Being a small church youth pastor has its administrative perks. Once, on the way to summer camp, I realized I’d forgotten to have the students fill out the paperwork for their circuit choices. They were supposed to be submitted ahead of time to simplify the check-in process, but in all the busyness of camp preparations, it totally slipped my mind. The 10 students who were attending that year were dispersed between two minivans. About halfway through the nearly two-hour trip, a clever solution came to mind. Within a few minutes, we’d composed a text message with all the pertinent information and sent it to the camp director. I recall her response. “This is awesome! You guys are all set. I love small churches!” In the summers since, she and I have laughed about the creative registration that only could have been possible in our church context.

While this administrative faux pas was born out of an honest oversight, it illustrates an all-too-common issue. Administration in small youth ministries tends to be an afterthought and is often relatively informal. The logistics of larger youth ministries make it pretty difficult not to have a well thought out administrative plan, but the dynamics of the small church youth ministry can lend themselves to the trap of being very casual with our administrative tasks.

For example, small churches are inherently tighter knit and often see each other more as extended family. There was a time when I’d think nothing of throwing a few youth in the mini-van, and heading to the local burger joint for fries and fellowship, with little thought of formal permission. Serving in a church where I have been a member for more than 13 years, it’s easy to slip into the mindset of “I know them…and I know their parents,” and thus see little reason to formalize quick trips and activities. Beyond that, there is also the potentially dangerous temptation to take the same approach with volunteers you have known for many years and skip out on the work and expense of background checks.

If you work in a small church, you know…we’re often challenged by small budgets and blessed with a lot of trust. Managing a couple thousand dollars or less certainly doesn’t seem as pressing as larger youth ministries that may be managing $10,000 or much more. In some cases, the church itself may have a loose system of checks and balances, relying heavily on the financial secretary. In other instances, church leadership may not be very demanding of formal accountability to the extent of spread sheets and expense reports because the budgeted amount is so small, as well as because the fruit of the investment is readily apparent.

Then there’s time, probably the biggest hurdle to small youth group administration. Larger churches may have the benefit of a full-time youth pastor, other paid youth staff and/or a dedicated youth administrator. In small churches, the youth director may be a volunteer, or if a staff member probably not full-time. I’m sure most of us, no matter our ministry context, can relate to Moses in Exodus 18, overwhelmed with the administrative tasks that went along with ministry. For small church youth ministers (who also may be driving the van, leading the praise team and cleaning the bathrooms), our limited time is best spent in relationship with our students. For us, poor administration is not necessarily a matter of gifting so much as a matter of finding time and resources.

We struggle to keep administration at the top of our to-do lists. Given the struggle to build relationships with students, it’s easy to push administration to the back burner. Still, there are some important reasons why small ministries may want to rethink relegating administration to the bottom of the to-do list.

Protection
Acts 20:28 urges us to “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood.” This passage, of course, has spiritual applications, but it also has very practical implications about ensuring the safety of our members. The protection of our students is paramount. Child predators are opportunistic. They know how to blend into their communities and often work by gaining their victims’ trust. A small church, where they can become one of the family may be the cover he or she is seeking. It goes without saying that background checks are crucial for every youth ministry regardless of size.

It is also vitally important to safeguard our volunteers and larger church family. Few are aware that, depending on the legal setup of your church, members can be vulnerable to personal financial liability for accidents that occur during church events. In those cases, judgments against a church are covered first by the church insurance policy, then falls to the trustees or elders of the church, then to the general membership. In that light, small churches, which are likely to have smaller insurance limits, have more at stake. While we may feel that we know our families well and doubt they would sue in the event of an accident, getting the appropriate permission and release forms for youth activities is the only surefire way to protect church staff, volunteers and the greater church body.

