So You Want to be in Youth Ministry?

Ever wonder why some churches seem to have new youth ministers all of the time? Some stats say that the turnover is almost every 18 month. With relationships being such a key part of this ministry, 18 months is no where near enough time to build and sustain impactful relationships. In the long run, it's the students who hurt.

What if we could find a way to help those young ministers stay in it a bit longer. A couple of years ago, I met a young man who was changing my oil at WalMart. As we talked, he shared that he had a bachelors and masters degree in youth ministry, but quit after 2 years because he didn't feel ready for it. He actually decided after those 2 years that ministry wasn't for him. So he stood there, with a lot of debt, and working at a job that he could have had without his education.

It's what happens when we spend too much time training our young ministers on the latest games or silly videos. It's time to train them for the long haul. Athletes don't train for one game, but to play for a long time. When you work out to lose weight, you can't just lose the weight and be done. You have to keep working out to keep it off. We cannot train our young ministers to just get a ministry job, but how to keep moving students towards a discipleship relationship.

Duffy Robbins once said "what you win students with is what you win them too". We need to win them with the Gospel and what Jesus has to offer so that becomes what they want. If we win them with "chubby bunny" or cool prizes, then we've set the expectation.

If we're going to create disciple making ministries that reproduce themselves, then we have to train up leaders to see the process through, repeatedly.