Youth Ministry is Scary
It’s easy to be an insecure youth pastor.
Think about it. You are the only one in the entire church that “does youth ministry.” There’s nobody to compare yourself to. There’s no “standard” to say you’re doing a good job, great job, or terrible job.
At the end of the week, who’s to say you did everything you were supposed to? What shows you that your priorities were straight and that you spent your time wisely?
Better yet, what tells you that you did a good job and made a difference?
That’s when insecurity can so quickly set in. With nobody giving you a thumbs up or thumbs down, there’s a temptation to just feel like you’re not doing it right and all your efforts are in vain.
Plus, with no shared standards or common expectations, every expectation any leader or parent might have, quickly becomes the standard they hold you to. You’ll never live up to all their expectations, so a lot of the feedback you actually do hear is, “Why didn’t you do this?” or “How could you possibly let that happen?”
I’m just being honest here. This is tough stuff. So how do you deal with this pressure?
I pray for the Lord’s favor in each of our lives so that we can survive and thrive because of His love, and in spite of our environment. And I know that His mercy and blessing is greater than all the worst the world could throw at us.
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Isn’t that kind of true of every ministry leader? The senior pastor doesn’t really have anyone to compare himself to, and the kid’s pastor gets all the “input” from parents too. Not to down-play the difficulty of the youth pastor’s role, but …
I think the difficulty in student ministry (maybe this is what you were talking about and I’m dense) is that it’s less seen ’cause it’s rarely on a Sunday morning. Out of sight, out of mind, for a lot of people.
And I think that’s why the “I’m not running a Chuck E Cheese” mantra is so important - at least for me. With little feedback and little involvement, we need SOMETHING to measure success by. We need SOME sort of ruler to tell us if we’re doing it right. And numbers are the easy one. Lots of students? Good job.
It is true for all ministry leaders. But I think it’s uniquely challenging for youth pastors because there is SO LITTLE definition for the “youth pastor” role. What should every youth pastor do? What are the common expectations? There’s probably hundreds of answers to that question… and that’s a problem.
Plus few youth pastors have leadership that is willing to say “it’s okay to not meet every expectation.” Some church leaders expect a youth pastor to do anything and everything.
I’m generalizing here, not talking about any church in particular. …What do you think? Do you agree?
Gotcha. Ya. Funny ’cause the guy at the next workstation struck up a conversation this morning about my “church job.”
He didn’t get why I’m not full-time. I explain a lot of churches can’t really afford a full-time youth pastor, and most aren’t trained - they’re just the passionate young people who get picked for the job. He wonders out-loud if it isn’t one of the most important jobs at a church. I rattle off others, like senior pastor, kids pastor. He very innocently makes a comment about high school being “kind of the last chance for a lot of people.” I smile and shrug.
The intern architect gets it …
Well that’s a start I guess ;)
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