Pushing Through

The other day I was talking to one of my youth ministry friends about the rarity of long-term youth pastors in a local church setting. In the course of that conversation, I realized that there are a decent amount of guys who have been in youth ministry for a long time (20-30 years). These guys often speak at various youth ministry conventions and other training opportunities. However, very rarely are those guys in a local church setting. They tend to be youth ministry professors, camp directors, denominational leaders, parachurch ministry professionals, or professional speakers. Some have even started their own non-profit ministry to do what they’ve always loved without the headaches, heartaches, or hurts that come from local church ministry.

I’m glad that some guys have gotten out of youth ministry. Not because they were horrible, but because they had gifts to share with the larger body of Christ. They include numerous former youth pastors who have become church planters. Some have taken on a senior pastor position. Others have moved on missions or other forms of influence. Personally, I’m glad that Billy Graham, Ted Engstrom, Andy Stanley, J.C. Watts and Dan Kimball stopped being youth workers. If you need to quit youth ministry to pursue a new passion or your gifts have changed, great! Keep serving Jesus—but remember to give your youth pastor a good budget and salary when you’re in charge or on the board.

I can understand the appeal of those positions and I’ve considered almost all of those different ways to do youth ministry without being in a local church. But the question remains, why don’t more of us remain in full-time local church youth ministry for 20 plus years?

I remember being in seminary and talking with all my fellow youth ministry seminarians who were convinced that they would be doing youth ministry until they die. If commonly used statistics are true, fourteen years later 25-40% of them aren’t even in ministry, let alone youth ministry.

It’s a shame when youth ministers quit because of discouragement, hurt, isolation or pain from being in ministry. These dangers, toils, and snares can come from within the individual or from within a local congregation. After being fired abruptly by a stereotypical CEO Senior Pastor, I’ve now survived my own year and a half “dark night of the soul.” It took time to heal and thankfully we found a great church that allowed us the time and space to do so. Because of my time in the Youth Pastor ICU, I’m now able to be back in local church youth ministry.

It’s glorious. I’ve been back in the youth ministry saddle for almost nine months and there are still days where I go to work giddy. It’s my goal to retire in local church youth ministry. Is it because I can’t do anything else? No, it’s because I can’t do anything else! I’m compelled to care for students and their families in a local church setting because I think it’s the thing that I can do best to make Jesus smile the most.

So when you become discouraged in your church, push through, keep loving the local church, and I’ll save you a whoopee-cushioned rocking chair in the youth pastor retirement home. The harvest is plentiful but quality workers are few.

Originally published by SimplyYouthMinisty Jan 08

Comfort the Afflicted and Afflict the Comfortable

I live in the richest county in the richest state of the country. What 90210 is to the zip codes of America, Fairfield County is to the counties of America. A good friend has a calling to the poor. He leads annual mission trips to India, Haiti and Mexico City to expose students to the stark realities of life. He also pastors a church of 400 people that meets under a bridge in Waco, TX. According to a Your Church article from earlier this year my church ranks in the top 4% of all churches. Not because of our size, we average around 350 people, but because our budget is over one million dollars. I joke with my friend that God called him to work with the poor but God called me to work with the affluent.

Charles Spurgeon preached in 1857 that Christians are to "comfort the afflicted." From that a trustworthy maxim for ministry has become "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

COMFORT THE AFFLICTED

Over three hundred years ago Richard Baxter wrote in The Reformed Pastor, "Lastly, If God enable you, extend your charity to those of the poorest sort . . . " More importantly, Paul wrote, "All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." (Gal. 2:10)

Service Projects are mandatory. If you want hit and miss results then start with a hit and run approach to service projects. We all know what we should do but are we doing it and doing it regularly with eagerness? Establish partnerships with relief ministries. Our partnership is with a local rescue mission where we lead a chapel service once a month.

Practical Steps

Adopt a Child through Compassion International or World Vision.

Serve in a Soup Kitchen

Collect shoes, jackets or blankets for a homeless shelter.

Shoebox Ministry: Fill each box with sample sizes or shaving cream, shampoo, toothpaste, three dollars, a gospel of John, etc. These can be given to a ministry or directly to those in need.

AFFLICT THE COMFORTABLE

Have two goals in this area, afflict the comfortable and keep your job. Of course, Yaconelli might advise that if you're not fired at least once in youth ministry you played it too safe.

Practical Steps

30 Hour Famine or your own "Help the Hungry" event. You can direct half the money towards a local Rescue Mission and the other half towards an international need.

Host a "One Homeless Night"

Poverty Simulation by Mission Waco in Waco, TX. www.missionwaco.org for more info.

Mission Trips

Read at least one book this month about urban ministry or poverty then teach a short series based on that book

Write your own series based on these and other verses (Proverbs 11:4, 14:31, 29:7, Isaiah 58, Matthew 25:31-46, Luke 12:15, Galatians 2:10, Philippians 4:11-13). We honor God by being kind to the needy.

A series will inform but your own lifestyle and attitudes shared naturally will transform. Teach and model contentment to your students. Contentment is a heart issue not a paycheck issue and the easiest way to get what you want is to want less.

Over the last few months some of our students have gotten to know some of the men at the rescue mission. They've discovered that these men do not always fit their stereotypical assumptions. My students are beginning to be transformed through being afflicted and not comforted. "Compassionate Conservatism" has been in the news lately but our desire is not conservatism or liberalism but compassion in our students.

This originally appeared in Youthworker Journal Jan/Feb 2002