Redefining the Role of YM Coordinator

I still remember it very cleary. It was November, 2001, at the Hayes Mansion in San Jose. Many key leaders from the Diocese were gathered for a weekend of planning and prioritzing, which led us to the creation of the Pastoral Plan. After a short small group session, we were asked to summarize some of our thoughts and comments in the large group of over 200 people. Our goal was to name some areas that should be developed in the areas of prioirty, one of which was youth ministry. I stood up and said that youth ministry coordinators should be seen as administrators.

There were some mixed reactions in the room, some positive, some negative, and some confused. My purpose was to help people realize that we need to re-examine and re-define how we look at the role of youth ministry coordinator. Although I might change the way I describe this role now, I still think it is a shift that needs to happen. No longer is the youth ministry coordinator just the youth group leader. As we experience the shift of this new century, we too need to experience a shift in youth ministry leadership.

Youth ministry in the 21st century is about team leadership. Youth group is not enough to meet the needs of our young people and to meet the call of Renewing the Vision. If we are to truly affect the lives of young people, we need to spend time equipping and empowering volunteer leaders that will allow us to more fully reach out to the youth population in our parishes.

Imagine a youth ministry that was not only youth group, but bible studies, socials, small group ministries, technology teams, youth liturgy teams, internship programs, social justice events, mission trips, confirmation, theology updates, movie and faith nights, and intergenerational ministry, to name a few more additions. Now we're talking. But we can only do this by bringing leaders under our wings so that they are prepared to serve as relational ministers and ministers that are able to lead teams who put on events and programming.

This is what I meant by youth ministry coordinators being administrators. I often say that the youth ministry coordinator ministers to the youth ministry leadership team, and the youth ministry leadership team ministers to the teens. Not that the coordinator does not minister to teens directly, but their priority often needs to be on the youth ministry leaders.

Mark DeVries, in his book Sustainable Youth Ministry, states that an adult can make a true a dn deep connection and relationship with no more than five teens. How many teens do you have in your parish? If you have only five, by all means, keep doing what you are doing. If you have more than five teens, then we need to redefine how we lead youth ministry as coordinators. We need to think as administrators, managers, and team leaders.