The 3 E's of Leadership

As a Youth Pastor, you have the potential to influence many people’s lives throughout your ministry. If you’re intentional about making interpersonal connections with the parents, students, and staff, your ministry can tremendously impact future generations. However, if you are not deliberate in building relationships with students and families, your ministry impact will be minimal.

I have known pastors who have given very little effort in building relationships within their church, and it has hindered their ministry. When the time comes for their transition away from the church, their exit is met with a shrug from the congregation.

The depth of the impact you have on the people within the context of your local church is directly connected to the level of your relationship trust. Therefore, how can we increase our relationship trust within the church and have a greater impact through our leadership?

1. Be Early

Showing up to meetings, appointments, and gatherings early will increase the trust that people have in your leadership. Showing up early to a lunch with a parent, staff meetings, a student leadership council meeting, a volunteer training session, and even Sunday morning worship gatherings communicates to the people under your watch that you care and can be trusted.

Being early shows that you care about them as a person, respect their time, and are disciplined with your own schedule. Leaders: Early is on time. On-time is late. If a meeting starts at 6:00 p.m., and you show up at 6:05 p.m., it communicates to others that you either don’t care or can’t budget your time wisely. Your volunteers make sacrifices in their lives to serve the church. A simple common courtesy is for you, the leader, to show up early.

Side note: Sometimes, being late to a meeting or an appointment is outside your control. However, as a leader, it should be a rare occurrence – not a typical pattern or habit of your life.I live in a city almost completely surrounded by railroad crossings. The lament of our community is the frustration of idle trains blocking roads. However, as a leader who wants to be effective in my leadership, I leave for appointments early to avoid getting stuck behind a train. As a leader, budget time in your schedule to anticipate the surprise hiccup in your travel. *Quick Tip*: By arriving early to meetings, you will have extra time to catch up on reading books. Redeem the time you wait for people by reading a leadership, marriage, or ministry book. I have completed many books by simply showing up early to meetings with a book in my hand.

2. Be Eager

Several years ago, a friend of mine spoke at a chapel service for the New Orleans Saints football team. Sitting on the front row, leaning forward, eyes up, and with an open notebook and pen in his hand was the starting quarterback for the Saints, Drew Brees. Drew’s eagerness set the tone for the rest of the team in the room. As the leader, his teammates were watching him model what leadership looks like.

People are watching you lead. The attitude you carry into meetings with your students and volunteer leaders sets the tone for the culture of your ministry. Showing up to gatherings lethargic, distracted, or disinterested communicates loud and clear to the people you lead. The leader’s attitude sets the tone for the culture of their ministry.

If you spend your time in a staff meeting playing on your phone, constantly yawning, or staring out the window, your team will become frustrated, and your influence will diminish. When you go to meetings, show up with a positive attitude, excitement about the mission, and the joy of the Lord. As a leader, your passion for the Gospel and the work that God has called you to will infect those around you. 

*Quick Tip*: During the meeting, write down ideas you have, memorable quotes you hear, or dreams you have for your ministry in a notebook. People will note your engagement and eagerness and will follow your lead. 

3. Be Equipped

School teachers can easily tell whether or not a student has completed their homework. The quality of their work and the preparation for the classroom are revealed in how well they know the material. If leaders show up to meetings unprepared, our students and volunteers will know it. As leaders, we must show up to meetings and appointments equipped to lead, contribute, serve, teach, and counsel.

Due diligence before the meeting will increase your leadership trust from your volunteers long after the meeting. When you are equipped with your preparation work completed, it will increase your leadership trust from your volunteers.

Leadership is hard, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. By showing up early, eager, and equipped to do the work, you will increase leadership trust within your church and ministry.

Share your thoughts with others in our YM360 community:

1. What do you currently do to be early, eager, and equipped in your ministry setting?
2. Which of these three E’s do you struggle with the most? What small habits can you put into place that might help strengthen that area of your ministry?