Keep Your Sense of Humor

While keeping a sense of humor is a good idea under most circumstances, it is especially valuable when working with youth. Keeping a sense of humor will help you maintain internal balance and diffuse any tension that might arise. Equally important, it will enable you to model humor that is kind and appropriate, not sarcastic, cynical, or cruel.

Know When to Excuse Yourself

In a subject as heartfelt as religion, almost everyone eventually comes up against a particular facet they cannot reliably present without bias. If you do not feel comfortable leading a workshop or an activity, ask your co-leader to do it. Supporting each other in this way will ease the way for you and enrich the program for the youth.

Resources

When doing research online, determine, if you can, who created a site so you have a better idea of its ideological foundations and biases. Many sites with neutral-sounding names are media arms of groups whose beliefs or purposes color the content. Use critical inquiry to ensure you do not unintentionally serve someone else's agenda or spread inaccurate information.