Recently I was with a group of youth workers who were discussing the need for an effective spiritual gift assessment written just for students. We talked for a while about what would make the assessment effective and ways to administer the assessment so students would be in the correct mindset to get the most out of the gift assessment. We talked about the need to take out confusing language and the importance of simplifying the questions. Then someone mentioned that they had a 200 question spiritual gift inventory written for adults; it was copyright fee and they could send it out to everyone in an e-mail later that day. That offer killed the discussion; free trumpted the need for effective. The census in the room was, if it’s free, let’s use that one. I know we are all trying to do youth ministry on tight budgets but let’s keep the goal in mind of helping students grow. Remember – Doing less ministry effectively will do more for your students than doing tons of ineffective ministry.

As the new ministry year kicks-off many of us are working on our purpose statements. We want a clear purpose for our ministry and for our lives. We have a desire to be intentional and make sure we are not wasting time. Purpose statements and mission statements tend to be wall posters, you know, the stuff we hang up in the fall so that everyone feels like we have a plan for the year. Many times we can’t remember the statement by Christmas. The reason I think we forget our statement is because we don’t make a lot of decisions based on it. Instead, we do the same events and programs we did the year before. If you want to see change, make decisions based on your purpose statement. Here are a few ideas that might help.

1. Good fit
Make sure you can articulate how each event and program fits into the purpose statement.

2. Only make one change per year
I see many youth ministries start over and try and change everything in one year. Be careful, I think you can only change one or maybe two things a year. It takes your adults, parents, and students time to accept and absorb change.

3. Over communicate
Most youth workers don’t get this, but you have to say things 7 times before people get it and 27 times before they accept it. Help your adults and students get the purpose of your ministry by repeating yourself until it makes you sick and you can’t stand to say it one more time…then they might be getting it.

A few years ago I took a Leadership 360 Assessment. This is the assessment where staff members, peers and bosses give you input into your personality and job performance. It’s insightful and can help you make changes to in your life that will make you more effective and help you enjoy life more. I also got a leadership coach to help me make the most of the applications I made from the assessment. One of the insights I got from the assessment was that I make my best decisions after a period of retreat. To live this out I started taking short retreats for a few days at a time to think, read and pray. These retreats were real soul care for me. Soul care is different for everyone but it’s important for everyone. When you consider what you need to do to refuel and energize yourself remember it’s personal; you are unique and so is what you need to run the race.