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Leaders’ Cohorts
Who’s walking beside you in youth ministry today?
You’re the experienced one now. You’re the leader other people lean on, the one who’s outlasted the volunteers and the part-timers and the three-year exits. You know the work because you’re still in it. But carrying it largely alone has a cost, and you can feel it.
Leaders’ Cohorts put you in a small group of peers who do exactly what you do. Professional supervision is built in so the leader who stays can actually keep staying.
Groups of 3–5 · meets every 4–6 weeks · mostly online, gathering in person once a year
The gap
There’s plenty of support for starting in youth ministry. Almost none for lasting in it.
Year one
Everyone wants to pour into you.
the gap
Year ten
You’re the one doing the pouring.
The longer you stay, the lonelier the role gets. The conferences are pitched at people a decade behind you. Your senior pastor backs you but can’t supervise what they’ve never done. The volunteers come and go. And the questions that keep you up at night — Am I still any good at this? Is this sustainable? Who do I take the hard call about a young person to? — have nowhere to land.
So you carry it. You make the judgement calls alone, you absorb the weight alone, and the hard-won wisdom you’ve built over years stays locked in your own head, until the day you burn out or move on, and it leaves with you.
Leaders who carry young people through adolescence deserve to be carried too. You shouldn’t have to choose between the work you’re called to and your own health.
Your Supervisor
Graham Stanton
Director, Youth Ministry FuturesHe’s not above this work. He still serves in youth ministry on the ground, and knows what it costs to stay.
Graham serves as a volunteer youth leader at St Jude’s, Parkville
Graham convenes the cohorts, and he’s the right person to do so. He’s the Reverend Dr Graham Stanton, Director of the Centre for Children’s and Youth Ministry and Lecturer in Practical Theology at Ridley College, and a qualified professional pastoral supervisor. He led Youthworks College in Sydney for over a decade. And unlike some people with letters after their name, he never left the floor: most weeks he’s still serving in his own church’s youth ministry — as a pair of hands, not the person in charge.
That’s the whole posture of a cohort. Not an expert lecturing practitioners from a stage, but a seasoned campaigner who is still doing the work, gathering experienced leaders to think well, pray honestly, and design faithful ministry together. The supervision is real and the theology is serious.
How a cohort works
A small cohort, real supervision, and your church behind you.
Built so you thrive over years, not just survive the next term. The shape is simple.
01
Register your interest
Tell us about your ministry. Graham works out the right cohort of peers for you, and sorts out the details with your church.
02
Meet your cohort
A close-knit group of 3–5 leaders who get it. You gather online every four to six weeks for mutual support, shared problem-solving, and honest supervision. And a commitment to gather in-person at least once a year.
03
Be supervised, not just supported
Ten hours of formal group supervision are built in, and we help you put genuine personal supervision or coaching in place alongside it.
What’s included
- A peer cohort of 3–5 experienced leaders
- Two-hour online gatherings every 4–6 weeks
- 10 hours of formal group supervision (equivalent to 5 hours individual supervision), integrated into the rhythm
- Assistance to establish your own personal pastoral supervision or coaching
- At least one in-person gathering a year (many participate in our annual 4-day live-in Residential)
- An annual touchpoint between your cohort leader and your church’s ministry supervisor
For your church: Your church plays its part too, covering the cohort fee and meeting once a year with your cohort leader. When you’re supported, connected and supervised, the ministry you lead gets stronger, more resilient, and far more likely to keep you.
What changes
Still here in ten years, sharper, healthier, and not doing it alone.
Not alone
The hard calls land in a room full of people who’ve made them too — peers who carry it with you, not just cheer you on.
Supervised
You’re properly supervised by someone trained for it, instead of holding every judgement and every weight in your own head.
Built to last
You have the structures and rhythms that let a good youth minister stay good — and stay, for years rather than terms.
A future where every young Australian has a youth minister who stays begins with keeping the ones we already have.
Join a cohort
You’ve stayed this long. Let’s make sure you can keep staying.
Leaders’ Cohorts are running now, and we’re forming the next groups. If you’re an experienced youth minister ready to stop carrying it alone, register your interest and Graham will be in touch.
Leaders’ Cohort fee is $1,540 (inc. GST), normally carried by your church as part of backing their youth minister. If cost is the only thing in the way, talk to Graham confidentially. No youth minister who’d benefit should miss out over money.