Top 3 Leadership Mistakes (Kurt)

Anonymous,
Instead of thinking, "does this or that contribute to silos" I would suggest looking at the big picture....over-all, is your youth ministry a complete silo? There are appropriate places for silos, but you don't want to be in complete isolation.

I don't believe having a separate youth ministry during adult services is a negative, but it certainly could be if there are no other times of multi-generational activity taking place.

Michael,
Gosh...I've given away so much I don't even know where to start! Instead of saying "These are the things I will always give away", I tend to look at my current team of volunteers and, based on their strengths and gifts, give away appropriate aspects of ministry. So something I've given away in the past might end up back on my plate at some point because there simply isn't anybody on the team excited about leading it.

My biggest mistake may be "being to tough on the Youths." I want so badly for them to get it that I forget I am not the way, but Christ is The Way.

Some of my biggest leadership mistakes have been giving away ministry to the wrong people. Often I'm so excited when someone raises their hand and says, "I'll do this for you," I say, "Okay!" before I have enough information. The less desirable the job is to me, fundraising for mission trips for example, the more likely I am to give it away to someone before I've tested their dependability, chemistry, and leadership with smaller tasks. The results are an increased work load for me, not the decrease I was hoping for, and usually a difficult conversation. All of it could have been avoided if I had done my homework and helped the willing voluteer find the BEST way they could help with our student ministry.

Another leadership mistake--handing a microphone to the wrong person. Anybody else had someone give a never-ending, too personal and inappropriate testimony?! It's happened to me more than once.

I could not agree more on the silo comment. For twenty years I was a missionary overseas and my job was to interpret the global youth culture and then relate it back to the church on how we could do a better job at reaching teens. The trend that I saw over and over again (since probably the early 90's) is the trend where churches are doing a concentrated job on making sure no group in the church is left behind. In theory that is commendable, however what normally became the case was we splintered the church and fragmented it. This is especially true in youth ministry. We need to make sure that our vision statement and goals are in line with the church and they we are simply taking that vision to the area of the church we are responsible for and to make sure that we are not a silo standing alone from the church. Our students need the church and the church needs our students. Great illustration on the silo! May we all be famers in his field together!

Is having a youth service during the Sunday morning adult service being too much like a silo? Anyone else do this on Sundays?

It would be incredibly helpful to see a list of things that you've given away. Could you share some thoughts? Thanks for your time.