MondayMorningInsight.com > What Every Youth Pastor Wishes Their Senior Pastor Knew

HOME | CHURCH JOB OPENINGS | ABOUT MMI | CATEGORIES OF INTEREST | CONTACT US

What Every Youth Pastor Wishes Their Senior Pastor Knew

Orginally published on Thursday, June 22, 2006 at 9:27 AM
by Todd Rhoades

Ever wish you could tell your senior pastor something, but you just don't dare? My friend Perry Noble is pastor of NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC. Recently at his blog (PerryNoble.com) he shared his list of things that every youth pastor wishes their senior pastor knew. This piece would make a great staff meeting discussion item. Open communication always makes for a more effective ministry team. Perry writes...

I did some reflecting this past weekend of the time I spent in youth ministry…and the success and failures that I experienced. I have came up with the following list of things that I believe every youth pastor wishes they could tell their senior pastor–here we go…

#1 - Pray For Me…And Tell Me That You Are Doing So!

There is something about a senior pastor that will pray over the area of youth ministry in the church that he serves. And there is something INCREDIBLE when a youth pastor is told by the pastor that he is being prayed for. I admit that I do not do this nearly enough…but that is changing after this week…Alden, Sandy–I GOT YOU!

#2 - Ask Me How Things Are Going!

I fear that all too often the senior pastor hires someone to do youth ministry…and then views that as the monkey off his back–when in fact I have rarely ever seen a successful youth ministry that didn’t have the support of the senior pastor. I try my best to make it around to Alden and Sandy every week to ask them how things are going–and NOT because I feel like I have to–but because I CARE. The pastor I served under before coming here, Bill Rigsby, modeled this for me in an incredible way!

#3 - Support The Ministry (And Me) From The Pulpit!

The pastor is the lead communicator and vision caster in the church…and if he is not speaking about youth ministry and modeling a desire to reach teenagers then the church will think it is not important. I told our church this morning that our 2,500 seat sanctuary will one day be our youth building because these teens are so fired up that they are going to turn this entire county upside down for Jesus Christ. You should have seen the expression of the people–they were FIRED UP…along with our teens!

And let me say this–support the actual youth pastor from the pulpit–in many churches this dude simply serves as “announcement boy” and various other activities…and is rarely recognized–this, once again, was modeled by my former pastor beautifully.

One more thing–I understand well that MANY youth pastors seem to be gifted with stupidity. They do really dumb things at times…I KNOW I DID! It seems like I was ALWAYS in trouble. But Bill always supported me…he never–EVER–lectured me from the pulpit and never talked bad about me when I messed up. He WOULD talk to me in private, behind closed doors–but NEVER did he EVER tear me down in order to appease a ticked off parent. He had my back!

#4 - Don’t Make Me Do Fundraisers!

I have NEVER–EVER–met a youth pastor that ENJOY’S raising money–EVER! I have done it all, car washes, bake sales, t-shirt sales, youth auctions…you name it! And we would go out and work our tails off for $300–when there were several people in our church that could have written that check…had the senior pastor simply asked.

I know, I know, I hear the senior pastors argument, “Well, if they work for it–they appreciate it more.” Can I just say that if that is your attitude then you are full of crap! They appreciate it more when a church believes in them enough to invest in them–period!

And my question is this–why is it that the senior pastor will make the youth group do fundraisers…but won’t ask the senior adults to do the same when they desire to go to the mountains and pick apples? And please don’t hand me, “Well–they pay the bills around here” crap–if they pay the bills and have a heart for missions then they should realize that this world is not about them and that they largest mission field in America is teenagers!

So what do we do when a kid can’t afford to go? Simple–the church covers the cost–period. And don’t think that we can do that because we are a big church–I remember when we had 200 people coming and standing in front of our church and asking people to step up and write a check so that the kids could go to camp. As long as I am pastor–we WILL invest in kids and WILL NOT make them do fundraisers.

#5 - Pay Me Well!

I think I just heard a youth pastor shout “Amen!”

Let’s be honest–you don’t go into youth ministry to make money–BUT youth ministers should NOT have to take a vow of poverty.

My first full time job in youth ministry I made $16,000 a year…it’s hard to live on that. However, as I look at the national averages youth pastors just aren’t making enough money–and it needs to be kept in mind that they need to be able to do things…such as eat and have a place to live.

Pastors–a good youth minister is worth the money! He, through an awesome ministry, will attract more than enough tithing families who will give enough to pay his salary and support the ministry he is called to do. Paying youth pastors well is the job of the senior pastor–step up and make sure these people are being taken care of…because if you don’t have an effective youth ministry–then you do not have an effective church.

(If you’re not a regular reader of Perry’s Blog, I encourage you to bookmark it and read it daily!)

FOR DISCUSSION: What would you add to this list? What would you love to tell your senior pastor, but just haven’t been able to?

This post has been viewed 13953 times so far.

TRACKBACKS: (0) There are 6 Comments:

Posted by

Thursday, June 22, 2006 at 11:13 AM

Youth leaders, Elementary, JR High and Sr High lay a foundation for adult Christians and their value is vastly infinate considering the culture and wordliness they’ll experience not only outside the walls of the church but the gossipping and back-biting in the church (among other sinful habits).

Let the youth leaders know they are very much a part of the overall MISSION and don’t just say it, do it. Bonuses, raises, special perk gifts (like a movie and dinner voucher). Be doer not just a sayer.

Also, consider tuition reimbursement allotments as part of the perks. Ask so of those fund raising check writers to subsidize a portion for formal education, MDiv is not inexpensive unless you get it from a diploma mill but even $16,000/year won’t cover that
Posted by eric

Thursday, June 22, 2006 at 11:20 AM

I wanted the Senior Pastor to know that I was competent, that playing Basketball with a teenager is ministry, and that I had interests outside of teenagers and wanted adult interaction.
Posted by

Thursday, June 22, 2006 at 11:37 AM

As a recovering Youth Pastor, I WAS blessed to work with some pastors who GOT IT! THanks Fred and Dave!

Over the years, I had many hard conversations with people who made or had decent income (some retired)… they wnated to pay someone else to “do it for us.” A youth pastor is not called to fix (in three hours or less per week) what the rest of the church members spend the other 165 hours messing up with your materialistic and consumeristic value systems.

A friend of mine once told me this (and I LOVE IT) “As the youth pastor, I try to be one significant adult in a kid’s life who loves them and has their best interests as my priority.” I am not a surrogate father, best friend, or big brother for every disfunctional family.
Posted by

Friday, June 23, 2006 at 6:52 AM

Amen, Eric! All too often the Youth Pastor is considered one of the youth and forgotten when it comes to adult activities. Some Youth Pastors forget they are adults. Some balance is in order here. The more I get involved with our youth group, the more I see the need for the pastor to be involved with the young people, but not forget they need a life of their own. Not only for themselves, but to set the example for the students.
Posted by kent

Friday, June 23, 2006 at 8:29 AM

This is a post that the young(er) man in the previous post ought to read before making his decision.
Posted by Brian

Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 1:57 PM

Perry’s got some good points here. I would add one more though. Based on two polar-opposite experiences (one in my former church and one in my present) I would want all SPs to treat their youth pastors like pastors, not junior pastors or pastors-in-training.

Page 1 of 1 pages

Post Your Comments:

I'm a chronic workaholic, love to connect leaders with other leaders, and would consider myself somewhat of a 'maven'. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you'll like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step.