Good leaders are often hard to find.  If you are in a church or community where people are very career driven and busy, the challenge is even greater.  In the average church, finding people to work with youth is often done by an announcement in worship.  However, many of the best leaders don’t respond to the plea for help and often what we get in such a call is the type of people that we don’t want.  As a rookie in ministry, I was instructed to write letters to new church members and follow up with a phone call.  I did my best to present in both written and oral communication that we needed the help in our work, that youth work was extremely important, and that this was an opportunity to serve God.  Sadly, I got few positive results from the effort.  I then began a more personal campaign.  Rather than write and call, I arranged personal meetings over coffee or a meal.  In those, I shared my vision for youth ministry.  I sought to paint a picture of what we were trying to accomplish.  At the end of the conversation, I invited people to prayerfully consider their involvement in our team and to get back to me.  Over time, we built a team of committed leaders and those who did not have time to get involved were at least more sympathetic to the cause.  At the end of the day, we must remember that it is God Himself who will provide leadership for our ministries.  We must communicate vision and extend the invitation to our team.

Working with leadership teams of diverse people, we see that individuals become involved for a variety of reasons.  All must be committed to the cause or vision but some bring other expectations and needs to the team.  For some, their involvement provides a community to be part of.  They desire belonging and find it in the team.  Others find their social needs are met by being part of a team of like minded people.  We also see that diverse leadership styles lend to different levels of participation in the team.  What people expect to experience as part of a team is driven by both their motivations and their leadership styles or personality.  The ultimate motivation in any team must be a call to mission and the opportunity to contribute to the kingdom.

Above all else, prayer is the key to finding and involving new leaders in our teams.  If we face a drought, we pray for rain.  If we face a leadership shortage, we must get busy praying.   Many of our churches have people who are willing to gather to pray.  Perhaps enlisting these folks will help us out.  When a church I worked for wanted to start an outreach to young people in our village, they began with prayer meetings gathering all who would come to simply pray for God to raise up leaders who will join the task.

Consider this scenario.

Imagine that you receive an invitation from the new youth worker at your church to attend a meeting at his house.  It states that you received this either because you had worked with teens in the past or seemed interested in youth in the church.  The invite is fairly vague, but assures you that showing up will not sign you up for anything.  It explains that he would like to share an idea with you and hear your reaction.  About a dozen other people arrive at the youth minister’s home for the meeting.  You all exchange conversation over cups of tea and some good nibbles, and settle in to hear what the youth minister has to say.  All are slightly nervous not knowing why they have been called to this meeting.  You figure that many have come out of curiosity and courtesy.  The meeting begins with observations.  Since arriving, the youth minister noticed that work with 14-18’s had been stable over the years.  However, there was little going on for 11-13’s.  He shares statistics about the number of youth dropping out of churches nationally and that the most significant age of drop out is 13.  He then shares an idea, a dream really, for creating a ministry to 11-13’s.  The plan has many facets, including getting into schools for assemblies and creating an evening youth group to teach practical life skills and present the gospel.  This dream is massive and not only seeks to build a youth group in the church but be a pattern that other churches who have no youth work could follow.  There is a sense of urgency in the presentation.  It is clear that this youth minister is concerned with seeing young people reached in ways that are relevant, where the gospel is made real, lives are changed, and a ministry is developed that is reproducible.  At the end of the presentation, all are asked for their reaction.  A good discussion is had and the youth minister concludes by again thanking all for coming and asking all to go away and pray about how they will respond.  He acknowledges that some will get directly involved, others will provide prayer support, and others will simply pass word around the church as to what is going on.  You leave having been invited to join a team, to participate in a vision for ministry.

From that meeting, a half of the dozen participants went on to start the new youth group.  The ministry developed and became a stable feature of the life of that church.  It eventually became a Rock Solid group because the aims of YFC’s Rock Solid programme were identical to the aims laid out by the youth minister.  What drew that team together?  A vision for ministry was clearly articulated.  Those who did not join were avid supporters of the ministry.  They prayed for and spread the word about the work, which in turn led to greater participation and new team members joining.

Building a team requires a clearly articulated vision for ministry!  Such an approach stands in clear contrast to the old fashioned method of standing before the congregation and announcing the need for youth leaders.