Children’s and Youth ministry workers are team players; or at least they should be. Given our church structures the children’s or youth minister is generally the second or third member of a leadership team; and given our patterns of children’s and youth ministry, they are generally leading a team of volunteers.

When relations in a team are good, they can be very very good; but when they are bad, they are horrid (to quote AA Milne).

Learning how to work as team members becomes particularly important for children’s and youth ministry.

Each week students at Youthworks College are led in a group process of critical reflection on ministry practice. Together with a member of the faculty, students meet once a week for an hour to think together about different experiences that have come out of their work in children’s and youth ministry during the week. This practice has proven to be something that has helped College students develop their ability to work as members of teams.

Here’s an outline of what we do at the College each week. Perhaps it’s a practice that could be usefully employed in your staff teams and volunteer teams as well?

The basic structure for reflection works through four standard questions taken from four tasks of practical theology outlined by Richard Osmer, Practical Theology: an introduction (Eerdmans, 2008):

Descriptive task: what happened?
Analytic task: why did it happen?
Normative task: what ought to happen?
Pragmatic task: what will we do in response?

The groups start by sharing experiences from their ministry placements. This might happen on a roster, where members take turns each week. Sometimes we might do a quick ‘round the circle’ sharing of something that happened during the week that group members are still thinking about (it’s often those experiences that are still rattling about in our brains days after the event that are calling out for some careful theological reflection). From what has been shared we might pick on one issue that sounds engaging, or a group of issues that are on a common theme. If there are a number of important or useful ideas we might set a schedule for discussions over the next few weeks.

One thing to remember is that ‘success stories’ can be just as fruitful for theological reflection as problems can be. Good teams are good at shared celebration as well as shared problem solving.
The discussion proceeds as we work through the four questions of practical theology in turn....

In the descriptive phase, the group asks clarifying questions to help each member be aware of exactly what happened. The classic, what, when, where, how, who? questions; exploring what was said as well as what was left unsaid; verbal and non-verbal communication; thoughts and feelings along with words and actions.

One of the lessons in teamwork that comes out of this stage is the value of a well asked question: it’s not uncommon for the combined focus of a group to help the person sharing to deepen their own understanding of the event.

Once the group is satisfied with the description, we can move to suggest possible analysis of or explanations for the experience. The value of working in a team comes through the different perspectives we each bring to a particular context, helping us see things in a new, and often more helpful, light. It’s important for a group leader to shepherd the process: slowing the group down to finish a careful description before jumping ahead to analysis; or moving the group on to explanation when further description isn’t adding much value. At this point we’re drawing on a wide range of different ways of looking at human behaviour: questions of developmental psychology, group dynamics, cultural influences; as well as theological explanations (such as sin, evil, and the sovereign work of the Spirit of God).

At some point the leader needs to guide the group to narrow down on one aspect of the analysis and work from that perspective to formulate a theologically informed response. In this stage of the enquiry the particulars of one person’s experience becomes generalised to issues that are experienced in varied ways by other members of a team. The normative work of asking what ought to happen involves sharing biblical passages, theological themes, and/or established faithful practices.

Once again the mind of the group can be richer than the mind of an individual – different themes will come to mind, and different minds can make up for gaps in each other’s thinking: “Doesn’t Paul say something about discipline?” As group leaders it’s important to draw out the insights and ideas of the group members rather than being the expert who provides all the input.

In the final stage we take the theological ideas that we’ve discussed together and help each other determine what faithful practice would look like in light of this understanding. Promoting teamwork comes in two ways. Each of the members of the group offer a suggestion to whoever first raised the issue we’ve been discussing. The intention is to see that the insight of the team can provide more light than the solitary reflections of the individual.

Each member of the group is also asked to respond with one thing that they would do in response to the discussion we’ve had. The intention here is to point out how each individual has learnt things as a result of engaging with another student’s context and experience.

‘Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another’ (Proverbs 27:17). This process of practical theological enquiry has helped us at Youthworks College sharpen one another. Is this perhaps a process that can strengthen your ministry team also?