Have you ever been sick on youth group night or Sunday morning? Has the flu surprised you the day of youth group? Have you experienced prolonged illness that kept you out of service for a good amount of time?
The longer I serve in ministry, especially student ministry, the more convinced I become that having a sick plan is a necessity. Trips can allow for illnesses to spread quickly. Winter months see a drastic increase in cold, flu, Covid, and other illnesses.
And then there’s always the unexpected sickness or health concern that creeps up. Family members may get sick and need help at home. And if this is the case, how do we handle those moments when we can’t be at our ministry? Is there a game plan? Do your volunteers know what the plan is? How is that information communicated to your leaders, students, and families?
Today I want to help you think through these moments by providing tangible steps you can take to address these concerns. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, but more of an à la carte approach where you can pick and choose the steps that work best for you and your ministry.
Take a sick day.
Sometimes we just want to work through whatever illness we are wrestling with, but that’s a poor approach to take. Showing up sick can put others at risk, it depletes you even more, and it communicates to your team that it’s okay to show up sick, which can lead to illnesses being spread quickly and more often. So take a sick day, rest, recoup, and come back when you’re healthy.
Have a backup teacher.
One of the truths we must come to terms with is that our programs and ministries can and will exist without us. It’s a hard truth to reckon with, but a truth nonetheless. For many years I wrestled with this and convinced myself of the lie that the ministries I oversaw couldn’t exist without me.
It took a mental health leave for me to see that these ministries will not only exist without me, but can flourish as well. And I saw this truth through our leaders who stepped up and utilized their gifts. I became much more aware that I have gifted communicators on my team and I should be empowering them to serve. One of them has actually come to me and said, “If you ever need to bail, for any reason, I’ll have a lesson ready to go.”
This taught me so much and I want to encourage you to seek out and have backup teachers ready for when you can’t be present. No, it won’t be in the series you’re doing and no it won’t be what you had prepared. But God will use those individuals and His Word to help your students grow and flourish. So find different people who can step in for you when you’re sick (and a bonus tip: use them even when you are not sick and watch how different voices resonate with your students).
Build a communication plan.
This is important across your ministry as a whole, but having a communication plan for illness is key. Who will you tell? Who gets told first? What’s the communication say? Is it intentional, informational, or both? Drafting a plan for how communication goes out, to whom it goes out to, and what it says is key.
My mentality is to start with my leaders because they help in communicating any change to their students. They have more established communication lines so it makes sense to start there. We then email families and post across our media channels.
Our emails contain information that is needed about any change or cancelation, but they also provide intentional touch points. We provide ways for families to connect like cooking or baking together with recipes, or watching a movie and discussing it. We highlight ways to engage in worship, and we even point to a passage in Scripture that they could discuss.
Now all of this sounds great, but when you’re sick no one wants to spend the time writing all of this out. So prepare it ahead of time and have it ready to go when needed.
Have a plan for Sunday morning and youth group evenings.
As you think about the two prior points, it’s also important to have a plan for how your programming will function when you are not present. Have you taught people how to set things up? Have you shared your expectations? Do people know what to do in different scenarios like if a student gets hurt or if there’s a fire alarm?
Often times youth workers handle their own set up and know the ins and outs of tech, lighting, and how to open and close up the church; but do the people filling in for you know how to do all of that? Training, equipping, and empowering others to handle this means building a plan for them and helping them understand that plan.
At the end of the day, there will be times you are not present at youth group or church. That is okay, and you should be encouraged to take sick days and vacation time. But how will your ministry do without you? Is it build upon you and your identity (or perhaps is your identity wrapped up in it), or is it sustainable because it’s built around Christ? Have you empowered others to lead in your absence? Do you have a plan for when you are not there?
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