- Youth ministers should try their best to stay at one church for a full cycle. A youth ministry cycle is seeing your youngest class graduate high school. I do a 6th-12th grade group, so I intend on seeing the 6th graders graduate. If I did an 8th-12th grade group, seeing the 8th graders graduate. Here are a couple of reasons why I think a cycle is a good idea:
1) It shows your youth that you care. That you're not in YM as a gateway job. It shows them that you genuinely care about them and their relationship with Christ. They deserve to have one youth minister - not 3-4.
2) It helps the youth worker to see how ministry is from start to finish. If you go in and spend a year at a Church, how will you be experienced enough to even know what it's like to have a 5 or 6 year relationship with one youth? They will never completely open up to you - they will never fully trust you. Give yourself the experience and the relationships that come with it.
- While I think that a cycle should be standard practice of every youth worker, there are a few exceptions to "breaking the cycle".
1) God calls you elsewhere. If you're not called to be at the Church that you're at, get out as soon as possible! Let God put the right person there. The youth deserve that!
2) Family. If your wife gets a new job, needs to move for her parents, school system is terrible for your children, etc. Your youth deserve the best you can give them. In order to give them your best you need to first focus on the family. Family first, youth second. Always.
I felt inspired to post this after I came to work at Unity Chapel. The Jr's and Sr's have had 4 youth pastors before me. They always feel like they're there to babysit them and plan fun trips. Not a one of the youth I have had here have said that they think the previous youth workers were here to help them grow in Christ. That needs to change.
I agree with your points. I do. But I see some flags that bother me a bit.
ReplyDeleteOne, I have been here at my current church for 8 months, and I do have kids that completely open up to me. I know some of their deepest struggles and am helping them through them, it doesn't take a 2,3,4, or 12 year relationship with someone to do that.
Two, while a full cycle is great, you're always going to be 'cycling', what about the 6th grader that comes in your second year that you leave as a junior who has to try to and develop a relationship with a new guy/girl for the last year of high school? Or the person two years in, etc. I feel like calling it a cycle puts preference on the class you've known the longest, when really the sophomore who comes to you tomorrow who's never heard about God and is only around for a month before his family moves away could be the biggest impact you have as a youth minister.
Three, and the end of the day, it should really all be up to God. If you truly believe that God called you into a ministry, then you have to believe that He will call you out of it when it is time. And until then you need to be doing the absolute best you can. Because maybe God will call you out after two years, and you'd be waiting until year 3 to implement your new great plan because you think you're on a 6 year track.
Obviously I'm not talking about any real scenarios or people in those examples, but they could definitely happen, and I don't want to think I have a set minimum amount of time to make my impact. God's plan is not ours, and yeah, it might not make sense if He places you at a church for 7 months and then moves you, but maybe you made a specific impact He needed you to make and then move on.
I guess to me youth ministry is a daily thing, and while yes, I have future plans, God has really been working on me to realize that waiting on those plans doesn't reach the kids now, and that I'm not the one changing kids anyway, it's Him.
As always, just thoughts. I'm sorry if this comes off as harsh, and I hope a dialogue continues on these subjects...
Matt - I'm finally able to get back with you on this. I completely agree with everything you said. You never know what God wants from you or what circumstances may come up in your life. But while you are correct on everything, I don't think you're being realistic.
ReplyDeleteFirst - It's great that some youth are opening up to you after 8 months. I have many youth that open up to me, too. But lets face it - some youth are just way more vulnerable that others. It usually (not always, I know) takes longer to really reach the ones who need a deep relationship before opening up.
Second - I think that we all lose touch with God sometimes. We may become selfish. We may decide we don't like our Church as much anymore and that we can get a better paying job somewhere else. We may know that God wants us to stay, but we could easily leave and say it was God's calling. It happens all the time. I know that the Jr/Sr's that were here when I came had 3 youth ministers and a slew of "temporary ministers" during the in-between times when the Church needed a new person. While I feel like God called me here to work with the youth, what about the others? The ones who had three people in a row use the position as nothing more than a filler between "beginner ministry" and the "real ministry" of the pastoral world?
I trust that God will put me where He wants me - but I still have to listen. I really do think it's important to have a "rule of thumb" for how long you should stay in a Church. Notice I said God's calling can change that in a heartbeat, but we often ignore that. To really impact a ministry, time IS needed. Yes - listen to God first, but it never ever ever ever hurts to have a safety net in place for the moments we feel faint and stubborn and we listen to ourselves over God.
well said
ReplyDelete