SYMC Conference - Day 2

This post was started at the Conference but finished a couple weeks later.


This continues my first couple thoughts on the Simply Youth Ministry Conference.


Day two of SYMC was incredible. I started with worship and then moved into my Deeper Learning Track. I was really struggling with what to take and on the advice of a friend, I choose Mark DeVries teaching "The Indispensable Youth Pastor".


This learning track focus on Locating, Landing and Loving your youth ministry position. The first section was focused on the Locating and Landing pieces. Mark and Jeff talked about the following:

• Find a church that is the right match. This means knowing what you are looking for in a church.
• The Interview. Once you found that church, how do you make yourself look good on paper and in real life. (I will cover this in another blog series)
• Making the Move. How will this affect your family? How much time will you need to commit to the church vs your family? What are some things you can do to start the ministry right.

When the track started, I wasn't sure I need to be there and almost left. Even though we had decided to leave, my brain wasn't computer it. I am glad I stayed. I learned some stuff that is going to come in handy as I begin to look for another position.


I day was filled with 4 hours of deep conversation about becoming an indispensable youth pastor. The following awesome points that Mark made that I think really show how to become indispensable.


Moving Toward indispensability:

1. Your job is to do your job: You were hired to do a job, you need to do it. The youth pastor can sometimes become more than the youth pastor because we normally have other various skills but we need to focus on our job first. You can't complain about others not doing what they should, if you yourself aren't doing your job.
2. Steward the Church's vision: We all have an idea of how the church should run but you weren't hired to change the church. You need to champion the vision of the church and that pastor. If you try to push your own vision, then only friction will occur.
3. Kiss the Victim Goodbye: When you are employee, you have to do things you don't want to do. Mark talked about paying the rents in ministry. There are things that NEED to be done to be effective and by doing them and not worrying whether you agree or not is best. Paying these rents are about building trust and enthusiasm in the ministry you are trying to build.
4. Get More than our Job Done: You need to go beyond what is expected of you. Mark told a story of a Pastor who knew the names of the majority of his congregation the first day he was there because he studied their faces and names. We need to reach out to the parents, leadership and congregation and help them be successful.
5. Focus on Making Other People Successful: When you make other people in the church successful, you build up more rents. This also makes your ministry stronger by weaving the ministry throughout the church. Encourage your students to get involved and be successful in other ministries in the church. Volunteer your group to help when other ministries need it.
6. Creativity can be learned: Don't limit yourself. All of us are creative. God created us to be creative. We need to stop worrying about coming up with bad ideas and just let the creativity flow.
7. Tell the Stories -- Transform the Culture: Make sure others know of your success in ministry. Find ways to tell the good stories of what is happening in your ministry. You can use these stories to show others the excitement in your ministry and it will become contagious.

As I thought through these ideas, I began to think about the good things I did in our ministry and some of the rents that I didn't pay. If you are in ministry, are you paying your rents or playing the victim?