LARSROOD.COM

No Problems

I just spent the last 9 days in Jamaica helping build some homes.  We worked with an organization called Son Servants and mixed and poured a ton of concrete and schlepped it up some pretty big hills to get it to where it needed to be.  I was reminded on this trip that I love Youth Ministry and specifically the cabin experience.  Evening "lights out" times were hilarious as the boys tried to have an amateur stand up routine to see who would be the most funny.  I'm glad to be home though and stoked to have spent the day at Hawaiian Falls Waterpark with my family. 

Nashville and Youth Ministry Education

I'm in Nashville for a few days taking part in a great discussion about Youth Ministry Education.  Met most of these folks last year and am really glad to be back.  Some are old friends, some are new, all love the lord and youth ministry.  Praying through how we can be more effective at training youth workers but also realizing that the big point of our time together is to build relationships, network and dream.

Part 5: First Impressions Matter

First impressions are always incredibly awkward.  I remember my first ever time at a youth group where I was a brand new Regional Director (Intern with specific school responsibilities) we were leaving on a retreat and I had to drive my own car because I had to leave a bit early.  There were about 60 of us in the parking lot and the youth pastor told everyone to get in the cars.  Well no one came to my car so I immediately felt a bit of a rejection. The first impression I was portraying to the students clearly wasn’t that of being approachable.  On the same hand my first impression of the “Leadership Students” of this particular youth ministry was that they were not very friendly to outsiders or new people, which was not a good trait to have in you leadership team. 

Over the last 15 years I’ve both been a young youth minister and worked with a ton of them.  When I was young I had some parts of this first impression thing down pretty well.  I was committed to always being on time (10 minutes early) to our all-church staff meetings and also made sure that I was a bit more dressed up on that day.   I spent time thinking about how I was being perceived as the Youth Minister and tried to distance myself from the typical stereotypes.  But,  there were things that I didn’t do very well.  I didn’t answer e-mails well (especially if someone was mad at me).  I didn’t answer my phone enough or return calls on time.  I didn’t always walk over to a new person in a room and make them feel welcome. 

But, there is another side to first impressions. Every week we would have new students at our ministry and they would always be coming up with first impressions of what the program and the people were like.  This is the area that I think many of us are particularly weak in.  We don’t think through enough how people will perceive the ministry and us. This is especially true if you have an established ministry and a group of kids who you are close to who are always around you at an event.   I was reminded of this recently as a mom told me about three different conversations she’d had with other mom’s about how their kids didn’t feel welcomed to the youth group.   I realized that their first impression of the ministry was not a very good one.  They perceived us (and me as the leader) as not being very friendly and welcoming to them.

So think about it.  How do you come across to students, parents, staff and church members.

Part 1: New Series: How to do this Youth Ministry Thing in a Healthy Way

Part 2: First Day on the Job

Part 3: Relational Equity

Part 4: Boundaries, you will learn them easy or hard.

Part 4: Boundaries you will learn them easy or hard.

I wish that working in the church was always healthy.  Unfortunately, all of us bring some sort of baggage into our work and the nature of our jobs is we spend most of our day interacting with people just like us.  Boundaries are important as we try to curb out “people pleasing” tendencies. 

In your first few days, weeks and months on the job you will invariable be asked to do many things that may or may not be in your job description.  At those moments you will need to do some negotiating with yourself to see how much those requests fit within the overall mission of the church staff and specifically if they require your expertise.

Here’s a brief example:  I have a commercial bus license.  My church in Los Angeles had a full-size school bus, 3 shuttle busses and a few vans.  There was a time period at my church where we had all these vehicles but there was only a few of us who were licensed to drive them.  I got asked to drive them quite often.  More often than not I would say no because I was new in my job, struggling to keep my marriage healthy, taking seminary classes and generally just feeling tired all the time.  Quite often I felt guilty about saying no but I knew that I would become the “official” church driver if I wasn’t careful.

Here’s an example of how I did it wrong: At my last church we often didn’t have anyone to lead worship in our youth department.  So I stepped in and filled that role while also doing a large percentage of the teaching as well.  At this church we had Weekend youth services on Saturday nights and two Sunday morning services.  This meant that on a typical weekend I led worship and taught 3 times each.  Fortunately I recruited some worship leaders after a while but it was a hard year.  What that lead to at my current church is that it was two years of being on youth staff before I lead worship for the first time because I was so burned out from the past experience.

