Youth Leader as a Coach
The apostle Paul makes in clear in Ephesians 4:11 that the ministry gifts were given to the church to prepare people for ministry. Whether I call myself a pastor, prophet, apostle or evangelist does not matter. My job is to prepare people for ministry. I understand that parallel illustrations are never perfect, but I often view the pastor as a coach. In sports the coach trains the players on all the aspects of the game. They practice, make corrections, devise new strategies, correct wrong actions, etc. What is missing from this list? The coach must also make sure his players have games to play. Who would want to be part of a team that never plays a game?
The pastor coach also needs to make sure his “players” have games. It is not enough to train the “players” we must provide an opportunity for them to get into the game. No, the game is NOT the Wednesday night youth service. The game is the daily life at school or at work where the Christian lives out the things he/she has been taught at “practice”. Don’t evaluate your youth service based on the number of students that attend or even the number of students that respond to your invitation at the end of your message. Evaluate your youth service based upon how many of those students are living out the claims of Christ at school and work by their radical discipleship. How many of those students are living the life 24/7? That is how you tell if you are winning the game. If that number is low, then maybe what you are doing in practice is not working.
