A student being baptized is one of the most powerful, beautiful and memorable moments for the youth pastor, small group leader, parents, church family and student’s peers. It’s a big deal.

And it raises a few questions:   

• What is the role of the youth pastor when deciding who is getting baptized?
• Does your church have a formal process if a student wants to get baptized?  Or is it more informal?
• How does a leader know when a student is ready to be baptized?
• Is it biblical to let students cannonball into the baptismal?

These are great questions every youth pastor needs to ask and answer.  Over the years, I have jotted down a few theological and practical reminders for myself as a youth worker and for students who are considering baptism. These are ideas and practices I have found to be useful in my own experiences. However, it is always a good idea to ask a senior leader in your own church or denomination about how to approach this important decision with your students.

11. Baptism Reminders For Students and Youth Workers

1. The act of baptism is an outward expression of an inward decision.
2. Baptism does not make you a Christian.
3. Jesus was baptized and commands it (Mark 1.9 and Matt 28.19-20). In the book of Acts 8:35-38, those that believed, were baptized that day!
4. Inform and include parents when student is considering baptism.
5. Invite all family members and church family to witness the baptizing of students.
6. It is not a good idea to baptize a student when their parents are pushing baptism on them.
7. Baptize students wherever it is most practical– baptismal, beach, pool, etc.
8. It is a great idea to invite students to tell their testimony before they get baptized.  And it is really powerful if you video record not only the baptism but their testimonial to why they want to get baptized.
9. The best time to baptize is when a student trusts in Jesus as the way, truth and life.  (Acts 8.35-38)
10. Teach on baptism at least once a year
11. Write an encouraging note and give it to your student after they have been baptized.

Bottom line: baptisms are a beautiful thing—the more the better.  It is up to us (youth pastor or small group leader) to be informed, equipped and empowered to make wise decisions when informing our students on baptism.  

 And for the record, (although the biblical proof is difficult to come by) I for one think it is completely okay to allow students to do celebratory cannonballs in the baptismal. As long as there is pastoral supervision.

Ever since I first entered youth ministry I have always been collecting great practical resources on how to lead an effective youth ministry.   So for some odd reason, I have had this gravitation to always be looking for better ways to lead.

In the last two years at Orange, I had the luxury to not only learn from some incredible leaders but have been given access to talk with hundreds of youth pastors about how they run their ministry.  I learned so much on how to a run healthy, vibrant and sustainable youth ministry.  Two of my many pleasures in my work are:  1)  Learning from youth pastors and 2) Sharing what I am learning from other youth pastors.

This post is dedicated to sharing my learnings about leading the day to day youth ministry operation.

1.  Trust is everything.  You need to trust people and people need to trust you.  I hate to say this, but youth pastors, historically, have proven not to be very trustworthy because of their fly by the seat mentality and they have a difficult time trusting others.  When trusting people, other people tend to trust you in return.  Extending trust is one of the best ways to create trust when it is not there.  If you break trust with others, you might as well consider leaving your current ministry position.  Trust is the glue that creates for a healthy and impactful ministry.  Without trust, nothing you are doing in your youth ministry will work nor stick.

2.  Youth pastors must be reflective.  Youth pastors need to look at themselves objectively and analyze where they have made mistakes, where they’ve turned people off and where they’ve headed down the wrong path.  Taking a good, long and honest look in the mirror produces self awareness.  Self awareness is highly necessary when leading.  In my opinion, here are the top 9 mistakes youth pastors make (click here).

3.  Youth pastors must be highly reliable.  This is a very simple task, but most youth pastors fall short.  Returning phone calls, emails, showing up to meetings (on time), fulfilling commitments, having office hours, managing home life and staying healthy is all apart of being reliable.  Reliability is something that youth pastors must have in order to provide sustainability, trustworthiness and consistency in their youth ministry.

4.  Youth pastors must know how to run a meeting.  According to Patrick Lencioni, Death By Meeting, there are three type of meetings youth pastors need to have.  1.  Daily stand up meetings (5 minutes) 2.  Weekly tactical meetings (1 – 2 hours) 3.  Monthly strategic meetings (2 – 8 hours).  Youth pastors need to know how to wrap up meetings, draw conclusions, set up the time and agenda for the next meeting on the subject and to direct individuals in the meeting to carry out certain tasks as a result of the decision that have been made.