The best way I know to help you work on your boundaries is to encourage you to set up a list of priorities, goals and benchmarks.  You need to know what you are doing, where you are going and how you are going to get there.  Don’t be the youth pastor who shows up in the office each day wondering what it is you are supposed to do.  You need to set a plan, pick a path and get moving on it.

Now I will say that there are times when you need to say yes to people.  I recognize that there are no hard rules when it comes to the church and to people’s lives.  You need to know that there will be times when you are asked to do something outside your job description or even outside your expertise that you need to say “yes” to.  My recommendation is to pray and ask God for wisdom and direction.  You want to be a servant leader who meets needs when they arise.  But, you can do this in a healthy way or not.

Part 1: New Series: How to do this Youth Ministry Thing in a Healthy Way
Part 2: First Day on the Job

Part 3: Relational Equity

Part 3: Relational Equity

So you are brand new at a church. Just started in the last few days and wondering how to go about getting anything done.  The best advice I can give you is to encourage you to begin building equity in relationships.  Here's the best way to explain this concept.  Youth Ministers are notorious for having strange needs and last minute requests.  Imagine if you have a last minute $500.00 check request for 800 cans of shaving cream and you need to get your finance person to sign off on it.  Do you want to be the youth workers who has no relationship with that person and find yourself trying to explain what it's all about and why it's a valid request or do you want to have a solid connection with that person where you have open communication and a good working relationship?

When I was a young youth pastor I found out pretty quickly that there were three people who worked at the church that I needed to have a good relationship with.  These were: My Executive Pastor who was typically the person who people went to when they didn't like the answer I was giving them, the head of Facilities who was the guy who dealt with all our strange requests and messes and the Chief Finance Officer who dealt with our bizarre check requests. 

On top of these people at the church I learned that I needed to build solid relationships with a number of key parents who would be supporters of the program and understood the vision of what I was trying to do.  This was a huge blessing when something would go wrong (which it invariably did) because parents were the best line of defense for me especially as they talked to other parents about what had happened. 

Other key relationships you'll want to work on are those with volunteers who have been there longer than you.  Chances are they have a lot invested in the ministry and they may not have been in on your hiring process.  You don't work for them but you do need to make sure to take their investment into consideration as you make choices and decisions.   You will also need relationships with other youth workers in the city so that you can have a support base of people trying to do the same thing as you.  Lastly don't forget the importance of building relationships with the students you are working with.

This equity concept is so important because it is the key to longevity.  Without building a solid foundation of support and relationships things will be so much harder to accomplish.  It's much better to have the support of people when things go wrong but also to have others with you to celebrate when things go right.

I wish someone had told me about this when I was young but I also wish people would keep reminding me about this as I'm no longer young.  Sometimes I got/get so caught up with what I'm doing that I forgot/forget to take into consideration other people.

Part 1: New Series: How to do this Youth Ministry Thing in a Healthy Way
Part 2: First Day on the Job

Part 2: First day on the job

Ok so there's a lot of things you could do your first day on the job in a youth ministry context.  Depending on when you start your first day may be a camp, retreat, missions trip, event or something else.  I'm going to write this blog as tips for your first day assuming that day is happening at the church in your office space.

Several years ago my first day on the job at Bel Air Presbyterian Church involved me opening up the door to an incredibly messy and slightly disgusting office space.  I remember walking into my office and seeing two desks and a bunch of camp looking stuff laying in piles.  I sat in my chair, leaned back and then started to rummage through the desk.  The first thing I found when I opened middle drawer was a half eaten bowl of cereal still with milk in it and a spoon. (no I didn't eat it)  After a few minutes in my office basking in the excitement of having a great full-time youth ministry job I decided to go on a walk around the church.

My recommendations for the first day on the job is to spend a lot of time connecting with people and do everything you can to remember some of the names you are meeting.  Remember that you are stepping into a new system and you probably don't know how things work there very effectively.  Ask a lot of questions.  Get out to lunch with some people.  Sit down and ask straightforward questions about landmines you want to avoid, people who you need to be aware of, systems that might be different from anything you've ever been around before.

