I wish we all could say that girls ministry is full of roses and smells pretty all the time, but we live in a broken world and know that’s not the case.

One of the reasons I have needed a leader covenant has been because of a few incidences where leaders or volunteers challenged the process or simply just went rogue. If you are a girls minister or supervising the ministry of girls in your church, you may encounter a type of leadership that challenges the authority the church has given you to minister to the girls in the church.  We’ll address this in the first section, but also there are other reasons for having a leader covenant.

1. CLEAR EXPECTATIONS AND BOUNDARIES:  Sometimes this leadership may appear rogue to you when in reality, the leader may not know they have done anything outside the boundaries of their role.  This is one great reason to have a leader covenant.  It creates clearly defined boundaries and expectations that are agreed upon by both you and the leadership.
2. REMINDER THAT THEY ARE NOT THE LONE RANGER: When you have leaders sign a covenant, it’s a great opportunity to remind them that they are not alone in this journey to minister to students but that they are a part of something bigger.  That responsibility has ramifications that go beyond their group.  That also means that with community comes resource and networking.  It’s a reminder that they are each week as they minister to a group of students, they are co-laboring with others.  This is helpful when decisions have to be made that may impact the way their individual group may prefer to do something.
3. PROVIDES PROTECTION FOR LEADERS, STUDENTS, AND THE CHURCH: Student ministry is a great place to serve.  There are those moments in ministry that can define you for good and unfortunately for bad.  Do not ever let yourself think that you are not susceptible to bad things happening in your ministry.  You have to ensure that you do whatever it takes to protect those that God has entrusted to your care, to those that are leading in your ministry, and to the church itself.  One of the best ways to do this is to have a covenant that allows for you to have a talksheet that covers everything from doctrinal views, to how to handle crisis counseling, to how to engage with students on social media.

If you need help with a covenant, please let me know.  In addition, I’m always interested in what others have included in their covenants as well. Shoot me some responses below.