7 Dangerous Questions for Youth Leaders

With "The Coming Teen Decade" fast approaching, let's take a look at 7 dangerous questions for youth leaders. Answering these honestly can give us a feel for the kind of work we are doing. Seek the honest answers to these and then do something about correcting areas that you feel are neglected.

While working with youth leaders to evaluate and measure their ministry, there are seven questions to ask. Well, I'm sure there are many more, but, here are seven:

7 Leadership Questions:

1.  Have you grown spiritually/naturally or declined spiritually/naturally in the past 6 months? (The spiritual gifts are the disciplines such as prayer, fasting, reading, study, worship. The natural gifts would include communication/preaching, relational skills, administration, leadership development)

2.  What is your philosophy of youth ministry? What is your model? (Discipleship template, Evangelism template, Small Group template, External community and para-church involvement, Student-led ministry, etc.) 

3.  What are your strengths? How much time do you spend on your strengths? What activities are you doing to shape your strengths?

4.  Who is your university? Who is your Nathan (editor) and who is your Jethro (wisdom)? Is there someone you would like to be buried next to? How often do you meet with them? Who is your Barnabas (encourager) or your Luke (administrator)? We all need help to create a shared ministry effort. Shared ministry will reach more people.

5.  Who is following you? Look at the people who want to be with you and who are asking for time with you. (You can tell a lot about yourself by the kind of people who are following you)

6.  Campus questions: Can you name the high school districts in your area? What are the names of the principals and the key people (teachers, coaches, counselors) on each campus? Name the key student at each of the schools represented in your youth ministry. How many students do you know outside of your youth ministry? When is the last time you were on a  campus?

7.  Is there a place that you get your information? How do you remove the lid? How do you extend your fences? When you listen to yourself, you will be very gracious with your expectations. (Favorite websites, book, RSS feeds, etc)

Good leadership happens with great measurement. Do a little mid-course correction right now. How do you feel about the work and the ministry you are doing? Evaluating our mission and our wins is fun. And painful.