The first day will go a long ways to establishing in peoples minds who you are.  It's like having a first impression with a whole bunch of people all at the same time.  I typically try to get someone to break the ice for me and walk me around and introduce me to people.  You might be the type to be able to go around and do that on your own but having someone with you can give you some info about them that would be helpful to know.

The next thing I do on the first day in a job is to just try to start getting the lay of the youth ministry and what are things that you need to be aware of.  Let's just hope you have an administrative assistant or even better other youth ministry staff.  Meet with them and find out what is going on that day, week, month.  Start figuring out the "rhythm" of the structures currently in place.

Two more things are super important that first day. After getting a good dose of the place you will be working and some of the people you will be working with I recommend finding a place to pray.  It's easy to get overwhelmed on the first day in a job.  Remember that you will only be a great leader if you are following what Jesus wants you to do.  I pray for discernment, for courage, for understanding, patience and for ears to hear everything being said. 

Lastly remember that in your first day on the job all that wasn't talked about during the interview process will probably be made known to you.  Chances are good that most of the staff you are spending time with today weren't a part of the interview process.  They probably have a ton of things to say about the church and the youth ministry and most likely will tell you all about a bunch of stuff that you didn't think you needed to know about.  I recommend listening to everything they say but filtering it through the lens of what the search committee told you.  It might be that the search committee recognizes that there are a lot of things that need changed in the ministry and you were brought in to change them.  The people in the office you talk to may or may not be aware of those conversations or expectations.

Have fun on the first day.  It will only go uphill or downhill from there.  :)

Part 1: How to do this Youth Ministry thing in a healthy way.

I'm thinking about continuing my talk about what it takes to do youth ministry.  Recently I finished up a series about how to find a job and negotiate with a church.  As a follow up to that post I'm going to start writing a series of what to do when you get a job.  I've worked in 4 different churches over the years and I think I've learned a thing or two about what to do when you get on the job the first day, week, month, year.

Here's a short story.  My first ever "real" youth ministry job that I went through a long hiring process was an interesting start.  The interview process was a bit weird.  I first interviewed with a search committee and had a few interviews and did not hear back from them for about a month.  Finally they called me and told me that they had a new "elder" and were starting over the interviews.  I happened to know the executive pastor from that church and called him and said I thought I was done because it was taking too long.  Fortunately he called me right back and drove out that afternoon to spend some time with me and encouraged me to continue in their process. 

Less than 6 months later I had the job and had just received a letter from the previous youth directors lawyer about a letter I'd sent to parents.

Wanna know More.....Read tomorrow.

Part 4: Negotiation 101. All the things you should consider.

Ok so I've been waffling on this post for a while now because as some of you know I'm in the midst of a hiring process to bring on a new High school Director and two new class leads.  As I started this series I was in the midst of thinking through how to make the interview process better by giving out some tips to potential candidates.  But this post is different because this is the one that I know is going to come back to bit me as I give advice to people who will then use it against me to negotiate if I offer them positions.

Of course I've let my words get me into trouble before so I think I'm going to still put this up and just feel good that I provided ammo for people. 

Negotiation 101

Negotiating is a funny thing.  Some people have the skill to do it and others have no skills at all.  If you have the skill then looking through the topics listed below are probably second nature to you.  If you don't have the skill this might seem like a daunting task.  You need to remember that the people on the other end of the negations have probably done this many times and they are ok with you asking all the questions you are going to ask.  I personally like to tell candidates that there are some things we can't do but others we may find some room to wiggle and that this is their time to ask about everything and I won't be offended by anything they ask about.

Let's talk first about what "negotiation" is.  Usually people seem to get really hung up thinking that negotiatons are all about money.  Money is involved in the process but there are so many more things you need to be talking about during this phase of the interview/job offer.

Here's a quick list that I put together that has all the things I think you should consider when you are negotiating: My advice is to think about these things and figure out for you where you would like things to end up and start negotiating from there. 

Caution:  I usually tell people to be cautious in all of this.  You may have only one thing that you are thinking about and that is the bottom line salary number.  But, if the church is only able to give you a certain salary they may be able to compensate you more in other areas such as paying for school or providing extra vacation time for you to go speak at conferences or camps.  Be aware that there are many different forms of compensation.

