Recruiting the Youth Team
Where can we find good volunteers to sponsor the youth program? Robert Townsend portrays this dilemma for us: "Probably whenever Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and the other chiefs powwowed, the first topic of conversation was the shortage of Indians. Certainly today, no meeting of the high and the mighty is complete until someone polishes the conventional wisdom: 'Our big trouble today is getting enough good people.'"1 Perhaps you identify with the problem of finding enough good people to sponsor an effective and vital youth ministry. Perhaps you inherited (or recruited in a moment of panic) some volunteers you wish you didn't have. Take Stan, for example. Stan loved to work with young people. He was always on hand at every activity—energetic, committed, and enthusiastic. But one night at church, he passed around pictures he had taken of one of the girls in the youth group who had modeled for him out in the woods. Although there was nothing wrong in the pictures themselves, people began to be concerned about the countless hours Stan was spending with girls in the group. His wife complained that she and his two young children never saw him. What do you do with a Stan? You can tell him to stop taking pictures; you can urge him not to neglect his family. However, his unwise and undiscerning behavior will continue to appear in other forms. Or what about Randy, a parent who volunteered to work with the teens? On his first Sunday evening as youth sponsor, with fifteen teens in the back of his pickup, he was spinning "donuts" in the parking lot after church on his way to an afterglow. Or consider John, who would never do anything to keep you awake at night. At times, though, you wished he would, because he needed some life. He loved kids, ...
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