Loading ...Youth Ministry Model Broken
This is not an attack on youth ministers. I have heard a few sermons and read a few articles on liberal youth ministers destroying the church. This is a cry for help for the current youth ministers in the church. Recently, at the FHU graduation, I was talking with a talented young man in youth ministry. I asked him about his future goals. He stated that he was looking to get out of youth ministry. I ask if he was going to the pulpit. He said “no,” I am getting out of ministry completely. This seems to be happening at an alarming rate across the church. A young man will train for the ministry, and enter into full-time work as a youth minister. Some of these young men will desire to make this a lifelong work while others will transition into the pulpit. But there seems to be a difficult time staying in the ministry for youth ministers. There are multiple reasons why this seems to be a short lived mission, but I want to focus on one cause and the end result. A man realizes about two years into youth ministry that his wife must work to support the family. Typically, youth ministers are not paid well enough to support a family on their income. Since the wife must work, this creates stress in the relationship because she is working through the week, and he is traveling and working on the weekends. The wife feels obligated to attend the youth functions, which leads to exhausted wives. Also, when the first child comes, the youth minister is gone through the nights. It is hard being a youth minister and a family man. If a single, younger man is hired to work predominately with the youth, he could lack maturity that is vital for ministry. He is thrown into one of the most difficult positions in the church with little guidance and instruction. The end result is that numerous youth ministers leave full time ministry. Often these are some of the best young men in the church. Someone presents a higher paying option for a career and the youth minister takes it because of the extra money and family time that it promises. This will cause a large shortage of preachers in the future. It seems that the role of the youth minister is not producing more and better trained men, but is ultimately creating a shortage of ministers in the church. It seems advantages for the larger congregations to hire a old man to function as an administrator and a younger man for involvement. The older man can handle the difficult elements while exposing the younger man to spiritual maturity. The younger man can be at the sporting events and the youth activities. After a period of time, the youth minister can move on to another congregation to function in the administrative role while training another young man in ministry. Some changes to the youth minister role will be needed for the church to retain the talented young men that enter this difficult field of ministry.
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[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptRecently, at the FHU graduation, I was talking with a talented young man in youth ministry. I asked him about his future goals. He stated that he was looking to get out of youth ministry. I ask if he was going to the pulpit. … [...]
i was such a person you spoke of in your post. i went from youth ministry to leaving altogether. but not for the reasons you mentioned.
something that was frustrating (but not the real reason i left) was that anytime i really started to feel that i was doing what *God* would want me to do with my time in that role, that’s precisely when i encountered the most resistance from people that thought i was particularly *not* doing what i should be doing.
another problem that i ran into difficulty with is that for a variety of reasons i couldn’t in my ministry acknowledge and act on the distinction of Christian and non-Christian teenagers. plenty of things can be done in a congregation specifically to edify believers, or specifically to reach non-believers without anyone throwing a fit; but just imagine if a youth minister attempted to host separate events for Christian youth and non-Christian youth. you end up having to treat a group of people as though they are on the same spiritual page when they are simply not.
a third challenge was that so much of youth ministry involved taking kids *away* from life in order to spiritually mentor them. i think the same basic problem exists in the church altogether, but nevertheless, the Bible portrays glorifying God as something you do *within* life. The “meat” of discipleship for youth should be how to be a Christian *at* school, *at* home with parents, *when* they’re with their friends. but so often every big “meaty” thing you do in youth ministry takes kids away from life–retreats and camp and weekend excursions.
anyway, good post, just wanted to share some of my challenges in addition to the one you list. but i do want to ask (maybe i’ve misunderstood you), why should we think that being single puts one at a DISadvantage for ministry? Did it do so for Jesus or Paul or Timothy (presumably)?
Spot on assessment regarding the wife working, Matthew. It is the most difficult aspect of our work.
I think any minister’s wife is just as important as the minister himself. This is no different with youth ministers. Young ladies need the consolation and encouragement that can only be offered by another female. Obviously, other women can fill this role, but wives are vital in this regard.
I think the financial aspect (in most congregations) is a reflection of the overall attitude toward the youth of the church. Many churches acknowledge young people are important, but not enough to bite off a big part of the budget for them. Thus, it’s justifiable to pay the youth minister substantially less than the pulpit minister and other ministerial staff. Unless elders and other leaders are willing to “supplement” the work of a youth minister with their own personal mentoring and volunteerism, paying a young guy a meager salary to be the point man will rarely be successful longterm. Their futures are only worth what they are willing give themselves (financially and otherwise).
Good thoughts…
Guy, in no way am I saying that a single man cannot be productive or as productive as a married man. The emphasis is not on being single but being young. You make a great point in highlighting the model that takes young people out of the world for Christianity. I believe and have seen a sense of dualism in Christianity, there seems to be one set of rules for church events and another from community events by the leaders, parents, and even ministers. I always wondered, if it was wrong at church camp, it still should be wrong at school. Good thoughts Guy, and thank you for sharing, as you are one of the talented ones that left full-time youth ministry.
