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I had an interesting conversation with a Youth Minister yesterday. She has been taking her youth group on mission trips for over ten years. But she’s experienced a huge level of frustration on her last two trips. Her problem… adult volunteers from other youth groups.
Adults from other churches have made a girl in her group cry, sat around and not help in the service at all, or worse – bosing kids around like a dictator and doing everything for then because it wasn’t good enough. She has reached a point that if it doesn’t get better – she was thinking of doing something completely different with her group.
Her question to me was. “What can you do to help me?”. And I was at a loss… Our ministry provides a “guide” for all adults attending a trip, a pre-trip meeting for all adults, a video that walks adults thru what is expected of them, and a Code of Conduct just for adults. We strive to help all adults feel prepared to serve and yet there is, unfortinately, nothing we can do about an adult leader that chooses to have a bad attitude while on a trip…
Do you have ideas? What does your group do to prepare adults? Share a comment and help a struggling fellow youth leader out…
Sometimes an adult problem can surface at camp but there IS something one can do – SHARE the problem with the camp Director. I think too often, events take place at camps that don’t get communicated to the Director until the last day of camp and that is simply too late. Whenever a community of people come together mixing adults with youth, you are bound to get a few adults that “don’t get it.” I know that I didn’t. At my first camp I really thought it was about the work. I try to share my story at all the camps I direct to convey the message that as adults, we really need to understand our purpose and our roles. Adults are not the boss. Adults are not there to do all the work. Adults are there to help youth grow in their faith. The work is simply the mechanism that allows that to happen. Sometimes the camp Director needs to intervene and engage an adult in a teaching moment. Most of the time it works. If a problem is identified, we can pull our team together to work out solutions. We call those problems, “opportunities.” Site coaches, Directors, MC’s, Summer Staff, and other red shirt staff are always willing to help by visting sites, spending times at certain sites, or even working on sites to ensure that situations as described are corrected if they come up. Another thing, we as a team will always do, is seek assistance from God through prayer. Each night we have a staff meeting to address issues and it always amazes me how the power of prayer works to help resolve some of the issues we face at camp. As a last resort, we can make a reassignment, if necessary, to ensure that youth have a great camp experience. I believe that every adult that comes to Workcamp has good intentions. Sometimes their methodology simply needs a little tweaking – especially if they do not understand their roles or do not work with youth regularly. I hope this helps.