Educating others…
Recently one of the newer folks in the diocese asked an older youth minister what I actually do in my job. It is a fair question of course and reminded me of a simple truth we all need to keep in mind. Part of our job in ministry is educating people about what we do. I must say it is a really important part of our job because in some circumstances, if we fail this, we might end up unemployed. Vestries are particularly notorious for not ‘getting’ what we do. Now, rather than make formal reports or flash our job description around all the time, there are creative ways to do this. Here is just one example.
Last week was an amazing week of ministry. Here are a few highlights. Monday was filled with much preparation for the days ahead as well as a few contacts to check on how people are doing. Tuesday saw a day-long (really long) Diocesan Council meeting. It was a good meeting with excellent presentations about future plans and opportunities in our diocese. I had the opportunity to report on the progress we are making in youth ministry and the plans we have for the coming months. Right on the heals of that meeting was an annual meeting of a local health education advisory committee that I got roped into last year. That group approves sex education curriculum for the school district. Wednesday brought several meetings to work on projects. One was to plan the Youth Commission training day, the other was to work on website development as we seek to create a better scyouth.org site. It is exciting to dream of ways we can resource and connect people doing youth ministry. Thursday was a special highlight of the week with a Fusion meeting. There is such encouragement in spending time with our network. On Friday I headed out to Georgia for the weekend where Jane and I led the youth on a church retreat. Halfway there we picked up a college student who was on Youth Commission a few years ago and he joined us for the weekend. It was an honor and privilege to serve a congregation by teaching their teens in the context of their first ever parish retreat. We returned home Sunday night tired and filled with great joy. It was a good week of ministry, as busy as it was at times.
We can report this sort of stuff to vestries, in newsletters, to youth committees and with parents. It may be written or just a verbal sharing, but it should grant insight into our week by week ministry. We can add stories, humor, and anecdotes as well. The point is, we must let people know what we do or they begin to wonder. Equally important is the need to educate our church leaders on what youth ministry is all about. That is another matter but does or can overlap with educating people about how we spend our time.
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