Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
!
!
A Coaching System is in essence a middle management position set up amongst
your youth ministry volunteer leaders. The Coaches serve as the middle man between
the youth staff and the adult leaders. The Coach as the extraordinary opportunity and
responsibility of leading a team of adults as they lead your students.
!
Having this in place will help to free you up in some areas, allowing you to focus
your attention elsewhere. It also distributes responsibility to other leaders throughout
your ministry, giving them a sense of ownership and stewardship over the youth
program. Having more adult leaders feeling as if they have stock in your ministry is
always a good thing.
!
You will have Primary Coaches in place as well as Secondary Coaches. Their
roles and responsibilities will be dependent as to which level you want them involved.
More than likely, theyll be in charge of a certain student breakdown. For example, you
may have a Primary Coach and one or two Assistant Coaches over all the High School
Boy Leaders.
!
Enclosed in this packet:
Creating a Coaching System in Your Youth Ministry!
Suggested Responsibilities for Coaches!!
!
Case Study of Our Coaching System! !
!
Ideas for Advancing out Current Coaching System!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
2
6
7
8
the leaders going to meet their coaches? How long should your church incorporate a
leader push?
!
Figure out your ideal timetable, making sure all leaders know the schedule, and
begin to make strides toward your goals.
Have your team suggest all possible responsibilities of the Primary Coach
!
Have your team once again brainstorm over all the responsibilities that your
Coaches will have. Again, nothing is off limits, give your team full reign to think outside
of the box. You may be surprised by what they come up with. Again, on much of this the
youth staff need not be involved. You will however write up the final job description, but
for now, lets see what they come up with.
!
What will the Coaches responsibilities be to the leaders? What will their
responsibilities be to the youth staff? Will they have their own student small group?
What extra weekly/monthly responsibilities will they have? What will they have to teach/
train their leaders? How many leaders will they be over? Will they be responsible for
recruiting other leaders? What will their relationship be to the Assistant Coach? Will
there be term limits? What spiritual qualifications are you looking for? What leadership
qualities are important in this role? How will they display a Servant Leadership model?
Etc...
Have your team suggest all possible responsibilities of the Assistant Coach
!
Have your team come up with some responsibilities of the Assistant Coaches.
Will their role be any different from that of the Primary Coach? Or will they just be
training to be a Primary? Will the Assistant Coaches responsibilities be dictated by the
Primary Coaches, or will he have a predetermined set of responsibilities?
Combined their suggestions and write up an official job description
!
Keeping in mind everything that your team suggested, write up a final job
description for the Coaching position that best suits your vision and needs of your
ministry. Remember in most cases these Coaches will be volunteer leaders and you
want to make sure that, while creating a position of heavy responsibility, you give them
what a volunteer can handle, while still producing superb results.
approach them with the finalized version of the job description, written by the youth
staff. Make sure the Assistant Coaches not only agree to their role, but to that of the
Primary Coach as well.
ministry and you believed them worthy to lead, and lead successfully. Obviously all final
decisions need to be filtered through you, but let them know they are free to be
Coaches.
!
You may see all of your Coaches heading in different directions. This isnt a bad
thing. You never know what the end results may be. You may have one set of Coaches
hosting regular youth ministry training events while another team is taking their student
group through a community outreach program. As long as you and your church
approve, and you feel youve got a good handle on things, let your Coaches lead their
student groups and adult leaders as they see fit.
V. Ongoing Implementations:
Allow Coach Time during your regular leader meetings
!
Most ministries will have weekly youth leader meetings before or after the youth
event. Make sure you allow sufficient time for your Coaches to take over and address
their leaders. It may not be plausible to do this every week, but a couple of times a
month should suffice.
!
This is important for a couple reasons. For one, it keeps your Coaches in front of
their leaders and reminds them of the Coaching System. This will be especially helpful
during the early stages of the Coaching System, when its still new to everyone.
Whether or not the Coach is passing information that is of substance, (hopefully it is) its
important for them to regularly be in front of their leaders to remind them of the system
that has been put into place. And it will help the Coaches themselves in constantly
reminding them of their position and responsibilities as a leader.
Have weekly meetings with your Coaches
!
This is the best way for you to feel the vibe of your leaders. While another weekly
meeting may be a source of frustration, its imperative that you are regularly connecting
with your Coaches. They need to constantly be reassured of your support and your
trust. If done correctly, these meetings will spur them on to do great things and will be
very affirming to them.
!
A good time to fit these meetings in may be at the end of your weekly youth
event. A quick five minute meeting should be all you need to get a grasp on how the
evening went through their eyes, get a gage on the feel of their leaders, and pass any
ongoing information.
To act as the middle man between the youth staff and the adult leaders.
Sit in on student small groups, assisting their leaders in their needs.
To act as a substitute when a leader is gone.
To meet weekly with their leader at youth events, passing any word from the youth
pastors, encouraging them, and praying with them.
Meeting once a month, outside of church, to build unity and accountability.
The ongoing training of their leaders as to how to lead a student small group.
Following up with their leaders whenever they miss a night of youth.
Constantly be finding ways of giving their student groups their own identity.
What ever other responsibilities tasked out by the youth staff.
II. Have the Coaches Be Intentional in the Ongoing Training of Their Leaders
!
A lot of the leaders, especially the ones that come to our ministry as the result of
a large leader push, have no experience with youth ministry, or simply mentoring a
teenager. A lot of information gets covered in the initial orientation, but after that, the
training stops. Some issues that are common to people who have been around youth
ministry for a while, and come quite natural, are sources of frustration for new leaders.
This will quickly lead to them feeling inadequate. Off the top of my head, some issues
that may arise, and need to be intentionally covered by Coaches:
How do you keep a group conversation going?
Whats your responsibility when the student tells you something in confidence that
you believe the parents need to know - sex, drugs, alcohol, etc...
How should you handle a phone conversation?
How do you lovingly handle unruly students?
How detailed do you allow yourself to be with your own struggles?
We ask them to build relationships with the parents. What are some practical ways
of doing that? This freaks out a lot of leaders.
At what level do you get the youth staff involved with discipline?
What are some telling signs of a hurting student?
What kinds of physical contact are appropriate?
etc...
!
Looking back, I remember a lot of these were questions I had when I first took a
Jr. High Small Group. I had never been in youth ministry before and none of these came
natural. I can only assume we have leaders with the same questions.
!
I know another weekly or monthly meeting is not the answer, but some where
along the way, a training session, once or twice a year, with breakout groups or
something, may prove to be extremely helpful. As youth leaders, we never stop
learning, reading, and going to training events, and in some way, we should allow
learning opportunities for our leaders as well.