Principles of Leadership in Young Adult Ministry
- Build a Diverse Team
- Young Adults ARE Adults
- Find Young Adult and Older Adult Leaders
- Form Leaders
- Support Leaders
Build a Diverse Team
Your Leadership Team will be one of the main factors in the stability of your ministry, in the success of your events, and in the appeal of your programs. Before any events or programs are planned, take the time to create a team with members who are diverse in their skills, represent the different groups of young adults you hope to reach with your ministry, and who have a circle of influence that is large enough to help draw other young adults to this new ministry.
This means finding not only young adults, but also older adults that have a heart, a passion, and an interest in working with young adults. Having a mixture of both young adults and older adults will help create a leadership team that will survive the constant turnover that young adult ministries often experience.
Young Adults ARE Adults
Young adults are often already leading in some capacity. This age group of 18-39 spans vast life experiences, and the richness of this large age range is that young adults lead in their college organizations, in the schools where they are teachers, and in the businesses where they are team members and managers. This age range holds some of our nation’s strongest business leaders, including leaders of some of the largest companies in the United States. They lead as newly minted doctors and lawyers and professors at universities. They are parents, leading their children. The bottom line is they are adults, who, like any adult, are often willing to lead and take part if they are invited to do so.
After inviting young adults to participate in leadership roles, it will also be your job to help form and support them in their roles as leaders in ministry. Every time you gather is an opportunity to minister to them and with them. Forming and supporting your leadership team includes giving them tools to deepen their own faith life, their leadership skills, and their understanding of their baptismal call to ministry.
Find Young Adult and Older Adult Leaders
- Young Adult Leaders: Who do I look for?
- Young adults who possess the qualities of openness, ability to empower others, ability to communicate in both written and verbal word, and the ability to lead.
- Young adults who are involved in other organizations, groups, or ministries where young adults are already present. These young adults have a larger circle of influence of their peers to invite to participate in young adult ministry.
- Young adults who express an interest in starting a ministry with their peers.
- Young adults who are already involved in your parish in some way as a catechist, youth ministry volunteer, service project volunteer, parent of a child in a religious education program, Eucharistic minister, lector, and young adults who have recently been married or gone through baptismal preparation for their child, which all parishes have records of.
- Older Adult Leaders: Who do I look for?
- Older adults who have a heart and passion for young adults.
- Older adults who are willing to be intentional about their mentorship to young adults.
- Older adults who understand and respect that young adults CAN lead, and who are also willing to embrace the idea that young adult ministry is always to and with young adults.
- These may be lay people, priests, or religious sisters and brothers. Religious sisters are often willing to be part of ministry with young adults.
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Form Leaders
- Many young adults who are willing to lead say “yes” for two reasons:
- They want to be involved and participate in their faith community in some way and be involved in ministry to others.
- They also want to participate as a way of deepening their own faith.
- Every opportunity you put in front of young adults, even your leaders, is an opportunity to minister to and with them. This means that every meeting you have is an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the Catholic faith. Each time you gather with your team, take the time to expose them to a different prayer form, teach briefly on a piece of Catholic faith, or share resources for them as ministers or for their own personal faith development.
- The nurses’ motto is a great example to live by as you form your young adult ministry leaders — “See one, Do one, Teach One.”
- See One: As the initiator of a young adult ministry program, take the time to model what a good prayer service looks like, what a solid presentation looks like, what good facilitation skills are, and how you involve all in the planning of an event.
- Do One: After you model, simply invite one of your leaders to do the same for the next meeting.
- Teach One: Then eventually, your leader can invite others to do the same. The idea here is to constantly empower young adults into fully owning their leadership roles.
You know you have a successful young adult ministry program when your team is taking on the majority of the tasks, and you are simply in a support role.
TIP: Take the time to explain things. If you are planning a retreat, take the time to explain to your leaders what a retreat is, why our bishops and the Pope believe this is an important part of our individual faith lives, and how retreats provide an opportunity for stillness and silence to hear God speaking to us. These brief teaching moments help strengthen your leaders own understanding, which will make their ministry to their peers even stronger.
Support Leaders
- Keys to supporting leaders are presence, companionship, and mentorship. This may not come from just you, but from the older adults you brought on board and from the influencers in your parish and dioceses you identified. All of these people can offer young adult leaders support, direction, and guidance in both their personal lives and in their leadership to others. Just like any adult in ministry, a community of support is vital in continuing to live out our baptismal call.
- Connect your leaders to national organizations that are young adult minded, support and promote adult faith formation, and support pastoral leaders. All of these organizations offer resources, conferences, and a community of support:
- NCYAMA: National Catholic Young Adult Ministry Association
- NCCL: National Conference on Catechetical Leaders
- NALM: National Association of Lay Ministry
- Provide resources to your leaders, such as Catholic magazines and publications that teach more about the faith and also have practical advice on ministry:
- US Catholic
- America Magazine
- St. Anthony’s Messenger Press
- Catholic Updates
- Share links to online resources that offer a community and network of ministers, prayer resources, and teachings on our faith.
