Recently our local soup kitchen (run by Catholic Workers) contacted our parish’s St. Vincent de Paul society because they are havening a volunteer problem. Apparently the soup kitchen has plenty of organizations volunteering during the first four weeks of the month, but whenever a month has a fifth week the soup kitchen always comes up short on volunteers.

The president of the SVdP society was eager to help and he contacted me to see if the youth ministry would like to work with them to help fill this need. It sounded like a great idea to me and the rest of my High School ministry volunteers thought so too.

• It will give us a chance to plan service events months in advance, and most people appreciate a well organized calendar.
• The teens are always eager to do service that involves actually connecting with the people in need (as opposed to highway cleanups which we never have a good turnout for)
• And it will give our youth ministry a chance to connect with another ministry in our church (too many of our programs feel like they are isolated from the rest of the parish).

This is an untested idea, and in youth ministry, you never know how an idea will turn out, but I think this one will be successful.

We currently have a couple parents working out the calendar, and I hope we will be able to start this ministry soon.

Inviting new people into youth ministry is probably the most difficult part of this job. One year I made around 200 phone calls and asked almost 100 people if they might be interested in joining our ministry. After all that work I had 3 new volunteers. I loved those three people, and they were fantastic youth ministers, but it’s easy to get discouraged after hearing dozens of excuses from people you know would be great youth ministers.

I’m not going to pretend that I’m great at finding new volunteers . . . in fact, I stink at it, but in this post and future posts I want to share what we’re tried and why I feel they were successful.
My all-time favorite way to bring a new volunteer into the ministry is by taking baby-steps with them. Ask them to do something small for the ministry—a one-time event such as being a chaperon for a social, or handing out pizza is great. Then just chat with them about the ministry (be positive – too many youth ministers spend too much time complaining about their ministry). Casually ask them questions about their expectations and desires, and really listen to what they say. Develop a good relationship with them.

At some point let them know about the needs of the ministry – maybe you bring them up at that event, or maybe you wait for a later event. Make sure you draw a connection between what the parents want and what the ministry’s needs are. And remember, all we are really doing is asking people to serve Christ. Never be embarrassed about doing that.

One of our best volunteers came out of a social we planned at the beginning of the year (see my article “Community Life #1). I called a mom to chat about youth ministry, and then she invited us to her house for a social. During the event I hung out with the teens and made an effort to chat with the parents. I found out that her and her husband used to volunteer in their parish’s youth ministry when they were in college, so she had all kinds of experience. She stepped up, got her husband involved, and has become the most active volunteer in our High School program; she plans great events, finds other volunteers, and organized a student-led Praise and Worship band.

This technique is my favorite way of bringing new volunteers into the ministry. All you are doing is just getting to know someone and finding out if they might have the gifts necessary to be a youth minister. You’re also setting the example by connecting with one person, who connects with another, and that is how the Body of Christ grows. This takes time, but those people are always the best volunteers. When you get discouraged, remember we’re on God’s time and we have to be as patient with him as he is with us.

When I’m writing Bible studies I like scanning an outline of the book we’re reading. It’s easier to see the connection between stories that way. Since we’re working on Genesis right now, here is my outline of Genesis.

The trip went well. After my wife dropped my son and me off at the airport we found out the flight was delayed, so he ran around the airport for a couple hours and then passed out on the plane. Perfect!

The house we stayed at wasn’t baby-proofed at all, so I haven’t sat down for more than 10 minutes straight all weekend. But one amazing thing happened because of that; my son and I somehow bonded even more than we already were. I always try to give him a couple hours each day, and I thought we had a great relationship, but spending every minute with him (minus the time I had best-man duties during the wedding) has taken us to a whole new level. He smiles a little bigger at me, and he likes to hold my hand a little more. He even seems calmer now. . .

My wife stays at home, so the bond she has with our kids must feel amazing. I believe staying home with our kids is hard work, but I can’t help being a little jealous of the relationship they have. I’m glad the three of them get to share that much love.

My family is amazing.

Thanks for your prayers.

Tomorrow morning we’re flying to Texas for a wedding. I’m a little nervous about how our son is going to handle two hours in a seat when he is used to running around all day. I searched the web for advice, and most sites said pretty much the same thing: “Distract the kids with everything you’ve got.”

We called up one of our friends to see if they would let us use their portable DVD player and we found out that they had just flown the same airline with their kids and had all kinds of great stories to tell us. Their daughter had just seen the new Superman movie and by some strange coincidence (is there ever a normal coincidence?) a tall, dark-haired man wearing a glasses and a superman t-shirt was in the airport. Their daughter was stunned and told everybody on the plane that Superman was flying outside holding up their plane. The flight attendants and the other passengers were all very nice, and played along.

I think the best advice we got was “relax, focus on taking care of your kids, and the other fliers will take care of themselves.” So we’re packing light - a LeapFrog and a DVD player with a couple of VeggieTales. And I’m looking forward to the airplane-shaped cookies that they give parents . . . I mean kids.

Pray for my family this weekend.