The single biggest structural problem facing leaders of meetings is the tendency to throw every type of issue that need to be discussed into the same meeting, like a bad stew with too many random ingredients – Patrick Lencioni

5.  Youth pastors must know how to lead under senior authority.  Youth pastors have to learn how to stay under authority.  Youth pastors are more entrepreneurial and mavericks by nature so it is more difficult for youth pastors to obey and sit under senior leadership.  Submitting under senior leadership is not a sign of weakness and conformity but rather a demonstration of obeying God’s authoritarian structure for His church.  One of the best senior pastors in America, Andy Stanley says to youth pastors:

You will never be over authority if you don’t know how to be under authority.

6.  Youth pastors must have a strategic vision.  What is the long term plan for your youth ministry?  Where will your ministry be in 3, 5 and 10 years?  Good planning, goal setting and clarifying the values and mission helps youth pastors define where they are taking their youth ministry.  Andy Stanley in his book Making Vision Sticks says: State the vision simply, cast the vision convincingly, repeat the vision regularly, celebrate the vision systematically and embrace the vision personally.
7.  Youth pastors must care for your adult leaders and staff.  You take care of your people by providing them resources, recognition and respect.  Make sure to thank your people a lot and both privately and publicly.  Find many ways to say thank you.  Caring for people brings health.  And health breads health.

8.  Youth pastors must have endurance.  Youth ministry requires long hours.  The daily, weekly, and monthly youth ministry schedule has many pressures, stressors and demands which will cause you to run empty on all levels (emotionally, physically, socially and spiritually).  This is unavoidable.  This is why only 30% of ministry leaders last.  When extremely tired, you have to dig deep and reach into your reservioir of energy and creativity to handle crisis situations (because there will be a lot of them) and have to get through the task.  I have found that physical fitness helps improve endurance and mental performance.

NIV Acts 20:24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me– the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace

9.  Youth pastors must be an excellent communicator.  A youth pastor must be a meaningful, passionate, understandable, and impactful communicator (both written and verbally).  When a youth pastor communicates it is his/her responsibility to inspire, motivate and influence  parents, student, church staff and adult volunteers.  When communicating be clear, short and simple.

10.  Youth pastors must be masters at time management.  Youth pastors are soo busy.  Youth pastors need to have discipline schedule or your schedule will own you.  Make sure to include in your schedule a day off, time for reflection and strategic planning.  Remember staying busy and working long hours doesn’t equate effectiveness.  Focus and doing less for more equals effectiveness.  I offer a few posts that help youth pastors get better at time management:  How To Get Things Done and Get A Day Off, Youth Pastor Productivity, and Youth Pastor Office Hours.

What would thoughts on youth ministry leadership would you add to the list?

What do you do that creates for a healthy and sustainable youth ministry?

What do you do?  What kind of ministry do you have for youth with special needs?

My guess is — you don’t have much.  I think we are all still trying to figure out how to minister to special needs students and their families.

All I have done is just to love them for who they are and where they are at and try my best to make them feel included.  I always wanted to do more, but never took the time to figure out a plan nor I never had a burden to address this special needs in youth ministry issue.

Well there has been a shift in me in how I see ministering to youth with special needs.

I have had three groups of people really challenge me to consider how youth pastors deal with special needs students.

1.  Amy Fenton Lee.  Amy is super sharp, strategic and has a strong passion for special needs ministry.  Amy Fenton Lee is the Special Needs Consultant to Orange and is responsible for developing content and resources for special needs kids (check out her new training DVD here or book on how to lead a special needs ministry here) and has a blog (The Inclusive Church) devoted to helping churches successfully include children with special needs.  Amy has written extensively on the subject of special needs inclusion in children’s ministry and student ministry environments.  So seeing Amy train leaders on how to do deal with special needs kids has really given me a heighten awareness on how to deal with special needs.

2.  Luke.  Luke was a highly functioning autistic teen who was in my ministry 5 years ago.  Luke loved coming to youth group but at times it was really difficult having him there.  But Luke and his family taught me that if you keep including and inviting him to be an active youth group student, be super flexible and keep in constant communication with his parents — it is possible to effectively minister to special need students like Luke.

3.  A number of youth pastors who have a passion for ministering to special need students.  As of late, many youth pastors (Bekah Miller, CJ Barone, Jeremy Kirby, Rebecca Johnson) asked me:  What is there for special needs students in student ministry?  There are some great blog posts out there on Josh Griffin’s blog — More Than Dodgeball, but many are not sure what to do.

So I wanted to poll my readers.

-  What kind of ministry have you done for families who have youth with special needs?  What is your approach to including special needs in your ministry?

-  Do you have a passion/curiosity to figure out this special needs issue in youth ministry?  If you do, please tell me why in the comment section below and make sure to include your name and contact info.

