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Hi Eric,
Effective communication, strategic planning, and abundant prayer. Those are the ways to lead. Reading your post and seeing that when you came to this church as the new youth minister and seeing all the problems that were there you waited a year, that is incredible. When I became a youth pastor I walked into a struggling youth ministry and from day one decided to change almost everything about it. In essence, I said “this is all wrong”. Half of the volunteer leaders that volunteered in that youth ministry quit very early on. At first, I didn’t understand why, but then I met with one of the leaders for lunch. He told me that those volunteers put their lives into this ministry and I just steamrolled it. He said “we were not formally trained, we didn’t have a direction but we were trying our best”. It was something that I learned in future ministry and pastoring positions was to wait to make changes until you understand the people and understand the culture. Another thing I learned was before making changes get everyone on board with the vision and the mission. It was great to see that through the Holy Spirit you turned a toxic ministry into something that is thriving and is continuing on even after you have left.
Thanks for the post!