Youth Ministries – the key to unlocking impact

“When I was starting ministry, I served as the pastor of youth in a Denver church.” Leif Anderson tells his story about being a youth pastor. “I thought I was doing a pretty good job ministering to the youth. On a Wednesday night, during a business meeting, the church eliminated my position . . . I was shaken and dumbfounded. I had no idea . . . . .” Although several weeks later he became the Senior Pastor of that church, that business meeting left an indelible impression on him to this day.
What is it about youth ministry that makes it such a lightning rod in the church? Why would a church cancel the youth program? In so many churches youth ministry is at best a stepchild, not a legitimate place for full time ministry. In my experience, youth ministry represents the “cutting edge” of ministry. It is not an accident that most of the most successful pastors today started in youth ministries. Youth ministries served as their sifting place; if you can make it in youth ministries, you can make it with adults. This is a generalization that has some truth in it. Not only is the youth pastor ministering to the church’s future adult population, but also they, in order to be successful, have learned to embrace a changing culture whose first changes emerge among youth. It is the youth who led the way in the technology revolution that adults are now enjoying (or eschewing).
But there is also a theological-practical reason why youth has been the proving ground for successful ministry beyond youth. Statistics continue to show that over 80% of believers made a profession of faith before the age of 18. In my last ministry at Valley Bible church, for every adult who made a profession of faith, there were 6 to 10 young people who made professions of faith as a result of youth ministry. In addition, many adults testify that it was a youth pastor or ministry that turned their lives around during their teens.
One of the difficulties about youth ministry is defining a biblical paradigm for both the youth pastor and the ministry. To do this, we have to dispel three myths that plague this area of the church.

Myth 1: Youth ministries should be an extension of the families of the church. Many parents of teens are terrified with the culture in which they are raising their kids. This myth expresses the hope that youth ministries will be a safe place where families can send their teens. At first blush this sounds sensible. But when you dig a little deeper, you find that “safe” is code for a ministry that mirrors all the life-style beliefs and habits of the home in which the teen is raised. It also means that teens will not be exposed to “unsavory, unsaved teens” that could wrongly influence their teen.
If you think about the purpose of youth ministry, part of its purpose is outreach. Our communities are filled with un-churched kids many of whom are products of a broken society. They are the very people we are called to reach for Christ. The moment many church parents realize that the youth pastor is effective in reaching this group, they will pull their kids out of the ministry because it is not safe.
The second problem with this myth is rooted in the assumption that church families are doing a great job in parenting and raising their kids in a Christian home. A pastor recently shared with me that his church was going to require all the teens to attend the adult worship service [This is unwise on so many levels that I can’t cover them all].
“Why would you do this?”
“Our kids are leaving the church in droves after they leave high school. If they can see their parents in a worship setting, then maybe they can see themselves later being involved past high school”
When asked to respond, I asked how many homes in his church reflected Jesus on a daily basis? It seemed like a strange question to him. I explained that first, many of the 200+ kids in his youth group did not have parents who attended church. Second, in order for a teen to stay in the church past high school, he or she needed to be immersed in a home where authentic, believable parents lived. I grew up wanting to be like my dad. His relationship with Jesus was authentic and infectious. It never dawned on me as I graduated from high school that walking away from the church was a reasonable, wise option. I saw graduation from high school as an opportunity to minister with “the big boys.”
The reason so many of our youth leave the church after high school [if that statement is correct] may be because they have never encountered the Jesus of the New Testament in their parents. Just sitting in a worship service won’t do it. Instead, we should exhort our families to be believable in their faith daily at home.

Myth 2: Youth ministry is the stepping-stone to adult ministries.
This myth understands youth ministry from a business-corporate paradigm. It teaches that youth ministry is the starting point for a career in full time ministry. This approach is implicitly taught in most Christian colleges and supported by most churches. Because youth ministry is typically seen as an “add-on” ministry, which is essential only if the church has 10+ teenagers who need attention it rarely receives the support and attention it deserves. Tradition dictates in most small churches that the second positions added to a growing staff are either music/worship or youth ministries. A youth ministry position is usually part-time in the beginning. It is not unusual for a church hire in youth ministry to be asked to wear two hats – one in music/worship and the other in youth. This approach is always the one sought by uninformed leaders who are frugal by conviction and confuse effectiveness with efficiency. [Years ago I met a young man who was part-time janitor and part-time youth pastor – wow.!]
According to this myth, a successful youth minister would stay probably 3 – 5 years and then seek an Associate or Senior Pastor’s position. No thought is given to the possibility that God may have called him to youth ministries for life. Some years ago, I met with a group of church leaders who questioned whether or not it was time for their youth minister to move on to adult ministries.
“Why, I asked . . . is he having problems in the youth position?
“Oh no, the group has doubled in the last year, but Rick is 38 years old, a little too old for a youth position.”
I didn’t have the courage to tell them that several years ago the guy who was considered the “best youth pastor” in America was a 54 year old who pastored a youth ministry of over 500 teens and 4 other pastors. Until the church understands the value and impact of youth ministries, it will always be a second-class endeavor. In this paradigm, the youth position is grossly underpaid, which may account for the 5-year turn around in staffing.

Myth 3: Youth ministry is baby-sitting for teens.
This myth is prevalent in rural communities where the only thing teens can find to do often leads to trouble. Unlike the urban area where kids could be involved in something 24/7 and never get bored, rural living offers its own set of problems. A corollary to this myth in even the urban areas is that the activities offered teens might not coincide with the values of the church so the church needs to fill the void with sanctioned events. In this paradigm, the youth pastor is really the activity coordinator. He is not expected to pastor, per se. His goal is to fill the church calendar with youth events so that the youth are not bored with inactivity.
This myth ignores the critical stage of development in the life of the teen where the most important (and eternal) questions about life and living are being asked. This myth removes the need for the youth pastor to be able to credibly address these questions. It is not important that they be college or seminary graduates since all they need to do is provide a fun time for the kids.

These three myths represent the majority of evangelical churches in America. They miss the calling of the ministry and the tremendous value of youth ministries. Youth ministries can be an exciting ministry in the church when the church eliminates the myths surrounding this area and asks, what kind of ministry does it take to reach the lost kids of our community and build into our own youth a love for Jesus and an authenticity in the Christian life? When a teen is the recipient of such a ministry, they make a difference in their world for the remainder of their time on this globe.
If a church must cut ministry, the last place should be in the youth (including children’s ministry) programs of the church. If you have to cut, cut those ineffective adult programs that make no impact or difference in anyone’s life.
In my next blog I will discuss what a successful youth ministry paradigm looks like.