I remember back in 2002, it was kind of considered weird for a youth pastor to view family ministry as a priority.  Now, in 2013, it is considered kind of normal to consider family ministry as a priority.

The days where youth ministry only focuses on teenagers are over.

Back in the 70s church ministry departments became very compartmentalized, fragmented and misaligned  Consequently, youth ministry became very isolated, highly programmatic and focused only on teenagers.  But now in 2013, youth ministry and the Church are finding it’s way back to where it all started and began  In the 1st century the Church was central to the community.  And the family was central to the Church, which is why the Church needs to serve the needs of the family.  Families saw the church as their community.

Dennis in the book: A New Design for Family states:

The church of the first century were called to leave their earthly familial allegiances and to bond to one another as the new family of God. The revolutionary impact of the first-century church was their love for one another as Christ had commanded them. The need for the church in the twentieth century is to respond as they responded. We are the church and we are family. Let us get on with our business.

Why do some youth pastor not like learning about leadership?  

Some youth pastors:

-  only rely on their God given talents and personality to lead their youth ministry which will, ultimately, backfire or break down at some point.

-  are too cocky to admit they need help because they view this as being a weak, insecure and inexperienced youth pastor.

-  have lazy and clumsy leadership habits which causes them to hurt a lot of people they work with and minister to and potentially kill the momentum of their youth ministry.

-  don’t know how to lead and manage people which causes their youth ministry to plateau.

Leadership is about influencing and motivating others to be apart of a mission.  Leadership is a skill that requires practice, errors, lessons learned, reflection, and so on and so on that the skills continue to be refined and polished.  Leaders are required to learn about leadership so they can lead other wells, make an incredible impact and be a leader who lasts.  Leadership development really does make a difference.  Developing yourself is not a selfish pursuit.  Botton line:  you are not born with great leadership skills, which is why developing yourself is incredibly important.

If you want to develop as a youth leader, consider thinking about these 7 things:

7.  Choose to start growing now.  Making a conscious decision to better yourself allows you to start growing.  Growth doesn’t happen automatically.  Today, it is your responsibility as a youth leader to grow, which will make you a better leader tomorrow.

6.  Have a teachable spirit.  This is a hard one for most youth pastors.  Why would I value someone else to tell me how to lead my youth ministry?  Being open is key.  Three questions:  what new ideas have you ignored?  What new ideas can you pursue?  What old ideas can you replace for the new ideas?

5.  Always be learning.  Haven’t you heard– Leaders are readers?  Well it is true.  Great leaders focus on acquiring knowledge.  Gaining information is vital to a leader because an understanding of the factors involved is necessary to create a vision for the future.  If you stop learning, your leadership will become very stale.  Read books, blogs, magazines, go to conferences, listen to interview, study other ministries, etc. Make learning a priority in your crazy ministry schedule.

4.  Develop a system to apply your learnings.   Filing and applying.  You have to develop a filing system to store all of your amazing learnings.  I found that utilizing online storage (i.e dropbox and evernote) to file my learnings works perfectly.  I can access it anytime and anywhere.  Once filed you need to apply quickly so you can remember what you just learned.  You can ask yourself:  who can I tell what I just learned?  Where can I apply it?

3.  Be ready to pay the price.  Nothing is ever free.  There is a price tag for personal and leadership growth.  Here are a few price tags:  (a) discipline (b) challenges (c) loneliness (d) time (e) relationships/friendships.

2.  Never stay satisfied with present and past success.  Being satisfied = no areas for improvement.  If you are too busy celebrating about your glory days, you will never grow.  What will you do that will pull you forward?      

1.  Study and watch great leadership in action. Leadership is taught and caught.  So find great leaders you respect and observe their every move.  Read biographies of great leaders.  When studying and watching, ay close attention to how leaders deal with numerous intangibles, challenges and use their intuition.  Observe how experiences and challenges a leader faced, will provide credibility.  Identify how they have courage, become component and develop their character.

For me, leadership development was something I enjoyed very early on in my ministry career.  So this comes easy to me, but I realize that it is very difficult for others.  I came to realize that true leadership comes from character and discipline.  A good track record speaks volumes to followers which is why developing and maintaining relationship is so huge.  I wrote about the top 20 leadership lessons I learned from an incredible senior pastor, Wally Norning.

All I am saying is that leadership development will not only keep you in the game, but it will keep you on top of your game.  Learn to love learning about leadership.

*  For this post, I used some of the content from John Maxwell’s book Developing The Leader Within and studied some of the service academies (Air Force and Navel Academy) leadership development programs.