Free Resource – National Network of Youth Ministers
In a timely post, my friend Mike Kupferer wrote in his blog (Reflections) about the need for youth ministers to have friends their own age. He said,
Just know that having a friend your age is important to your longevity in youth ministry. You need to build friendships with adults who will hold you accountable. Friends who will listen to you share frustrations and struggles. Friends who will rejoice when you rejoice. Friends who actually know what you are talking about when you mention a TV show from your high school years. Besides, if you never have adult friends you might just forget that you are an adult and not a teenager.
Mike was encouraging us to have friends COMPLETELY outside the youth ministry realm, and I totally agree. Also important, though is to have connections with adults within the youth ministry world (in other words, other youth ministers).
One of my greatest joys in ministry has been to meet and befriend other youth ministers, both locally and nationally. Sometimes you need to be with people who are dealing with the same things you are, who can laugh, cry, pray, celebrate, commiserate, plan, relax, and just be with you. I had a wonderful network of youth ministers in my previous ministry. We met every month at a local restaurant to share our lives and our ministries. We were from different parts of the country, different ages, different denominations, and different genders. Some were full time, some part, some volunteer. We were brought together for our passion for our community and the teens in it.
Thats an unusually long winded introduction to our freebie this week, because too often ministers try to go it alone instead of helping each other out. As a minister, you NEED to be involved with a network of ministers. If you don’t know how to get started, check out the National Network of Youth Ministers (NNYM.com). I encourage you to take a look, see if you have a local network, and then join it! If one isn’t listed for your area, look around and see if there are any that meet. It’s likely that there is. If not, start one yourself. Just call up a few youth ministers and meet at a local restaurant for lunch. Its vital to have that group, and will be a big asset to your ministry.
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