new Pope of the Catholic Church. He will be known as Pope Francis.
As the world watched the Cardinals meet to discuss and elect a new Pope, it made me think of all that we do as ministry leaders to select new leaders that serve our students. See, when the Cardinals meet, they meet in a conclave. This is where the Cardinals lock themselves up, sort through all the candidates and ultimately come to a decision on who the next Pope should be (for more information on the conclave, check it out here).
What I appreciate about what the Cardinals do to elect a Pope, is that this a completely serious matter. It isn’t handled lightly. In the same way, we shouldn’t handle the recruitment and “election” of student ministry volunteers lightly. We should be completely thorough and diligent in our process to find the right leaders serving our students. There are too many mistakes that happen, too many predators our there and too many “buddy leaders” out there wanting to relive their high school experiences to take the selection of student ministry leaders lightly.
It begs the question, how are we selecting leaders? Specifically, what do you go through to bring in new leaders? Is it detailed or just thrown together? Are we being purposeful or just getting warm bodies so that you can have adult supervision?
TAKE A MINUTE right now and think through your selection process. What is right? What is wrong? What needs to be thought through better? What needs to be tweaked? No one student ministry is the exact same as another, so this has to be specific to your ministry, not the church down the street.
I believe that if we want real effectiveness and real leadership from our volunteer leaders, the process begins with us, Youth Pastors/Directors/Ministers.]]>