Last year a guy asked me for advice about how to approach youth pastors about guest speaking and “putting yourself out there.” He felt called to travel as an evangelist and wondered if I had any tips.
I’ve had this saved in my blog drafts since last November. I thought I’d finally share it.
First and foremost, I should probably start with this: I’m one person with one opinion about one way of doing this. If you disagree with my approach, sure, fine, cool, whatever. This is the advice I needed when I first started and since ministry is time travel, it’s what I shared with him.
Here’s what I said:
Start small.
Be ok with starting small.
You don’t have to judge the success of your ministry off of how many dates you have booked. If you work on what you bring to the table, what you’re like in service, what you preach on, how you handle altar times, word will spread.
If you have any friends who are youth pastors, ask if you can speak for them. If you only get one, awesome. Bring your best to that one. Love those kids. Bring as much value as you can and partner with that youth pastor to help what they’re already doing in their ministry.
Don’t worry about getting paid.
Don’t worry about networking.
Take youth pastors out to lunch and ask them questions. Interview them. What are they dealing with in their ministry? What’s been difficult? What’s been a win? What do they look for in a guest speaker? What have they not liked with guest speakers in the past?
Pay attention.
Pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray.
It’ll happen little by little and that’s a good thing. Every step of the way you’re working on being ready for the next step. And then you’ll take it. And then you’ll get ready for the next step.