Trust Building
Administration builds goodwill and trust with the greater congregation and (more importantly) builds a habit of integrity. The Bible reminds us that if we can be trusted with a little, we can be trusted with more (Luke 16:10). I saw this play out in a very tangible way in my ministry two years ago. Our youth group had been running a weekend mission camp for low-income children for the past eight years. It’s a real grassroots program for which we raise about $1,000 each year. Because the church could see the fruit of our labor (25 kids, two days of meals and programming, school supplies, and new shoes for each child), there was never an expectation of formal budget reports after the event. Two years ago, on a whim, I decided to plot it all out and present it at a council meeting. After I was done, there was an awkward silence, then the group erupted into applause! They were impressed to see how much we were able to do with so little. The report put it all in perspective. This summer, members were eager to give, knowing their dollars would make such an impact. Good administration provides the evidence that you can be trusted with the resources you’ve been given.

Order and Peace
Finally, in the midst of everything else that we are called to do as small youth ministry leaders, we cannot ignore the biblical principal that “God is not a God of disorder, but a God of peace…Thus, everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way” (1 Cor. 14:33, 40). Where have you found that loose administration routines resulted in lack of peace in your small ministry? Not having medical information readily available for a student having a medical emergency? Forgetting a student’s birthday? Poor communication with parents? Unexpectedly needing to provide out of pocket at the end of the year because you’ve exceeded your budget? Good administrative planning on the front end allows us to do better ministry in the long run.

The Administrative Setup
Without question, administration for small youth ministries is just as vital as it is for larger ones. Thankfully, it doesn’t need to be as complex. Even with a more formalized approach, there are still some great administrative perks for small youth ministries that allow us to streamline our process. Some of my most tried and true ideas include:
• It helps me set up an internal structure into which all my administrative tasks fit. Setting up the big picture is the most time-consuming part of the process, so it’s important to break it up into manageable chunks. Set aside an hour each week, or dedicate a week to the project when your youth do not meet or when you will be doing a fellowship activity that doesn’t require your normal load of prep work. Better still, use the Jethro approach to put together a team. Adults who don’t volunteer on a weekly basis may be willing to devote a short stint of time for the initial project of setting up an administrative routine.
• Create a file for each student that is kept in a locked file cabinet. Start each calendar or school year by asking each student to fill out a registration form that includes contact information and information about their parents, school, birthday, hobbies and spiritual gifts.
• Each student file should include permission slips and a brief description of any counseling or incident reports. Make two types of permission slips for your ministry: one, an annual permission slip that allows students to take spontaneous trips around the community; the other, a more formal permission form that requires you to fill in the details for each trip. Be sure to include medical information and all the pertinent releases.
• Talk to students and parents to get a pulse on their preferred method of contact, and use simple, no-cost methods to support your communication such as email, texting, Facebook or free websites.
• Take advantage of resources that can lighten the workload and won’t break the bank. Meet with your church and/or finance secretaries to see what overlapping administrative duties they already handle. For example, the church secretary may already have an attendance system that won’t require you to reinvent the wheel for the youth ministry. The finance secretary may be able to print a financial report for the youth budget, by which you can check your accounting.
• Some local associations and insurance companies offer free resources such as sample forms and releases. There are a variety of those kinds of forms available on the Internet. Find those resources, and use them!
• If your church already uses Microsoft Office, Outlook can help you manage your busy schedule. If your church does use these products, it probably has a license that will allow you to use it, too.
• Tap into Google’s suite of free office products. Use Google Calendar to create your youth calendar and invite all the families into it. (Better yet, invite them before you plan your youth calendar, and ask them to put their schedules on it first.) Use Google Docs to share youth news.
• Youth ministry management programs can get pricy, but there are a few low-cost tools that are great for smaller ministries. Among them, Youth Ministry 2.0 is a good resource for forms and overall management, while MinHub offers a simple app for text communication and attendance.
• Sign up with a background check company. If background checks haven’t been updated recently, make that a priority. Depending on what you need, they cost $10 to 20 each. Include driving record checks for volunteers who regularly transport students.

Once there is a process in place, the weekly maintenance only requires a few minutes. The investment in administration is well worth your time; and while good administration is essential, it doesn’t need to change what makes us great. So go ahead, grab a few students, jump in the minivan, and head to the local burger joint for fries and fellowship…because you’ve got the release forms with you, right?