Manager, Leader, worker

As I spend more and more years in youth work, I realise the different rolls that are required, and I also see why many systems start to fail, as they put the wrong people in the wrong places. There are deffinite distinctions between a leader, a manager and a worker, and all are necessary, but unlikely to fall into the one person. this is why rolls need to be spread out amongst people accordng to peoples gifts. The leader is there to give direction, inspiration, accountability, ideas. A manager is there to ensure that the project runs smoothly, that people are where they should be, that things are in place to enable the work to happen. A worker is here to fulfil the needs of the project, to ensure that all the ideas are put into practice to the best of their ability. this is not to say, that a manger cannot be a worker, or a leader cannot be worker, because they probably can, but a leader is generlly not a manager, and managers are not always good leaders. these rolls need to be identified to enable projects to run smoothly and to the best of the ability fo those involved

Being Prophetic

Being a youth leader has made me think recently about the prophetic nature of our work. The Prophets of old spoke into a culture, into a system that had drifted away from God. I someitmes see us as youth leaders in that same roll, speaing into a culture, not just a youth culture, but modern day culture, and trying to enable people to see the reality of God's love. But not only are we prophetic, but also the young people we work with. They can also be prophetic into their own culture, through the music they listen too, the films they watch, the way they express things is prophetic I would argue into a ulture and society that no longer listens to God. The question is are we as youth leaders going to enable young people to have that voice, not quieten it, but enable it to speak out to thier friends and culture, and bring our society back to listen to God. Lt's just listen to our young people some times, not jsut their words, but their heart, where they are coming from, that way we will hear so much more, and let's give our young people the opportunity to be prophetic into their culture.

Speaking into a culture

I am more and more convinced as time goes on about the roll of the youth worker to be a prophet in a couple of different rolls. 1: The youth leader speaks into the culture of the church to enable the young people they coonnect with to be able to connect with god. This means that the youth worker sometimes has to speak out and change things, even when it means they are iscolated by other memebers of the Church. 2: The youth leader also speaks to the culture that the young people exist in. they need to understand the culture without necessarily giving into it svalues. But to actually go to that culture, challenge some of its values, but enable people through some of the elements of that culture come into rlationship witht he living god. The Matrix film is a great example of these rolls that the youth worker exists in. As Neo and the others reach in to the Matrix, but at the same time challenge their own world of Zion to ralise what needs to happen. Are we prepared to step up to this roll?

Privacy vs public

I was thinking through this issue recently, where I gave a number of young people the opportunity to respond to the Christian message. It was not until after the event had finished that people told me that some of the young people had responded in the way that I had hoped they would. If we give people the opportunity to decide something is tha down to their own privacy, or do we have to make it oh so public on them. My thoughts were, that ultimately if a young person responds to the Christian message, that is between them and god, but then arises the bigger issue of howdo we follow up on this decision. If someone responds they need to now what they can do about their decision, and they need a little guidence. so my feeling is becoming more on the balanced side of things, and yes let them make that personal private decision, but then enter into conversation with them afterwards and see if they opn up about their decision and engage further with them.

Entertainment vs development

When I discuss youth work with various people heir initial thought seems to be that the roll of the youth worker is purely to be the person who puts on events and entertains young people to keep them out of trouble. I think there is a certain level of entertainment that is needed and required within youthwork but entertainment itself is not the end goal. Is it possible to entertain young people and develop them at the same time? I would argue yest it is possible, and also necessary. I am aware that when i go in schools and take lessons or assemblies, if I was just interested in feeding information then I would probably get nowhere. But if I go to relate and entertain, butwithin that, develop, I would argue that young people are more likely to take something away from what I have done with them, if they have found it to be entertaining as wlel. So let's not just entertain, or purely look at development, but realise that if young people enjoy being somewhere or doing something and are entertained by it, then they are likely to take something away from it as well.

service leadership

By the people that we are, and the calling that is placed upon us, service is an integral part of our leadership. firstly we serve God, the one who called us to where we are and the people we work with There is little point in us being somehwere where God does not want us to be, or we will not be effective in our work. So I would suggest that youth work is a calling, not somehting that should be done, just out of good will, but out of an accknowlegement of that would be where God would want us to be. Secondly, we serve our young people. If we are serving God, then this service comes almost as second nature. And when I talk about service I am not just suggesting we pander to their wants, but mabe we look further to their needs rather than their wants, and if we serve them, then we offer them what they need. Also thourgh our service we offer guidence as we care about where they are going i their lives. to serve is not be trampled on, but to follow God to where he wants us to be, and also serve our young people in their needs and guide them to a prupose and a future that God would want for them.

suffering leadership

The suffering side of leadership can often follow on from the sacreficial side. What you sacrefice can often lead to suffering. But were we ever told that we would not suffer? Did Christ not suffer as well, not only at the cross, but also throughout his life, did he not suffer with diffetrent relationships and being rejected for example. In many instances the things we do will brin us sufering for the greater cause that we serve, and I willdeal with service anothe day, but for here how much suffering are we prepared to go through to see our young people come into relationship Jeus and see them fulfill the prupose that god has for them. I am not suggesting that we go looking for suffering, but I am prepared to suggest that if we follow wha god wants us to do, then there is a likelihood of suffering attahced to that and we have to be prepared to face that, accept that, and even live with it.

sacreficial leadership

This follows on from where I left off yesterday. In that the leadership that Christ would call us too is a sacreficial one and not necessarily a power driven one. Within youth work this is porbably something of a second nature to many people, as many sacrefices hae to be made to enable good youth work to take place. Sacrefices will come in many shapes and forms, such as what I referred to in a previous posting as a blended life rather than a balanced life, as the life of a yoth worker is rarely balanced at a ll. But the reality is that sacrefices are not often made just by us, but also by the peole around us, such as family and riendships. Just a thought, but but what sacrefices do we make, and what sacrefices is it reasonable for ohters to expect us to make.

