Youth Pastors

Michael Spencer has a great post on the failings and temptations of youth pastory.

Being a youth pastor seems to be fraught with peril. First, they are usually young guys with little spiritual depth who are then expected to take on what is effectively one of the most important positions in the church. Oh the older folks may not recognize this, they just want the kids quiet and out of the way. Still raising the next generation is potentially far more important than babysitting the last one.

Secondly, there is this weird stepping stone expectation in many churches. I can proudly say that my home church was a good one. We wanted a youth pastor, not our next associate pastor in training. However some churches use youth minister as a testing ground for higher office. Tis a shame for the kids since that guy will not be their in a few years one way or another.

My young life was shaped by my youth pastors and also by the lack of them. The church I grew up in started to fracture as I entered high school and one of the first signs of it was that my dedicated youth minister, who was a great guy, decided to high tail it to florida and attend seminary. So I had a church falling down around my ears without a pastor to talk to. It sucked.

So we went to my current church. It has its troubles too and our youth minister left over disagreements with the senior pastor. However the church wasn't falling apart, it was actually getting stronger, and before he left he set up a team of students and parents to keep things going until his replacement was found. We kept things going and growing until the current youth minister, who is a great guy but different than the last one, was found. It wasn't fun but it was rewarding in ways that I would later discover.

I never had a college student pastor or an in-and-out pastor. Looking back on things I suppose I should take time to thank the Lord for that.