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Preparing for Maternity Leave from Youth Ministry (Making it Simple!) · Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today we're talking about tips to help you prepare for an upcoming maternity leave from youth ministry.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: What did your first year of ministry look like, when you were pregnant or on maternity?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Any pro tips?
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: So the church was so gracious, gave me three months paid maternity for both pregnancies.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: So we have two daughters and each time I got three months I worked right up until like our.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, I had scheduled C-section so I would work right up until then and then take You're so extra with your scheduled C-section.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Can we pencil it in for this day?
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: It was for medical reasons.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Yes, for medical reasons.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Plus she's extra.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would work right up to it and then, once we had the baby, then I would take that three months off.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: So the first time around, jeff filled in.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Um, go, jeff, yay, um attendance.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Just knows that bomb.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah right, you did a great job.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: So he filled him for three months.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: So what I would recommend is really setting up whoever's going to fill in for you whether maybe it is your husband, maybe he can do it Um, a super volunteer.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: The second time I went on maternity leave, it was our associate pastor, who just sort of absorbed my job with the help of my team and my interns.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: So he wasn't just like, ah, I'm doing everything, but he was kind of the face and the leader of the group, but major heavy support from the team as well.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: So here's a couple of tips.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Number one for whoever is filling in with you, I'd recommend scheduling as many guest speakers as possible.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: We like whoever like.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: That'll probably be the hardest part for whoever takes your job during that time.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: So would.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: They're not used to doing it and creating a sermon every week and yeah, and I would like, and especially for, like students, like even if they're used to teaching, teaching for students and students, you don't know it's like a totally different thing and it takes a lot of effort.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: And we did an episode last week, which jeff will link in, that it was like video stuff, like how, what to do when you couldn't think of what we did last.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I could tell by your face what to teach or video supplementation to use when you just can't teach.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: So it'd be like, maybe schedule a guest speaker, have the person filling in for you, teach, and then do another guest speaker and then video.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Well, there's a whole month of teaching right there.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: That was four weeks, so then could you just wash and repeat that for the next three months or however long you're getting for maternity, and then you know I would plan those things out for them too.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: I would say like, hey, here's a series, maybe you send them some notes of sermons you've already done in the past that you're ready to use again.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I hope you do save your sermon notes and sermon packages.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: You could go to lifechurchcom and send them the notes from that.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: I think it's hard to just say, well, just teach on love this month.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: It's like, oh, like building four sermons on love from the ground up.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: That's kind of rough.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Give them something tangible and then keep the events to a minimum.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: I'd say one or two very easy slam dunk events like dodgeball and pizza night or movie night, beach day or beach night or I don't know just something to where they don't have to do a ton of shopping and planning and rent a bus and we're going here, you know.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: So try to keep the events to a minimum until you get back and keep them nice and easy.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: And then, once you actually have the baby, you know, I don't know what your situation is like with your spouse or with family nearby, with childcare and all that.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: The way that Jeff and I did it is once the baby was three months old.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I would go back to work and we would just divide the day up.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: So I did it is.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Once the baby was three months old I would go back to work and we would just divide the day up.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: So I would go to work from like roughly nine to three and I just kind of wouldn't take a lunch and then Jeff would have the baby for that amount of time and then I'd get home and we would literally switch and then I'd take the baby from three to eight you know bedtime and he'd be working in his office from like three to nine or sometimes three to ten and we would pause and have dinner together and then we would try to do like bedtime together, like put the kids down, read a book or whatever.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: I obviously had the flexibility in my schedule to be able to do that.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so if one of you has that, then that could work out to your advantage.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: And then we would try to make like Sunday our like fun family day, like let's all hang out together and do something.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: So it is a grind for sure, it's not, um but it's a season.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: And then when the kids got a little older, there'd be days where I could actually bring them with me to the church and they could play, like on an indoor playground or a children's classroom, and I could bring my laptop and get stuff done and check in on them and whatever.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: And so, yeah, you just kind of take it season by season of what can you do, and so, I don't know, every situation will look a little different based on you know your church and your spouse and you know your church and your spouse and you know how good you feel after pregnancy and delivery and all of that.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: But it's definitely doable.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: I thought I have to quit my job.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: No, I don't, we just worked it out, you know, and it works out really well.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.