Long-Term Effects of Youth Ministry

Above is my wife and I with Molly. When I started as a youth pastor at her church she was in 7th grade and this past weekend we drove out to see her and another student graduate from high school. It’s such a blessing to see her grow and to know that God used my wife and I to influence her life.

While I was attending Bible college @ Colorado Christian University a statistic was mentioned about the average career of a youth pastor in a church was less than a year. Now that I have done youth ministry for awhile I understand that its better if you can stay and do youth ministry in a church for a long time.

I have personally experienced tenures of 2 years, 3 and half years and 10 months. The last ministry position I was in, I realized after 3 months that it wasn’t the right fit for my family and I though we stuck it out for an additional 7 months before moving on. The other two ministry experiences ended well, but both were out of my control ( a temporary position and a church split).

Looking back, I really feel that even my 3 and a half year tenure wasn’t long enough. It was getting to the point where I felt like I was getting somewhere and establishing myself in the ministry.

With this being said, let me share with you some tips to help you stay in youth ministry in your church for the long haul based on some of my trial and errors:

1. Establish Your Authority - When you enter a new position it’s important that your team looks to you for the leadership. What happens is there are usually very influential people that have been serving in the youth ministry sometimes for many years and so they have this authority that is established and if not handled properly, it could compromise your ability to lead. If you walk into a place that has volunteers all ready to go, I would have them all re-apply to be a volunteer so that you can review their applications and call each one to personally meet with them and evaluate where best they could be used.
2. Be Purposely Confrontational - There are some key phrases that you need to pay special attention to: “did you hear…”, “so and so said…”. These phrases indicate that there are some potential problems and you need to attack it before it becomes a bigger problem. I would say to the person that uses, “did you hear” with “who did you hear that from?” Do this until you get back to the original person who made the statement and deal appropriately with it. What happens when we are not confrontational is that problems seem to get worse not better and it can cause bad feeling to grow and ultimately it makes you look like you don’t care when you really do.
3. Do All You Can to Make Staff Relationships Work - You may not be magnetically drawn to your senior pastor, but you need him to have your back - especially if he is well established and respected in your church. A great working relationship with your senior pastor can cover a multitude of youth pastor sins. When you are tight with your staff it makes you stronger and more confident to be in the position that you are in. It’s also great when you have the ability to share your struggles with your staff and you gain the sense that they understand and care and can pray about those issues.
4. Develop a Long-Term Ministry Plan - When you see long-term it will help you stick out seeing the ministry fulfilled. If you are currently short-sighted and it feels like you are just doing all you can to tread water, then it’s time to take some time (mini retreat) to pray and plan. Having a vision, developing a plan, and unfolding the plan will help you to see out further than your nose.

These tips I hope help you to do your best to stay in your church youth ministry for the long haul to see real life change and see your students grow and develop into followers of Jesus Christ.

What are some other long-term youth ministry ideas?