Welcome back … or should I welcome myself back? It has been a while but I’m back and ready to rumble.  

When I was a kid I had the pleasure of growing up in Phoenix Arizona. Now you probably know that Phoenix is hot …. as in HOT! So, we tended to spend a great deal of time indoors in front of the TV. It was here, and only here (in Phoenix) that you could delight in one of the greatest show of all time: The Wallace and Ladmo show. I could wax on and on about this life-changing event but I won’t. Rather, I will tell you about one regularly occurring visitor—Boffo the clown. Boffo was unhappy, unfunny, unpleasant and always there to bring the show down to his joyless level.

A few months back I began to draw our thoughts to “how to make youth group enjoyable.” As I have stated before we must strive to make the Christian stuff fun and the fun stuff Christian and I wrote about the need to begin your weekly gathering well. Today I want to give you a guideline to help make the meeting more enjoyable for all involved—no Boffo the Clowns. What I mean is, make sure the person leading the youth meeting (or a segment of it) can stand in front of your group and bring it ‘up’ rather than ‘down’.

I say this because it has been my experience that many groups operate on the “let’s give everyone a try” mentality when it comes to leading the youth gathering. There is some wisdom in this as you never know what a person will be like unless you give them a chance. And, many times somebody that you suspect may not be all that good in front of a crowd actually surprises you and brings the house down (I think many of the modern ‘talent’ TV shows operate on that principle). However, a bit of godly wisdom must be used here as the goal is to provide the most productive gathering possible. With this in mind, here are a few tips to help develop volunteers who can lift a meeting rather than take it down to Boffo’s level:

Run some training. Have an experienced or professional leader come in to provide some teaching on how to stand in front of a crowd. Someone with acting experience or a school teacher will be of great benefit here.

Practice Practice Practice. It goes without saying but practice can really be a help here. Spend some time with your team running through some program segments (Welcoming the group, running a mixer etc.) and critique each other.

Learn to smile. This may the most difficult one, however, it is also one of the most effective ways to communicate positively. Good leaders tend to smile a lot. Again, get lots of practice here. And, you may want someone in the group constantly reminding the person upfront to smile (have them point to their teeth as a reminder).

Be brief. Again, one of the easiest ways to lead things well. Don’t over explain or drone on and on. Get to the point!

Preparation (prevents poor performance). One thing I tell my communication class is to always spend a minute or two at the podium, pulpit, place on the stage where you will be speaking. Get comfy, give it a run through and learn to note any issues that could bring you down.

Finally, running youth group activities is not merely the domain of the extrovert. Youth ministry has long been the domain of the extrovert. This is fortunately changing and we need to realize that introverts can be good in front of a crowd as well. The issues isn’t “extroverts are good in front of people and introverts are good in a small group,” far from it. The issue is simply who is best for the job. (I think back to my early youth group days when we had two people who often ran our youth nights, one was Bruce who was an introvert who loved being alone fixing his truck. The other was Mike, great in a large group. Both did fantastic jobs upfront, each with their own style and manner.)

So, it is the start of the year. Get crackin’ on developing a group of people who can lead your youth group activities in a way that maximises your time together! [By the way, you can learn more about Boffo here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC-j0SFRBoE ]

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