Building Team Unity Among Youth Ministry Volunteers

I absolutely adore my youth ministry volunteers and I am sure you adore yours as well! These amazingly incredible human beings show up week after week to invest in the next generation. These are the people going to students’ games and plays, spending countless hours at coffee shops and ice cream parlors to show up in the lives of teenagers. And they do it all for the yearly salary of zero dollars and zero cents. Talk about the real MVPs!

Investing in our volunteer teams should always be one of our top priorities as youth ministers because let’s be real – we couldn’t do this on our own! One of the ways we can do this is by building team unity among our youth ministry volunteers. Because, if we are honest, if we aren’t intentional about creating unity and support in our teams, youth ministry can sometimes feel like a lonely place. We are all spending countless hours each week, month, and year pouring into the lives of people who may not totally always be superrrrrrr grateful we’re there (iykyk). We may never get to see the fruit of the seeds we sow. Having unity in your teams reminds your leaders that they aren’t alone, the work they’re doing is valued, and God is using them in some mighty ways.  

Team Goals and Mission

To build unity within your team, your team needs a common goal and mission. What are they coming together to work towards? Your goal and mission may seem obvious to you – who eats, sleeps, and breathes youth ministry, but it may not be as obvious to your volunteers.

If you don’t have a set goal or mission, sit down with your team and work on it together!

We restructured our goals as a team last year all together and I can’t express enough how much that time of brainstorming and expressing values brought unity to my team! We are now clear on what we are all working towards as a unified front.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Going over your goal and mission once and never bringing it up again is not going to cut it. Make sure you are regularly reminding your team and casting vision for them. This not only gives them a good refresher but also reignites excitement for what you are all doing together.  

Foster Vulnerability

Your team needs to be able to trust one another and lean on one another in order to create unity. The best way to foster vulnerability within your team is to start with you! If your team sees you being able to share and be vulnerable with them, they will follow suit.

Each week, my team and I sit down before youth group starts and we share about our week. The good parts and the bad parts. We go over details for the night ahead, ask for prayer requests and highlight different ways we saw God move that week, and end praying for each other. Even though this isn’t a long-extended period of time, it is still so precious to each of us! It is a space my volunteers know is safe and they can come just as they are. 

Do life together – the more life you just simply spend with your volunteers, the more vulnerability is fostered. Get coffee, have them over for dinner, go on prayer walks, or have an afternoon retreat in nature.

You are more than just a team on the day your youth group meets, you are a family that gets to do life together. Remembering that, even when things get busy, helps build unity among youth ministry volunteers.

Say Thank You

Isn’t it great to feel appreciated? It is always wonderful to know that someone has seen your hard work or dedication; to know that you are a vital part of the team. Let’s not forget to thank our volunteers regularly for all that they do! Here are a few quick ideas for how you can thank your team members:

• I love writing thank you notes. It is so simple and just takes a few minutes of my time. And who doesn’t love getting some snail mail?! 
• Buy them coffee. Practical and delicious.
• Have a couple of your students write letters to your leaders – what they love about them/how they’ve impacted their lives.
• Pray over them. What better way is there to show you are grateful for them than by praying over them and thanking the Lord of the work He is doing through their life.

We thought we got into youth ministry to minister only to teenagers but jokes on us, because we MUST invest and build into our volunteer teams so that they feel unified and supported while THEY minister to fare more teens than we could by ourselves.

And, while all of the above is chock full of great tips (if I do say so myself) and practical strategies, nothing is ever going to replace reminding your team that they are unified in Christ. God’s Holy Spirit – the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead – is alive in each of your volunteers and is working through them to share the gospel with the teenagers in your care. This Spirit is the ultimate and greatest unifier. All of the X’s and O’s are great, but when we include God’s Spirit, we’ll have no problem building unity among youth ministry volunteers.

Bonus: From The Mouths Of The Volunteers Themselves

I asked my own team what were some things that have helped them feel unified and here’s what they said:

• “Touching base, praying, and talking about the plan for the night before youth group starts.”
• “Our WhatsApp group chat.”
• “Regular check-ins.”
• “It feels good to share the same goal.”
• “Team huddles.”
• “Sharing life, ideas, and stories with each other.”

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