Salary: Pretty simple how much is it right?  Wrong.  You may have a salary package that includes a "housing allowance" that is untaxable income.  So your salary might seem lower but actually be more than you think since you dropped out of a hiring income bracket.  A question to ask here too is what the schedule is for raises and bonusus and if there would ever be a chance of adding extra responsibilities for additonal pay.

Hours: Some churches have unwritten rules about hours.  I've been at churches where 50 was the        norm and one day off.  That's not healthy.  Ask about expectations.

Medical:  Who do they cover? Just you? Wife? Family? What if you have more kids?  Deductables? Vision? Dental?  Ask questions about all of it.  Usually not negotiable but if you have needs mention them.

Benefits:  How do they handle retirement? Do they have a matching plan?  When are you vested? (Meaning how long does it take working there for you to get all the money they have invested for you.  Sounds weird but your financial people will know.  I've heard of people losing their jobs right before they were vested)

Vacation: This is both the (how may weeks do they give you) and (when can you use them)  Summer is hard as a youth pastor to take vacation time,  maybe your church has a policy that you have to be there over Christmas.  What about Spring Break missions trips.  It's increasingly difficult to take vacation if you have kids that are in school but have ministry expectations during holidays.   You should also ask about if your vacation time rolls over.  Meaning if you don't use it one year can you use it the next.

Comp time:  You just got back from a 4 day trip with Junior Highers can you take a day off afterwards and have it not count as vacation or personal time?  Or what about a two week trip during the summer can you take a few days off after it? Can comp time be accrued or do you have to use it right away.

Conference: Both can you go and not use vacation time and what money is available to pay for you to go.
Books: Do you have a budget to buy things to read to help you increase your skills, grow in your faith or keep up on what the students are reading?

Technology: Youth Pastors need to be mobile.  If you are meeting students in a coffee shop after school you should have a laptop so you can sit there and work before and or after.  That 5 year old PC laptop the church wants you to use is probably a piece of junk.  Ask for what you need.  Do you want to edit movies and manipulate photos?   You should also ask about cameras both video and still.  Chances are they already have them but if they don't or you have a particular one you are comfortable with you should ask.

School:  If you don't have an advanced ministry degree/seminary you should be working towards something.  You should try to take at least a couple classes a year.  You want the church to help you pay for it since they benefit and you want them to let you go take classes without using vacation or personal days. There are many forms of school maybe it's taking communication classes or speaking help, maybe it's getting coaching.  Seminary is great but there are many other forms of school that will benefit you and the church.

Study Leave:  You will need to leave and study.  Enough said. If you aren't spending enough time with the Lord and having opportunities for growth you won't be very useful to us in the long run.

Internships: Will you have any additional staff to work with.  Is there money for you to hire interns or other positions to help you. 

Budgets: You should see them, know them, own them and be aware what they cover.  If you have dreams you can negotiate those during this time. I once negotiated an entire outdoor recreation program that I was passionate about starting before I went to that church.

Housing:  If you have kids and do youth ministry you need to live in the school district where your youth minsitry kids live.  If the church doesn't agree with that then they don't understand youth minsitry.  Negotiate help in housing if you need it.  This is easier at a church that can license/ordain you.  If not at least ask the question and see if they can help.

Moving Costs:  You should ask about them and get the church to help you.  Do some homework and have a reasonable plan.  Hiring the movers who pack everything and unpack it at your new house is probably more expensive than a church is willing to pay but if you are moving for a job you need to negotiate here.

Cell Phone: My bias on this one.  Being a youth pastor means that people will need to have access to you.  Churches should pay you for that access and you should pay your cell phone bill. 

Office Hours: How much are you expected to be in the office.  Do you do your best work in other places? What if you're out with kids.  How much do they need/want to see you?

Accountable too:  Who will you regularly meet with and how often?  Ask tough questions here.  Figuring out the accountability process is a good thing because it protects you.

Availability of leadership: How much accesibility will you have to the senior staff?  Ask this questions especially if you think you may want to be in a senior level position some day.  Getting face time with senior pastors is valuable.

Nights out: Ask about what the expectations are for you to be out.  This includes both youth ministry stuff as well as other meetings, retreats, camps, trips. 

