Editor's Note: There's no greater (and more persistent) need in youth ministry than raising up volunteer leaders. And there's no one in the American church today who has more experience and wisdom to offer youth pastors in this crucial ministry responsibility than Sue Mallory. Sue is author of the
The Equipping Church (Zondervan) and served as executive director of Leadership Training Network
We've given Doug free rein to interview anyone he wants on an important youth ministry issue. Here he talks with Sue Mallory, a pioneer influencer in recruiting, equipping, and launching volunteer leaders in the church.
She's now been the executive equipping consultant for Group for more than two years
1. She lives in California.
fields: Sue, we know that Lone Ranger youth ministry is unwise. So why do youth workers have such a hard time building a volunteer team?
mallory: I think there are multiple answers. The first is they're not trained to do that and they don't know how. They don't understand the nature of team-building. The church often lacks support systems to help youth leaders find the right people, not just live bodies. The foundation is laid by really identifying who we have in the church, what their passion is, what their heart is, and where their gifts are. If we capture that, we can collaborate with youth workers far more effectively to support them in finding the right people for their ministry.
fields: What do you mean by: "They don't understand the nature of team-building"?
mallory: The skill is team-building. My experience with youth teams is that youth workers will call a bunch of people, and they don't necessarily have a specific function for each person on the team. They just want live bodies to help them do the work. Well if you're going to get good folk in there to do the work, they need to understand why you're asking them-what you want them to do. "I want you on my team because..." I don't think we're getting specific enough with the because. Is it because of your heart for youth? because of your skill in counseling? because of your ability to be a kid at heart and play games? Whatever it is, people need a because.
fields: You said youth workers don't understand the "why," so tell us why.
mallory: First of all, discretionary time is the currency of our time. So few people have discretionary time that they're willing to give away to have it used ineffectively. And so if you want me to come, what's the impact? Why do you want me? I don't want to just show up at a meeting on Tuesday night after driving through traffic for an hour and sit around because you're not organized-have some knowledge of what it is you want me to do.
fields: What are some other systems that we need to have in place to build a team?
mallory: I think it's not so much what you have to have in place as what the church has to have in place. I come from the mind-set of building and equipping churches from the foundational pieces up. One of those foundational pieces is knowledge of people-what I would call "discovery." So what kind of discovery systems does the church have to discover who's coming in their doors-what are their gifts, passions, time availability, and their stories? How do they capture what they've learned about those folks, and then how do they communicate it? When I was a director of lay ministry, I had a system developed to find out all that information about new folks coming in. I had another system to figure out who we had in the congregation. And I had another system to share that information with people in ministries.
fields: I wish I was at a church like that. (Laughs) Youth workers would love to be in a church that funnels volunteers to them.
mallory: But they may have a system, Doug, that the youth worker isn't even aware of. Their first step is to learn about the systems already in place. How do we find information about people? What does that look like in this church? Most churches have some systems in place-usually what happens is they gather all the information and it sits in a file. But it's there.
fields: What can youth workers do to have some upward influence over "discovery systems" in the church?
mallory: I think leading up is critical. If youth leaders are responsible for kids' lives, they have a right to lead up. They also have an obligation to lead up. They don't need permission from the top to lead up. Just make sure you don't whine about it-act like a leader. You have an obligation and a right to speak up. But sometimes it's not what you say; it's how you say it.
fields: Are there some attitude characteristics that you look for in an effective volunteer-if you have this in a volunteer, you've got a moldable winner on your hands?
mallory: You bet. It's a heart for serving. It's a heart and a desire to be of value. You know, Jesus didn't call qualified people. He found people who were willing to follow and learn. But all too often, Doug, we get the willing heart but then we don't equip them. So they feel inadequate. There is nothing worse for a person who says yes to service and then feels stupid because they don't know how to do what they said they were going to do because nobody's told them how.
fields: That's a photocopiable quote, Sue.
mallory: This is a burning bush for me because I've seen it for 25 years.
fields: Well you talk about looking for "live bodies," and I can't tell you how many times I've felt like that-I just need a live body so I'm not alone.
mallory: I have a friend in ministry who gets so frustrated with that. She refers to it as "half-matches batch." You get them in, you love them into the front door, you match them with a ministry, and then you walk away. Then the pastoral leadership says you can't depend on a volunteer-nothing makes my blood boil more. Shame on us because we didn't invest in the person that God sent us.
fields: How do we begin to equip them? Give me a 101 course on how to train these leaders.
mallory: Know who they are-the first priority is relationship. Spend the first couple of months hearing their stories. I build communities first, and tackle tasks second. One of the terms I use is "celebrations and concerns." In every team meeting we talk about what you're celebrating and what you're concerned about. I may know what I think they need, but it's more important to learn what they think they need. If they don't think you care about them, personally, then they're not going to go the distance.
fields: I'm always telling youth workers that you have to give people access to your life. And not just before or after the program on Wednesday night.
mallory: The strongest teams I've seen over the years do exactly that. They have a monthly scheduled thing that's not just business-it's community building, it's fun and fellowship. Because, in essence, you're creating a small group.
fields: Yeah, absolutely.
mallory: I think the second thing-and you're a master at it-is people undervalue the impact of affirmation. I think two of the most powerful, underused tools in ministry today are the power of affirmation and the power of effective feedback. People can't fix what they don't know.
fields: On that affirmation piece-this last weekend I watched one of my volunteers go up to a student who was sitting by himself and engage him in conversation. This volunteer wound up not working the room like he normally does. I went up to him afterward and I put my arm around him and I said, "I know that you're an extrovert and you love to work the crowd, but that was great youth ministry."
mallory: There was a person in our church, a senior, who used to say to me: "I just love your smile. Every time I see you, you're smiling." You know what? It made me aware that I needed to smile more.
fields: I'm just grateful for all your wisdom and that you would so freely pass it on to others.
For more information on Group's Church Volunteer Central association, the largest volunteer-equipping service in the world, go to churchvolunteercentral.com.
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