How to set expectations without alienating your leaders

I’ve previously written that you need to set the bar for those volunteering in ministry positions. 

Frankly, it’s only fair that those who are stepping into a ministry role understand what is expected from them.

But, the process in determining what these expectations are, can be tricky.

You could just impose a blanket set of rules. No negotiation. Only agreed by those on the church payroll.

Or, you could utilise a more collaborative approach.

This is what I did.

The process was fairly simple…

With all your leaders present, you begin with a list of any and all potential expectations for those in leadership. In order to generate this, I just Googled various youth ministry leaders expectations/contracts and consolidated them onto one single PowerPoint slide.

This list included such things as the use of drugs, church attendance, spiritual disciplines, relational guidelines, legal guidelines and many, many, more.

From here, each leader sorted each point on the list into one of four categories - Essential, Important, Debatable, Rejected.

From here, everyone goes around the room and shares their list. No interjections.

Hopefully, the majority of the Essential and Rejected items will be fairly quickly agreed upon. But, any item which doesn’t have complete consensus will regress to one of the adjacent categories (eg any item that everyone doesn’t agree is essential, shifts to important or rejected, becomes debatable).

From here, the debates begin.

You then discuss everything else.

Why the item may be included.

How the item may be applied.

Why the item may ultimately become rejected.

With this process, the list of expectations becomes both contextually appropriate and owned by the group, not a list of demands from the ecclesiastical ivory tower.