baseball program for four-year-old kids. He did this with the anticipation that if he could influence and have a relationship with these children and their families for over ten years before they entered his program, he could groom high caliber players.

The coach, however, looked beyond his program and formed a strong relationship with colleges throughout the southeastern United States and beyond. He wanted to insure that his program produced players that could not only play at the college level, but be successful. Did his plan work? The once weak team has become the top team in their region and frequently wins the state championship. In roughly two decades, there has always been an all-state player from this team. Many years there are multiple players and the player of the year often comes from this team. These players consistently go on to play at Division I colleges and directly to the minor leagues. A dozen have gone on to the majors, and as you might guess, the coach has won scores of awards recognizing his proficiency as a coach and a leader.

What does this have to do with youth ministry? Everything. A thriving youth ministry will produce God-enthralled students who are “successful” for the duration of their lives. Short-term, quick fix, entertainment-driven leadership fails to be leadership, but long-range, purpose-focused leadership looks at what will benefit students and the student ministry for decades to come. There are several principles which can give your leadership longevity.

First, little league and college ball are important to your success. Children’s, youth and college ministry are dependent on one another, or at least they should be. The children will form the future of the youth ministry and the youth will form the future of the college ministry and so forth. Take an interest in the children’s success in their family lives and spiritual maturity. Also, form a close working relationship with the volunteers or paid staff involved in college ministry. This will give your students a smooth and informed transition into this “next step” because the college ministry will understand their needs.

Second, expect high caliber play from your players. A coach expects his players to perform at their best. He expects them to show up for practice focused and on-time. Expect your students to be faithful to Christ, the youth ministry, and your church as a whole. Don’t use the excuse that “they are still young.” That is largely a culturally-bound justification. There are twelve year olds in some cultures who are married with children and serve as soldiers. Performance and maturity are conditioned by expectation. If you expect little from your students, that is exactly what you will get, and they will see that their schools and sports teams expect excellence and wonder why the church doesn’t expect anything. “It must not be as important as they say it is,” will be their assumption.

A long-range look at your students allows you to formulate a picture of how they will look, act and think years from now. It enables you to set down approaches and methodologies that will lead to that picture becoming a reality. The successful coach took a patient long-range view to his program, and so should the student ministers that want to produce successful, mature followers of Christ.

Shane Parker has been involved in multiple areas of student ministry for close to a decade. He has served as a Student Minister in North and South Carolina, and as a student event and conference speaker in the Carolinas, Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Washington, Utah, Wyoming, and Southeast Asia. He is a graduate of Columbia International University (B.A.); Columbia Seminary (M.A.); and Southeastern Seminary (M.Div.). Shane and his wife, Lydia, reside in Louisville, Kentucky, where he is the Student Minister at Gardenside Baptist Church in Lexington. He has a central passion to equip students, and student pastors, for the uncompromising glorification of God in intensive study and ministry. If you would like to schedule Shane for an event, or just talk about life and ministry, you may reach him by email swp76@msn.com

Need Help Launching a Spiritual Gifts Ministry, Small Group Ministry, or Benevolence Ministry at Your Church? Teena Stewart is an experienced ministry consultant, writer and speaker. She has developed resources for these ministries. Be sure to check out MIM's resource pages at Bookshop She is also available to speak and lead seminars at your church to help equip your leaders and members for success in these ministry areas. For more information contact us with your specific needs at Speakers

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Login Leadership, Cycles, Part II

By Tom Hanover

Effective leadership of a church requires the leader to understand the internal dynamics of a congregation and how to direct these energies towards mission and ministry. Life cycles become a helpful tool for understanding these dynamics.

In 1986 Martin Saarinen published an article with Alban Institute entitled, “The Life Cycle of a Congregation.” He parallels the typical cycle of human life with the ups and downs of a church. The unique difference is that churches can choose the stage in which they want to live.

Part 1 of this article can be found in the May 15 issue.

The birth stage of a new ministry or congregation is an exciting time. People are thrilled to be part of something new, hopeful, and promising. There are few programs, little administration, and minimal attention to the processes for including new people. Everyone is new. The enthusiasm and excitement is contagious.

Babies, however, don’t stay little forever and churches cannot survive at that level indefinitely. In the infancy stage energy and excitement are still high. But there is more intentional work to reach out to new people and assimilate them into the group.

Many congregations launch creative marketing approaches such as giving away bottled water at the community parade or free hot dogs at the football game. The plan is to engage new people and get to know them. It may seem that infant congregations lack focus, but the energy and possibilities of the future drive the mission and vision of the congregation.

Programs are needed In the adolescent stage. Like a young teen starting music lessons or joining scouts, programs begin to encourage growth and maturity. So a congregation begins children’s ministries or small group studies. Programs begin to develop to encourage growth and maturity.

In the prime stage the congregation is at its peak. All of the four elements are healthy, balanced, and functioning at a high level. The momentum of each of the elements feeds the vitality of the others. Every congregation wants to reach this stage.

But it is difficult to sustain this high level for extended periods. Change is inevitable. Energy eventually declines. The vision becomes stale. Even the best of congregations with excellent leadership will gradually slide into maturity.

In the maturity stage the congregation is still involved in effective ministries and programs. The life of the congregation is well ordered and administered. The church continues to work at engaging the community and assimilating new persons. But the energy begins to dissipate. Attendance plateaus. Volunteers are not as plentiful as before. The faithful core shows signs of burn-out.

If the decline is not interrupted, the congregation will slide into aristocracy. Saarinen’s term does not match a stage of human life, but it does describe the culture of the congregation. Energy continues to weaken. Programs decline. The church is well organized, but only because they are doing what they have been doing for years. The “I” factor is predominant, but not because the congregation is assimilating new people. On the other hand, defining who is in and who is not is a dominant topic of conversation. It is like distinguishing between those of privilege and the commoner.

In the next stage, the administrative/organizational element continues to function well. There is, however, little energy, few programs, and minimal interest in the outside world. Most of the organization’s attention is given to survival or maintaining the status quo.

In the last stage the energy, programs, and outreach to the community are not only diminished; but nonexistent. For all intents and purposes the church is dead.

Saarinen’s point is this. Churches can choose the stage in which they want to live. Decline and death are not inevitable, but a choice. Every cycle can be changed. Growth stages can be aborted. Decline stages can be interrupted. New cycles of growth and health can be initiated.

Unfortunately, the further a congregation slides down the decline side of the cycle, the less likely they will choose to make the changes necessary for new life. Moreover, the congregation possesses fewer and fewer resources required for growth.

Saarinen recommends two strategies, both of which are needed to launch a new cycle of growth and life. One, the church must recover its history. This is more than memorizing details about key personalities in the past. It is recovering the spirit of vision of those leaders in the past.

In my area of the country many churches launched in the mid 1800’s. Our region was entangled in the turmoil our country was experiencing over slavery, states’ rights, and territorial expansion. The economy was uncertain. The union was threatened and war loomed on the horizon. Many communities along the Ohio River were torn between family roots in the south and the sin of slavery.

Why would people launch a church at a time like that? What was God calling them to accomplish? They had a vision that this was a critical time for God’s people to come together for mission and ministry. They believed their witness and service would be vital.

The second strategy is to recover our connections to the needs of the community. Several techniques help make this happen. Demographic studies can help us to ask useful questions. Community surveys can bring us face to face to the unmet needs on our streets. Interviews with community leaders can open perspectives to new insights.

When ministry leaders combine a revival of vision with a heightened awareness of unmet needs in the community, the table is set for a new cycle of growth. Of course, only God can make a church grow. Leaders create an environment in which people are ready for God’s mission.

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