Transportation/Mileage:  This one gets overlooked a lot.  If you are driving your personal car on a ton of youth ministry events or even just around town how are you compensated for it?  What about gas?

Family Stuff:  I worked at a church that committed to send my wife and I on a marriage retreat every year. That was great.  I'm currently at a church that has a childcare option for people who work there with a greatly reduced rate.   You should ask about scholarships if your church has any on campus schools. 

As usual if you have anything to add throw it in the comment section of this post and I'd love to respond.

Series: Finding a job and negotiating with a church.

Part 1: Looking for a job

Part 2: Approaching the church. Tips to get your resume read.

Part 3: Tips for Interviewing. What interviews to be prepared for.

Part 4: Negotiation 101.  All the things you should consider.

Part 3: Tips for Interviewing: there are 8 different interviews you need to be prepared for.

Interviewing is a difficult part of any job search. There are so many different way to approach this topic that I thought I'd simply start about by talking about what different types of interviews you will go through and tips for each one. The way I see it is there are about 8 different interviews you will go through. Only a couple will be "formal" interviews but you have to know that all of them are important. 

Here's the 8 different interviews:

1. First Phone call- This is sort of a "feel out" type of call.  We probably haven't listened to your talk yet so this might be the first official contact.  It's our chance to get to know you and see how we interact.  I probably don't need to say how important this call is.  I recommend making sure that you schedule a time for this call and a location that will make sure you have no distractions.   Probably goes without saying too that if we are calling you we'd really like it if you pick up.  Having to leave a voice mail message at a scheduled interview time sends me a pretty bad message.    A couple key tips for this call is to try and keep your answers short yet make sure to share anything you think is important to get yourself known and through the interview onto the next stage.   There is a fine line between a solid answer and a long winded one.  I recommend keeping your answers short by asking questions "Do you want to know more about that?" or "This is a longer story but let me give you the main details and if you want more just ask."  Another good tip is to say "If I go on to long with my answers just stop me and ask a different question, you won't hurt my feelings as I recognize you want to get to know me and don't have a lot of time."  It's also really important in this interview that you show me that you know something about my church and the youth ministry.  Letting me know that you've been on our church website, that you have listened to some of the recent talks or at least are aware of our upcoming summer plans.  If you have done some research about the neighborhood or the denomination that is a plus.  The questions you ask about this stuff show me how serious you are about the possibility of working with us. 

2. Committee Conference Call- Most people would say that this is the most important interview.  At this point we have all read your resume, watched or listened to your message and formed a little bit of an opinion about you.  We have asked ourselves the question "Do we think this person could fit this position?" and we might already have an answer.  If you've done your homework you know quite a bit about our church and the youth ministry and that will help you answer some of the questions we throw at you.  Like the first interview you should keep your answers short and let them ask follow ups if they want.  You should be yourself but also recognize that we are looking to see if you could be effective here.  Probably the best way to do this is to put yourself in the role of the position as you answer questions.  If you are applying for a junior high youth pastor you should answer questions from that perspective.  Another tip is to have a pen and paper handy and when you are introduced to the committee write their names down and try to memorize their voices so when they ask questions you can reference their name in the answer.  Remember too that each person on the committee comes with some sort of thought about how they think things should be done.  Be careful not to be too focused on one particular thing because it might push those people away.  The type of questions you'll want to ask them at the end of your phone call need to be questions that can be broad enough to engage them all.  Don't ask a question about salary or about how often you might meet with your potential supervisor.  Ask about the community, the history, the needs of the ministry.  Remember that most of the people interviewing you in this stage will probably be parents and staff with a highly vested interest.  I'd almost always ask the question "What is something that you think the ministry needs to focus on right now to reach students who aren't being reached?"

