Lead like you’re about to leave

There is something magical about that transition time between an outgoing youth worker leaving, and a new one being hired. The church begins to suddenly become aware of what’s been happening in the youth work projects and then, with the possibility of said projects folding, they become invested in them! Brand new volunteers step forward to pick up the slack left in the gap, and current volunteers get off the bench and start taking a more active lead.

When a youth worker leaves, at some level it’s like a new – and dare I say healthier – model for youth work suddenly emerges. It’s almost like the church was ‘standing ready’, just waiting for their opportunity to care. Now that there’s not someone in place to do something with the young people – they need to do it!

It’s in these transition times, therefore, that we truly discover that there really were more potential volunteers than we thought, that people really do care, and that our teams really are ready for more responsibility sooner.

So why wait until we’re leaving to discover this? Why wait for chance at a healthy model of wider church involvement with our young people?

What’s the answer? Lead like we’re about to leave!

You can’t instil exactly the same imperative feeling of leaving a gap in the church that you would if you were actually leaving, but I think you’ll find a subtle shift in your attitude would change more than you think.

• If you act like you might not be around in a month, you start to delegate more efficiently and proactively.
• If you plan like you’re leaving, you give more responsibility, and more useful specific training to your team.
• If you think like you’re moving on, you start to give people the sense that the youth work truly needs them when you ask for help.
• If you disciple like you’re resigning, then you start to place other people in the lives of young people, so their faith doesn’t become dependent on you.
• If you lead like you’re leading, your focus shifts dramatically to something that will outlast you and your particular skillset.

So, quick tip. If you have trouble getting your church to care, recruiting new volunteers, or getting your current volunteers to step up, maybe – just maybe – some of the problem lies in your own attitude?

It’s a harsh truth, but it’s so easy as youth workers for us to believe our own hype and have such subversive ideas of superhero-ism, that others around us simply don’t feel needed or valued.

If we take ourselves out of the equation, however, what changes would we try to bring about?

Lead like you’re about to leave – and see what happens.

All the best!

Photo by Romain V on Unsplash