A Primer on the Fine Art of Monkey Management

http://ymarchitects.com/wp-content/themes/yma/pdf/monkeyManagement.pdf

by Mark DeVries

Every effective youth pastor must, sooner or later, learn the fine art of monkey management.  Those who don’t will be persistently overwhelmed by the agendas and urgent demands of those around them.   

What is monkey management? I’m not referring to the skill of corralling that hormonal herd of junior highers we work with.  I’m talking about “the monkeys on our backs”—the hundreds, sometimes thousands of tasks waiting for us to act.  

Simply defined, a monkey is the responsibility to make the next move.   
Just walking down the hall at church on Sunday mornings, we become monkey bait.  In fact, it’s not uncommon for us to walk out of church carrying an extra 20 or so new monkeys.  The monkeys climb on our backs with innocent comments like “My son doesn’t feel connected to the youth group.”   
 “I’ve got a soccer game on Saturday.”
“Will you pray for me this week?”
“Jim broke his collarbone and could really use a call.”  
“I’d like to give the youth ministry $10,000.”    
“Our family is thinking about leaving the church.”   
(Just for effect, you can hum the flying monkey music from The Wizard of Oz here as you read)

Unless managed properly, these monkeys will overwhelm us and keep us from leading our ministries forward.  After 25 years of observing monkey life in youth ministry, I have come up with a few Monkey Management Principles that every
youth worker needs to know:  
1) Monkeys Always Climb.  If I haven’t managed a monkey well, I can be sure that it won’t be long before that my monkey will soon be dancing on my boss. (leaving disgusting little monkey droppings).  
 
2) Mismanaged Monkeys Multiply.  When my senior pastor gets a call that says, “I talked to our youth director about it, but nothing has happened” I suddenly have two monkeys—the original monkey and the new monkey of convincing my senior pastor that I’m doing my job.

3) A Monkey Remembered Is Soon a Monkey Forgotten.  The dullest pencil is better than the sharpest memory.  When I take on a monkey, I have to write it down.  

4) Never Accept a Monkey on the Run.  When someone tries to hand me a monkey as I’m rushing to teach a class, I simply ask if that person could leave a note on m desk.  I like leaving the person most concerned about the monkey with the responsibility to take the next step.     

5) Hidden Monkeys Stagnate Ministries:  The reason so many of our meetings accomplish so little is that when the meeting is over, there are monkeys hiding under the table.  If I’ve talked about an issue for 10 minutes with 5 people and no one leaves with a monkey, I have just wasted an hour.   

There is much more about monkey management every youth worker needs to know.  Next time, I’ll give you the last five principles.   
Until then, I’ll carry that monkey for you.   

Mark DeVries is the Chief Monkey Manager for Youth Ministry Architects, a youth ministry consulting team, and for over 20 years has served as the Associate Pastor for Youth and Their Families at a church in Nashville, Tennessee.