3. First live contact- Depending on where you are coming from this is either a short or a long interview.  If you are driving in to meet with a search committee this interview might only last as long as someone meeting you in the parking lot and walking you to a conference room.  However, if you are being flown in this interview might take up a much more significant amount of time.  Depending on who is picking you up (Yes you should ask who it is) will depend on how to approach this interview.  I'm going to push past the "you drove in and have 3 minutes with someone" interview and focus almost solely upon you getting picked up at the airport.  There are a couple of things you need to do right away in this interview.  First, be aware of what you are wearing.  Find out about the culture you are going to and dress appropriately.  Find out before hand where you are going after being picked up and see if you will have any time to change. If not I say dress in a slacks, shirt and shoes.  Don't wear a tie (this is a personal preference) because we need to picture you as a professional youth worker.  Remember that  this person will most likely be on the search committee which means you have already had some contact with them via the conference call.  You should remember their name.   This particular interview is almost exclusively for you to ask questions.  Remember that any answer you give them to a question will most likely never make it back to the committee so use this time strategically to find out more about the community, church and youth  ministry.  Have a set of questions ready to go that show you are interested. 

4. Search Committee formal interview- Again this is the first face to face contact you've probably had with the whole committee.  They are excited to get to know you and see if you might fit as their new (whatever the position is)  I say put yourself in the mindset of that position as you answer questions.  This interview has a lot of fine lines that you will have to gauge how close you want to come to.  You might have a passion for a particular area of ministry and be really excited about that but they also want to see that you can run the ministry they are invested in right now and that you affirm where its at.  Even if they take pot shots at the current ministry and leaders (which there is a high chance they might do) you should be careful to be very supportive and encouraging about what they have.  During this formal interview your personality needs to come out so that the committee gets to know you.  At the same time you have to make sure you don't dominate the conversation too much.  Once again it's good to say "stop me if I go to long I'm pretty passionate about this and can get long winded" or something like that.  Remember that most likely the committee is not made up of professional interviewers so they may not be uncomfortable cutting you off.   You'll want to answer the questions in a way that both shows you know what you are talking about and you are willing to learn.  There is a need for humility and humbleness in this interview that I think is overlooked often. 

5. Interview with current staff-  This interview is typically the most fun.  Depending on the size of the staff you might end up with a pretty good size group of people.  Chances are they like each other and have an informal way of communicating.  What they are looking for in this interview is simple.  The question they are all asking is "Will you fit in?" or "Can this person lead us?"   I can only say that the best way act in this interview is judge how to respond based on how they are interacting.  You can be more informal but you should be careful.  Think of this interview as a first date.   You want to be you but at the same time you just met and you need to be perceptive about who they are.   This is a good interview to ask pointed questions of this group like "What do you guys need from a leader?" or "What are some things you want this person to focus on?"  They probably did not get to be a part of the search committee and so this is their only chance to interact with you and share what they think. 

6. Interview with Senior Pastor/Executive Pastor or director-   At this point you are at a more formal interview.  They will probably ask you some theological questions and you should make sure you have some solid answers.  It's important that you've done your homework on the church.  Know what that particular church/denomination believes.  You will want to ask questions that show you have thought about it a bit.  Chances are you might not interact much with the senior pastor or the executive director if you get the job so this might be your only shot.  Ask questions about the youth department.  You can ask them how they support the youth ministry.  How they interact with the youth staff.  What role youth ministry has in the church.   

7. Final conversation with the Youth Pastor or head of the search committee-   This might be a coffee or a drive back to the airport.  Chances are the youth pastor is the person you have spent the most time interacting with.  You can ask any follow up questions about the weekend, ask about the process, even how you did if it seem appropriate.  Don't underestimate this last impression as it might be your final chance before they decide who to hire.

8. Bonus Inteview- What to do at a meal? This is something to be aware of.  When you go to eat with someone know that how you order is being watched.  You don't want to come across as indecisive when you order.   Even standing in line if you are getting a burrito is important.  Ask questions about the community where they took you to eat.  It's usually at these informal meals that it is appropriate you ask a lot of questions.

So there you go.  Just some tips.  One final note is to say just be who you are but do it in a way that maximizes your strengths.  

Series: Finding a job and negotiating with a church.

Part 1: Looking for a job

Part 2: Approaching the church. Tips to get your resume read.

Part 3: Tips for Interviewing. What interviews to be prepared for.

Part 4: Negotiation 101.  All the things you should consider.

Part 5: What type of negotiater are you?

Part 2: Approaching the Church. Tips to get your resume read.

