What Youth Ministers Really Want

By Mike Andrews

During my several years in youth ministry, I”ve heard factoids and quips that indicate what everybody “knows” about my calling. “Youth ministers on average stay with a church only 18 months.” Or is it three years?

“If you don”t win someone to Christ before his 18th birthday you never will.” Or is it the 13th birthday?

While there is always some truth behind assumptions like these, I wonder if people really understand youth ministry. Do they know what makes us youth ministers tick, what makes us keep at it? Have they asked what youth ministers really want?

What Youth Ministers Want From the Church

One thing we want is for our congregations to minister to youth. We want to see our elders building relationships with students and modeling Christian life and leadership in a side-by-side, relational kind of way, not trying to be an equal, but as a mentor. In a world where homes are broken and reformed like stacks of Legos, students need adults who stay connected to them, love them, and help them succeed.

Youth ministers don”t want to be seen as the one who “relates well with the kids.” Yes, youth ministry will always be relational, and youth ministers must be able to interact with students. But so must you. The generation gap in many churches is nothing short of a fault line. Youth ministers want to be and to build bridges to span and close that gap.

Youth ministers want to be seen as ministers. God has called us to work with students as ministers, as pastors. But often we are seen as “the youth guy” while the ministry aspect is overlooked. But ministry is the critical part of our calling and title.

We want our ministries to fit into the ministry of the whole congregation. We don”t want to create a youth ghetto where no one over 30 can really belong. We want to see youth coming to Christ and being infused into his whole body, not just a segment of the body that”s reserved for the young.

What Youth Ministers Want From the Senior Pastor

Another area of misunderstanding is the relationship of the senior minister to the youth minister. A wrong relationship here can be a constant source of stress””or much worse””for everyone involved. No youth minister wants a senior pastor constantly breathing down his neck and checking up on him. But neither do we want to be ignored. “I”ll do my thing with adults, you do yours with the kids.” Such an attitude from the senior minister can ruin the ministry of the youth minister.

Youth ministers want to work with the senior minister (again, within the whole church, not in the youth ghetto church). We want to be able to offer support to our senior ministers and to have their support””because we”re working the same playbook. We want to be able to buy into their vision and lead our youth ministries with that vision in mind.

Often, however, youth ministers are involved in children”s church or other activities and may not hear the sermons in which vision is cast. If the senior pastor doesn”t make a point to share his vision with the youth minister (and any other staff as well), the vision may not be equally understood.

One thing we don”t want from the senior minister is his job. I mean that in at least two ways.

Youth ministers don”t want to be the junior minister who gets everything delegated to him that the senior minister doesn”t want to do. Few things can snuff out our passion more quickly. The youth minister”s desk shouldn”t become the dumping grounds for the ministry tasks that no one else wants to do. (The same could be said about any associate minister”s desk.)

Even more important, most youth ministers don”t see youth ministry as a stepping stone to preaching. Despite better pay packages and more prestige for senior ministers, most youth ministers are not just biding their time until they can become “real” ministers someday. While there is a great deal to be learned in youth ministry that can be applied to being a senior minister, most of us are not “preachers in training” just working with the kids until we know what we”re doing. Most youth ministers are youth ministers because they want to be youth ministers and they believe this is where God has called them.

Today, a generation is crying out to be saved from their emptiness. They”ve tried so many ways to fill the void, but everything they”ve tried has come up short. Most youth ministers just want to see the church love these young people so powerfully that they finally see the One who has come “that they might have life, and have it to the full.” I know I”m not the only youth minister who feels this way.

 

 

Mike Andrews is youth minister with the Auburn (Nebraska) Christian Church.