The trap of leadership

Here are many issues within this aspect of leadership, and I hope to look at a few of them this coming week on here. The thing I want to look at today is the biggest trap of all. In many aspects fo work and life to reach the top is the goal of people. That is when you know you have made it, and that is when people should start respecting you and you can ask things of people. I would suggest that Christian ladership is not necessarily the same. Is it the postion that we crave, or the amount of infuece we crave, or do we keep our eyes on the goal that god wants us to achieve. many leaders today will want to reach the top of their profession to be seen there, surely our roll is not quite the same

Mentoring into who?

It goes without saying that one of our aims as youth leaders is to mentor our young people for their future. But when we mentor them, who is it that we are hoping that they turn into? May times when I see people being mentorred I often see them turn into their mentors. And when I am not saying that that is neceessarily a bad thing, it doesn't enable the young person to become themself. surel within mentorring our aim is to mentor our young people into the gifts and tallents and abilities that they have, using all their wonderful atributes, rather than passing ours on to them. Are we wanting to mentor young ople into new and dynamic people, or into clones of us? Surely the best thing within mentorring our young people is to give them a wide variety of experiences, and then allow them the freedom to express themselves in the way d manner that is apropriate to them. So when we are mentorring, let's lok at the ong person first, the gifts they have, the abilities they pocess, and le's see how we can develop those further, rather than turning them into mini-me's, after all a new generation needs new types of people and that will also include new gifts as well.

what is it we model to young people?

This is possibly one of the hardest elements to our work, in that all that we are, all that we say, and all that we do models something to the young people we work with. This psting is very much linked to the posting i I made on mirroring a couple of days ago, in that the person we are models and mirrors something to the young people we work with. If we are to be true authenticworkers then our relationship with the young people we meet needs to demonstrate the same principles and elements as any other relationship we have. We are not being true to ourselves or the young people we wrk with, if we try and be something different to them than what we are with other people. So what is it about our lives that we want to model to young people? ple What is it from our lives that we want the young people to pick up for their own lives? we need to beleive in the people we are, and the values we demontrate so that others can see that they are real and true, and that is where relaitonships have an impact on ech other. So let's take time and reflect on who we are and what is it that weactually model to the young people we work with?

interactive learning?

When we look at our youthwork, and the relationships we have with young people today, how do we see them grow? And what is it we are trying to impart to them through our own experiences and lives? I have argued for a long time now that learning styles have changed dramatically over recent years, and the youthwork syle of growing and learning is probably much more apopriate for young people in todays society. If you look at how young people gain info outside of the school rhelm, it is by discussion, on msn or other places, ie text messaging or myspace, they are not likely to sit down and lisen to someone talk to them for over half an hour on an issue. So when we build our relaitonships we are engaging, interacting in a way that is apropriate for learning styles in this modern culture. the challenge to us as Christian youth leaders is that will we fall into the trap of giving that sermon talk, speaking for over 15-20 minutes on a subject without discussion or interaction, believing that we have all the answers and we are right in what we are saying. Guidence is certainly important, but I have found myself and through others, that the way of learning is by owning and working things out myself, sor ather than talking and telling should we be the people to start breaking the culture fo talking and bring the idea of interaction into modern churches and learning.

mirroring Jesus to young people

What is it that we as Youth Leaders reflect to our young people? What do we mirror to them about ourselves and also about Jesus? We need to realise that the person we are, and things the at we do reflect to the young people we meet something about ourselves but also about our faith and relationship with God. So what is it that we want to rel eflect to our young people, because what ultimately what they see from us, they will put something of us into their own lives. If you think about someone looking in the mirror in the mon morning they will decide whether they like the look of the prson in the mirror, and if we are the people rel reflecting things into their lives, then maybe we need to think about how we want our young people to turn out in the futre.

mirroring Jesus to young people

What is it that we as Youth Leaders reflect to our young people? What do we mirror to them about ourselves and also about Jesus? We need to realise that the person we are, and things the at we do reflect to the young people we meet something about ourselves but also about our faith and relationship with God. So what is it that we want to rel eflect to our young people, because what ultimately what they see from us, they will put something of us into their own lives. If you think about someone looking in the mirror in the mon morning they will decide whether they like the look of the prson in the mirror, and if we are the people rel reflecting things into their lives, then maybe we need to think about how we want our young people to turn out in the futre.

Balanced vs blended life

How many times have we heard people say that we need to live a balanced life? especially those of us in leadership, and youth leadership in particular. I would like to suggest that the idea of a balanced life is not helpful, and even more is unlikely ever to happen. I would suggest that a better way of looking at life would be a blended life. S many of us have so many different relationships, our young people, other workers, or social friends, and our families, and trying to balance all these relationships probably would cause us more stress than our work does. Looking at our relationships as belnded would take the pressure of us thinking that we had to balance things all the time, and it would also help us to relaise that there were different ap spects of our lives at different times. god would want us to have all the varied relationshipsthat we have, but I would suggest, he would also know that bel ending these relationships would be a better way of looking at things rather than a balanced life.