Here's a quick bit about my youth ministry background.  I have worked at four churches.  My first church I was a part-time intern and ended up being the interim high school pastor  but wasn't qualified for the youth pastor position because they wanted someone with a seminary degree.  My second church I was at for 6 years and it is where I really grew up and learned how to lead.  I only left that church because we decided we wanted to raise our kids outside of Los Angeles.  My third church was a great place but a bad fit for me at the beach in San Diego.  I was there two years before we parted ways. I have been at my current church two years and don't anticipate moving anytime soon.  I've learned a lot going through 4 job searches at these churches.  I've also learned a ton because each of these churches was considered a "mega-church"  and had huge staffs and I've had the luck of heading up many search committees to hire youth staff, college staff, young adult staff, pastors, interns and other directors. 

I have been the head of search processes where I have had almost 200 resumes come in for a particular job.  I've also applied for jobs where they had that many applicants.  Currently I have a youth staff of 16 people and am in the process of restaffing a couple of positions.  Today I had a phone interview and a lunch interview.  I also read through multiple resumes, answered a number of e-mails and even responded to some facebook messages about jobs.

Here's some tips that I have learned,  seen, used, tried, heard about and thought about.  I'm going to list them in number order.  The numbers don't represent anything except a system of keeping things in order.  There are probably a number of posts like this you could google but this is going to be specific to youth ministry.

1. Resume: Your resume needs to be neat, clean, organized, simple and specific to youth ministry. You should have all of your experience listed and tailor the resume to the job you are applying for.  If it is a youth director position the readers of your resume want to see that you have experience in youth ministry.  We don't want to read a padded resume that lists every job you've ever had, we probably don't need to know you were on a sports team in college,  we don't really care about your GPA (props though to those of you who post your gpa on your resume when it is low that shows us humility on your part).  I would recommend proofing your resume and having someone else proof it.  Chances are your resume will get read by many people so typos and weird structure will be seen.  You should also make sure that if your resume has a "goal" section listed on it that it is specific to youth ministry.  I received a resume this week that said "I'm looking for a job in education as an administrator at a private Christian school"  um hello we're a church.  Take the effort to tailor your resume for us.  Another thing I like to see on resumes is a little section that tells me more about you than jobs, education and references.  Tell me a little bit about what you are into, what you enjoy doing and who you are as a person.

2. Cover Letter: Don't underestimate this as the first thing we ever read about you.  It's your chance to let us know about your resume.  It gives you the opportunity to minimize some of the things I see when I read your resume.  If I see in your resume that you haven't ever worked "full time" in a church you should let me know in the cover letter why you are ready for full-time work.  If you resume shows a pattern of changing jobs every two years you should probably be prepared to reference that in your cover letter.  Acceptable answers to why you've moved jobs would be "I finished college and moved back to my parents house so I had to leave that position."    Cover letters should tell us why you are interested in youth ministry,  what drives you as a person and what you are passionate about.  It could be your only chance to get a foot in the door so you want to take some time to make sure you do it right.

3. Mail it in:  Here's a pet peeve of mine that you can read with a grain of salt.  Not everyone thinks about htis the way I do but it is something that you can do to give yourself a better chance of having your resume read.  When I do searches I typically receive a ton of e-mailed resumes.  Here's what I think about e-mails.  It takes almost no time to e-mail in a resume.  You know it and I know it.  It takes you very little commitment to e-mail your resume to me.  It's like the old adage that if you ask enough girls to kiss you one of them finally will.  I usually have our first cut in any interview process be us requiring candidates to send us a hard copy of their resume, cover letter and a teaching cd/dvd.  It takes much more time (and a little money) to send one in.  If you aren't willing to do it we aren't willing to waste a lot of time on you. One thing you want to do when you mail it in is send it flat.  Do not fold anything you are mailing to us.  If you fold it we can't just open it up, hole punch it and put it in a binder.  You've now made us have to photo copy your resume before we can punch it and put it in the binder.  That extra step is not good for you.

