by Darren Kizer

As the leader of the family ministry team in a local church, I have depended on YouLead on several occasions. YouLead is my go-to ministry leadership solution when . . .

• I know what I would like to communicate, and value the support and resources of “another voice” who has already gained expert status in that area.
• I am stuck on an idea or challenge and need something to kickstart my thinking.
• I don’t know I am lost until I read “that” article and experience a light bulb moment.
• I am teaching students or, prior to graduating, finishing a class myself.

In many ways, YouLead is like the Netflix, Library of Congress, and TED Talks of family ministry leadership. It is a 24/7 wealth of resources begging to provide solutions and motivation for a wide variety of ministry leadership challenges.

YouLead is my first stop when preparing for our volunteer HuddleUPs. Incorporating illustrations, data, videos, and quotes from YouLead adds value to our time of training and connects volunteers to a vision wider than just our congregation.

I have also gone to YouLead when I find myself lacking insight, creativity, and innovation. At these times, I peruse through the resources looking for the wisdom of those who are “one-step-ahead.” YouLead triggers quality questions while at the same time providing relevant answers by ministry partners who have conquered the challenge that I am currently facing.

Lastly, YouLead played a key role in an academic research project that stood between me and graduating with a doctorate. In the study, YouLead beautifully filled the need for ongoing volunteer training resources. My research results demonstrated a notable increase in volunteer satisfaction when regular communication and leadership resources (YouLead) was implemented as part of the study. Here’s a snapshot of what I learned:

The best-practices treatment increased our volunteer’s “I intend to remain a volunteer” scores up from 90 to 94 percent. That implies that our volunteers are more satisfied and eager to continue in their volunteer role of helping families. This was accomplished in a period of six weeks and for less than $10 per volunteer! We can therefore speculate that 15 of our volunteers who were considering dropping out have now decided to remain as volunteers—that’s 15 less volunteers that we have to recruit.

Simply put, YouLead helps you communicate stronger, think smarter, and lead better!

Dr. Darren Kizer is passionate about training family ministry leaders through his organization 1Semester, which allows family ministry staff, interns, and volunteers to earn graduate credits. As the executive family pastor at Parker Hill, he leads staff and volunteer teams at three campuses. His journey has included milestones as a camp director, wilderness leadership director, and earning a doctorate focused on volunteerism, family ministry, and leadership. He enjoys teaching organizational leadership courses for University of the Rockies and Pilgrimage Educational Resources. His life is fulfilled through time with his bride Becky, and teenagers, Brynn and Tucker.