Recently, the local youth worker network asked what it could do or become to be of more use to volunteer youth workers. For the majority of the span of my “career” as a volunteer youth worker, I was able to work with a co-leader who planned many of the events for the group, allowing me to stick to my niche of teaching. All the same, thinking back on those years, I came up with a list of items that would have been of use to me then. Maybe they can be of use to anyone involved in a youth ministry network who is looking to reach out to the volunteer leaders in the area.

There’s one caveat, however … maybe two. First, to take a cue from Thomas Friedman, the world is flat. I can get ideas for games, illustrations and more at any number of sites on the Internet. Truthfully, there are a handful of youth ministry blogs that I read frequently and provide a virtual quasi-network. (I just noticed they are all men. Where are you, ladies? Speak up!) I need the local youth network to be just that … local. Help me to do ministry in our context.

Second, given that I generally come out of left field with my thoughts, I may be way off base to what the average volunteer youth worker is thinking. All the same, here’s what I would have liked (and still might) if I were the only volunteer youth worker at my church:

1. Meetings that are only about planning stuff.
I would rather have meetings that are casual, coffee shop-type things for support and prayer with lots of room for questions and/or training. Maybe we read through books on church leadership or culture or some other broad topic applicable to an expanded definition of youth ministry.

The volunteer who is a solo leader (or even one who has a co-leader) can feel very alone. You may be thanked for your work, but more often you’ll hear some variation of “I don’t know how you put up with teen-agers!” We don’t “put up” with them. Volunteer or vocational, most youth workers aren’t there because no one else would do it … at least I hope that is the case. They are called to minister to teens. They need to know there are other people out there who, like them, have a passion to walk alongside teens as they discover Christ and grow in their faith in him.

2a. A directory of some sort to the contact youth workers at area churches.
When I was planning events, there were times that it might have been cool - or just plain necessary - to connect with another church for a cooperative effort. Say I want to take youth to a week-long event (DCLA, Creation, etc.), but I am a female youth worker and (for whatever reason) can’t find a male chaperone in my congregation. If I knew who to contact at other churches, I would be far more likely to make the call than if I were to have to make a blind call to a secretary who may or may not be full-time and may or may not work out of the church office. In the end, the cooperative effort might yield the right number of chaperones.

Or maybe I just need a someone to share the hotel expenses for the National Youth Workers Convention (which I am probably funding completely out of my own pocket).

Besides, we’d all be able to save money by banding together to get group discounts on tickets to events. Small churches have a hard time meeting the minimum requirements for group discounts.

2b. In the context of the directory, let me know any special training you might have.
Maybe you have a degree in counseling and I have a student with I problem I am not equipped to handle. Maybe I have a background in writing and you can’t write a press release to save your life. Maybe you are passionate about the Hebraic roots of Christianity and would be thrilled to come to my group as a guest teacher. Better yet, maybe we can do a series of lessons and meet at your church one week and mine the next. We can all work more out of our gifting to the benefit of the church universal.

3. An e-mail newsletter describing what local churches are doing.
It wouldn’t have to be spectacular. Just a little note that Joe from This Church or That just started a 12-week series on the minor prophets and that Susie from The Other Church is taking students on a mission trip to Antarctica.

We can get in a rut with our activities and lessons, especially if you are holding down a full-time job outside of your ministry. It’s easier (and cheaper, if you are on a limited budget) for you to re-use materials and turn back to the same activities than it is to dream up new ones. Speaking for myself as a volunteer, I don’t want the network to do it for me. This is very important! I want to be able to get ideas from what you are doing, maybe ask questions and adapt it to my group.

This also connects with #2 … as can best be demonstrated with an illustration. Rewind back to 2003-2004 when I was planning the first week-long mission trip. Our church had never done such a thing so there was no institutional wisdom from which to draw. If I had known that another church in the area had recently taken a trip, I could have pulled out my directory, called up that youth worker and just pestered them with questions about how to go about planning.

Last thing … I would want the network to help me do the things I can’t do myself. There’s a zillion resources for lessons, but there are activities that lend themselves to a larger group. Alone I can’t put together a special evening of worship with a well-known artist and/or speaker, but pooling our resources would grow the budget and allow us to do something that might not otherwise happen in our town (understanding, of course, that Crowder may be forever out of reach).

Any other ideas? What does your network do?