Brian Aaby, the director of YS Search and YS Coaching for Youth Specialties, focuses on how we can best serve churches and youth pastors in the midst of staff transitions, as well as providing coaching and personal guidance to youth workers. In this YS Idea Lab, Brian takes a few minutes to share some key things he’s learned from walking alongside both churches and youth pastors in the midst of transition.
If you don’t have time to watch the entire interview, here are some of the most memorable moments:
Work yourself out of a job from the very beginning.
Brian reminds us that if you wait until just before you leave to empower your leaders to take ownership of the ministry, then it’s probably too late. He compares it to someone doing lots of renovations on a home and then selling the house as soon as you’re done. You don’t get to enjoy it and you don’t have the opportunity to experience the fruit of your work. So Brian encourages us to raise up our leadership long before we know it’s time to leave.
Don’t forget the students in the transition.
With all that happens during a transition, it can be easy for us to focus on figuring out what role is best for us personally and where we might be headed next. But we can’t lose site of all the work that God is still doing in the lives of the students. If we do, Brian mentions that it’s most common for ministries to lose 2 classes in the transition, the high school juniors and seniors. Create a way to help the leadership left behind continue to support the work God is doing in the lives of the students.
Help the volunteers move to a minimalist program.
In transitions, most volunteer teams won’t be able to carry the full load of current programs and event. Brian recommends helping the volunteers transition to a minimalist approach to the programming, scaling back to just the basics that the volunteers have the capacity to cover. This makes it much easier for the volunteers to maintain and it helps protect them from potential burnout. Scaling ministry back to the basics is also a gift to the new youth pastor because it gives them an opportunity to asses everything and slowly add programs back in when they are ready.
Get an outside perspective.
Allow the mentor relationships in your life to offer you an outside perspective on the entire transition process. It will be a huge help to make sure the important stuff doesn’t fall through the cracks. If you don’t have a mentor relationship to offer this kind of outside perspective, contact Brian Aaby to chat about how YS Coaching can help provide that for you. YS Coaching offers counseling, consulting, and coaching to help provide direction for every youth worker, and it’s especially helpful during times of transition. Through YS Coaching, Brian works to support three separate elements to every staff transition:
- The church losing the staff member
- The staff member themselves
- The church that is gaining a staff member.
Brian can work with the current church you’re transitioning out of to make the change as smooth as possible and to set the remaining leadership up for success after you leave. He also works to understand your own personal skill set and passions, which helps a ton when he begins to connect you with other churches that are in need of your particular skill set and passions.
Look for a position that matches your DNA.
As you’re transitioning out of your current church and praying about where God might be leading you next, it’s important to do the work of discovering your personal youth worker DNA—your strengths, your skills, and the unique passions you have for ministry. When you know those details, you can search for a church that needs those particular strengths, skills, and passions. This is another big part of what Brian does for youth workers. He calls it the eHarmony for youth pastors, helping the right church and the right youth pastor find each other. The search might not be quick, but Brian’s help will go a long way to helping you find the churches that would be the best fit for you. Check out more details through YSSearch.com.
If Brian Aaby can be any help to you or your church through YS Coaching or YS Search, shoot him an email at brian.aaby@youthspecialties.com.
The YS Idea Labs are filmed on location at the National Youth Workers Convention. Check out more YS Idea Labs HERE and register early for NYWC to save BIG: NYWC.COM.
JACOB ECKEBERGER is the Content Manager at Youth Specialties, an itinerant worship leader, the spouse of a church planter, and a long time volunteer youth worker. You can find him blogging about social media and digital strategy ideas at JACOBECKEBERGER.COM.