4. Know who to contact: This might be a little sneaky but I advocate it anyways.  Sometimes it's tough to know who to send your resume too.  I've gotten resumes this week addressed to "To whom it may concern",  "Mr. or Mrs. Rood", "The search committe at HPPC", "Dear sir" and a number of other more random salutations.  It's pretty simple to find out who to send your resume to.  Call the church and ask to speak to the youth minsitry assistant or if they don't have one just ask the main operator who to send it to.  On the sneaky side you might even introduce yourself to the asssitant and tell them you are sending in a resume and ask them to look for it.  I've even found that assistants can be a great source of information about the job, church or the person leading the search committee.  If you have them on the phone ask them some questions.  More often then not they will have good answers for you and be willing to share them.  There is a good chance they are a part of the search process when it comes to opening resumes, making copies of them,  keeping them in a binder, sending out letters and setting up interviews.  I even have a little deal going with my amazing assistant where she reads through all the resumes and gives everyone a nickname and her writes her first impression on a sticky that she posts on the resume when she puts it in a binder.

5. Follow up Call or E-mail:  I always appreciate it when someone leaves me a message or sends me an e-mail and lets me know they have sent in their resume.  This is an "extra step" that might get your resume noticed or pulled out of a pile.  With 100's of resumes coming in you want to do whatever you can to stand out. 

6. Pictures:  This might be a little controversial (and perhaps illegal) but I'll say it anyways.  I am a huge fan of you sending in a picture of yourself that we can see who we are reading about.  We need to make a connection to your resume and having a picture of you on it or with it just gives us a better idea of who you are. 

7. E-mail Address:  Ok this is maybe overlooked by most people but I want to stress that this is important.  I've gotten several resumes lately that have e-mails listed on them from very strange e-mail addresses.  You should think through what your e-mail says about you.   larsrood@gmail.com is a simple e-mail and is just my name.  If I see an e-mail like that I tend to not think twice about it.  But if your e-mail is "Darkvampirelover@hotmail.com" there is a chance I'm going to wonder something about you.  Additionally if you are using an e-mail from an old company like AOL or from your cable provider I might wonder how net savvy your really are. 

8. Cd/DVD:   We almost always ask for a cd/dvd that has a teaching on it.  We use that to just find out what your teaching style is, how engaging you are and to see if you have a teaching gift.  We've also asked sometimes send us a dvd introduction.  That gives us a chance to get to know you and find out who you are.  I want to stress the importance of this part of the process.  If you want to impress us and stand out here you will do it in this piece.  I can't tell you the number of horrible cd/dvd's I've had to listen to in the last bunch of years.  If you send me a cd that is of poor quality, doesn't work well or skips,  isn't edited well or isn't a good message we will probably pass it on pretty quickly.  I recommend doing a couple of things to get read.  1. Worry about the production quality of your message.  If it doesn't sound good we won't listen to it.  Take the time to learn how to record properly.  If your message isn't of good quality then rerecord it.  Better to send in a message that you gave to your dog that sounds good then to send us a cd of you teaching to your group that sounds bad.  2. Make it look good.  We file all of the cd/dvd's we get in sleeves in a binder.  If you have simply taken a sharpy and written your name on it then it won't stand out as much as if you printed a picture on it or even more simple if it was just printed with your name, the talk title and the date.  3. Include an extra and surprise us.  This is a great thing to do because it will make your cd/dvd stand out.  If you have the opportunity to include a special note, video message or videos from your current ministry or anthing else that we don't expect it'll go a long ways.  I hired a great junior high leader once who made a whole video for us telling us why he loved youth ministry.  He put a lot of work into shooting and editing it and we were impressed and kept showing it to more people because it was great.

9. Links to Blogs, online media and other stuff about you:  Please know that we will google you.  We will find out everything about you that is online.  Better for you to tell us about your blog or anything else you do online.  Even better do some stuff for us.  We'd love to see some of your videos, your writings, more of your teachings or a website you've designed. 

10. Do your research:  It is really important for us to know that you have done some research learning about our community and our church.  Referencing things you heard in our online messages is a great way to show us you are serious.  Doing research about the community where the church is shows us that you are actually thinking this could be a place you might want to move.  Asking questions about recent youth ministry activities, retreats or church wide events or services is a great way to show us you took the extra effort to find out about us. 

That's just a few tips.  There are probably a bunch of other things that could be said and I'm hoping that some of it will end up in the comment section.

Series: Finding a job and negotiating with a church.

Part 1: Looking for a job

Part 2: Approaching the church. Tips to get your resume read.

Part 3: Tips for Interviewing: there are 8 different interviews you need to be prepared for.

Part 4: Negotiation 101.  All the things you should consider.

Part 5: What type of negotiater are you?