Joey, I really feel bad for the youth minister’s wife who teaches in the school system, then is expected to travel with the youth minister to a youth retreat or rally. This poor lady never gets a break. Thank you for sharing with us, your insights are wonderful.
Matthew,
This doesn’t relate to this section of your blog but this had me rolling.
Check out: http://www.treymorgan.net/2008/05/7-crazy-things-i-have-seen-in-church.html
Matthew,
This was a good post and this is an ongoing issue for the church. There were several factors that contributed to my decision to leave youth ministry. One was that I had grown tired of looking for youth minister jobs as a single man. Many people don’t believe me when I tell them how bad it was, but years of that can take it’s toll. Another was the expectation that I was to entertain the kids. Being expected to come up with the newest, dazzling, shiniest flavor of the month got old. Finally, it was the competitive nature of the whole thing. “Their youth minister does this…” was a common suggestion.
It seems from the comments the reasons vary. I think youth ministers (and other ministers) leave ministry because they cannot be every members employee. Additionally, leadership uses their favored members expectations as leverage in their evaluation of the “employee”. I survived and still rely on God to thrive in ministry, not because these aspects have had their day, but because “I am called of God.” If I did not sincerely embrace my calling, I would leave. Nevertheless, I fully support that the making of tents is compatible with the calling.
Like some of the other posters have said you hit the nail on the head about the ym wives working and literally working two jobs. However, I disagree with your paradigm shift. You ministers are not pulpit ministers in training. We need men and women who are willing to devote their lives to influencing young people to become faithful members of the Lord’s church. When it comes to family time you have to plan it just like anything else. It is not the quantity of events but the quality of events. Also leave certain weekends open for your families and the families of others. For example, I do not plan events on Memorial or Labor Day Weekend. Those are family times for Tiffany and me.
Do not get me wrong. I am not saying that there are not a shortage of pulpit ministers. There is a shortage. However, there is also of trained godly men and women who need to be working in the kingdom of God.
Sorry for that terrible post. I was trying to watch TV and post at the same time. The last part should read:
“I am not saying there is not a shortage of pulpit ministers in the church. There is a shortage. However, there is also a shortage of trained godly men and women who want to devote their lives to youth ministry. One paragdigm shift we need in the church is to stop seeing youth ministry as an extended intership for pulpit ministry.”
Justin, thank you for your true insight. You are doing what I am trying to write about every day. I am thankful that you plan and have a congregation that allows you weekends and time for family. Some congregations expect the ym to be at the office at 8am Monday to Friday and then be with the young people on the weekends. I read your thoughts on ym, and feel there needs to be more men who man this their calling. The problem is, as you mentioned, congregation do not think the ym is as important as the pulpit man, which affects the pay. It seems afterwhile the ym cannot afford to work in this important field any longer and support a family.
We were writing at the same time on this post, amen brother, I argee completely.
I did preaching–then YM. I loved it–wife couldn’t take it. I was willing to sacrifice almost anything for the teens I worked with–except her–and my kids. The church didn’t help–in fact, made it worse. I figured the next time I ‘interviewed’ I ought to just save everyone some time, try walking across the baptistery. At least that way we would know if I was still ‘in it.’
The reason there is a preacher shortage is the way we train, hire, pay, manage, oversee, and craft expectations for preachers. Other than that—and the folks I worked with— preaching was perfect. YM is worse, not better. My son graduated from Lipscomb–he is passionate about making a difference in the lives of teenagers. I’ll support him 110%. I’m pray God won’t let ‘the church’ eat him alive….
Back to preaching–20 years.
I am a part of the fall out also. I went to ACU for two years and did an internship and that cured me of the desire to work in full time ministry once and for all. I became an engineer instead. At the time there were no cofC colleges that offered BS degrees in technical fields so I had to go to a state school. Out of the 15 friends I had at ACU that graduated with BAs and MAs with the intention of going into full time ministry, 12 years later only one is still in that capacity. Seven were fired some without notice. Two were fired when they refused to sing the “Time to speak” petition in the Christian Chronicle last November.
The churches of Christ are facing a “minister” shortage. The idea of going to school then putting your family at the mercy of the opinions of the church for below average pay with little benefits does not attract the cream of the crop. The Christian Chronicle actually wrote an article about this phenomenon a couple of months ago.
Here is the jest a church of Christ minister can expect to change churches about every three years on average. They can also expect to be paid below the median income for the area. The church where my father in law is an elder has gone through 4 youth ministers in 10 years. Is the problem the youth minister or the church? I asked him how many more they would have to go through until they realized it was the Toxic atmosphere of the church.