During my first 10 years of youth ministry, I treated leader training as I treat getting my haircut. I don’t schedule my haircuts. I just get to the point of looking a little shaggy and then go see my barber. Similarly, I’d have a meeting with my leaders at the beginning of the year, and then I’d do it again when it felt as if we needed one. So usually every four to five weeks, I’d send an email and we’d get together. There was no real structure or planning to it. I always could say I was letting the Spirit lead me, but that would be…what do they call that? Oh, yes, untrue. Then a couple things happened.

First, one of my leaders pulled me aside and expressed that she didn’t feel as if she really knew what was going on, that the sense of team and community she had felt earlier in the summer while working with youth at camp was missing from our group. I agreed and wanted to do something about it, but I didn’t know where to start. Then another leader had an idea about getting leaders together on a regular basis, and a new leaf officially was turned.

Whether you have one or 100 leaders to manage, let me save you 10 years of aimless wandering and share with you a few principles that have been helpful, once I abandoned my haircut model of leader training.

Meet Regularly and Eat Food
In my opinion, the most important reason to gather is to create a sense of team effort and community. If we are hoping to create community in our youth ministries, it has to start with our leaders. The only way leaders can create community is by meeting regularly. For us, that’s a 90-minute meeting before our Sunday night youth group every two to three weeks. As an incentive to get them there, I feed them dinner. If you don’t have money in your budget to feed them each week, see if there are families in your church who are willing to make a meal. Breaking bread together is a great way to break down barriers and create those bonds.

Cast Vision, Turbo Train
After we finish our meal, I spend about 10 minutes speaking to the entire group. Sometimes I’ll give some insight about the series we’re in or will be entering. Sometimes I’ll share some practical tips about how to lead discussions or how to handle different small group dynamics—most of it borrowed material. Occasionally, I’ll bring in a guest speaker to share for 20 minutes or more about a topic such as handling specific counseling issues with teenagers. I see this time as the pre-game pep talk—my chance to get my team prepared for what follows.

Model the Value of Small Groups
Our evening ends with roughly 45 minutes of small group time. I have enough volunteer coaches to cover eight leaders. If small groups are part of your weekly ministry, then it only makes sense that you model that with your leaders. My coaches are then assigned to mentor those leaders, and I make sure to catch up with my coaches periodically to see how their groups are doing.

Of course, I make myself available to all my leaders on an ongoing basis, but knowing we have this system in place gives me comfort that we’re setting them up to win: with a sense of community, vision, training and accountability.

There is much more that could be done with and for your leaders if time and resources allow; but for us, this has been our baseline, and it has made a huge difference.

So don’t be like me. Train your leaders intentionally, not just when your hair gets in your eyes.