Did you know that your youth minister is an ordinary person? Consider the cheerful fellow who prays for your teenagers, drops them off after youth on a Friday night, and plans the youth camp. He isn’t invincible! He needs your encouragement, support, and prayer.
Now, this is an article for ministry leaders—church council members, elders, senior pastors—who consider Christ-like church culture to mean caring for one another; and are asking, “How can we support our youth minister?” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). But if you’re not in one of those categories, don’t close the tab! Though they’re the primary audience, there are plenty of suggestions here where you can get involved.
We need to have an approach that also practically cares for our youth ministers.
In this article, I offer six practical suggestions to support your youth minister, split into two sections: three things you can do today; three things you can do for tomorrow. The things you can do today will be quick and easy to implement, while the things you can do for tomorrow look to the future and will require more thought and prayer. Let’s start with the three things you can do today.
Three Things You Can Do Today
1. Meet Him
If we as ministry leaders want to grow our youth ministers, we should be proactive and present. This isn’t to say we should micromanage, but rather that we shouldn’t “set and forget” our youth ministry until they “graduate” to another ministry position. We need to stay involved and give helpful input, from start to finish. Especially if they are new to ministry.
This will help you to be aware about the particular needs and to support accordingly.
Set up a weekly meeting with your youth minister. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy meeting. But it should be regular. The overall tone should be one of encouragement and enabling: discuss how the ministry is going, pray about challenges together, and ask what practical support you can give him; does he need an announcement slot, more pew Bibles, pens, or a call for volunteers? This will help you to be aware about the particular needs and to support your youth minister accordingly.
2. Mentor Him
The disciples had Christ himself. We may not have all wisdom and knowledge, but even earthly mentors are helpful. Just consider Moses and Joshua or Paul and Timothy. There is great gospel value in mentoring youth ministers. We can accomplish this in part by meeting with them regularly, but working alongside a mentor can be even more valuable.
Mentoring our youth ministers isn’t something we need to do alone.
We may not be able to join them and work alongside them. But, fortunately, mentoring our youth ministers isn’t something we need to do alone. Is there someone in your congregation with valuable ministry experience who could serve alongside them, sharpening and strengthening them? Look for someone like this and ask them if they might consider serving in youth ministry. The benefit is twofold: for the youth in the short term; and for the youth minister in the long term.
3. Mobilise for Him
We often ask our youth pastors to find leaders in the congregation. But we should remember that youth pastors typically have less status, influence, and authority than the senior pastor—especially if they are a trainee, as is often the case. Senior ministry leaders have typically had time to build relationships in the church. If you’re a senior ministry leader and able to do so, encourage and motivate people to serve in youth ministry and to see it as the valuable ministry that it is.
Encourage people to see youth ministry as the valuable ministry that it is.
Moreover, do what you can to connect your youth minister to the broader church. Invite him to a council meeting. Ask him to preach, even at an event. Give him the opportunity to participate in another ministries during school holidays. Help him prepare. Give these opportunities more than once and talk about them in your regular meetings.
These opportunities will have the twofold benefit of having the church get to know the youth minister better and giving him exposure to different ministries. In this way, we can help our youth ministers to explore and exercise their gifts and gain experience in areas that they ordinarily would only first encounter later in their ministry.
Three Things You Can Do for Tomorrow
1. Consider Their Career
There’s a person I bump into once a month or so who looks me in the eye and asks me: (1) when my contract as youth pastor is ending; (2) when I’ll get a real job; and (3) when I’ll earn a proper living. This isn’t based on any secret insights, I’m a church planter, not a youth minister! But I suspect that you know people with these sentiments too. And I hope you are also ready to defend youth ministry, as real gospel ministry.
If youth ministry is real ministry, it needs real ministers.
The thing is, if youth ministry is real ministry, it needs real ministers. If they are suitably qualified men, performing the duties expected of “regular” ministers, we should examine them and put them forward for ordination, setting them aside for the service of God’s church, to his glory, as ministers of the gospel. This isn’t to relax our expectations for ordination in the least, but rather to raise our expectations of youth ministers.
It follows that if youth ministry is real gospel ministry, we should enable youth ministers to get their living by the gospel. We need to honestly ask ourselves if our youth ministers can afford to stay in the long term, especially if they have families to support. Ministers should “endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ,” but they should be paid well enough to provide for their families (2 Thessalonians 3:7-12; 1 Timothy 5:8), and to be hospitable to others which is an oft-forgotten requirement for elders (Romans 12:13; 1 Timothy 3:2). Take a moment and ask if youth ministry is a viable career at your church. If you were the youth minister, could you make ends meet for your family, or would you look to move to another position?
2. Care for Him
The pace of youth ministry is often frantic. Even just helping out with youth ministry, I’ve run “teen church” on Sunday mornings, led youth on Friday nights, lifted teens home afterwards, trained lay leaders (often in the evenings after they finish work), planned camps, and simultaneously been involved in other regular ministries at church. It would be easy to double or even triple this list depending on the needs of your particular church.
We can divide the labour, share responsibilities, and work together on the bigger projects.
This is something we can help with, though. Perhaps we can divide the labour, share the evening responsibilities with other staff or lay leaders, or work together on the bigger projects. This isn’t to say that we make the youth minister a mere administrator, but rather that we should share the load so the whole ministry doesn’t fall onto one person’s shoulders. This opens up opportunities for training and allows ministry to continue if your youth minister is away for the weekend!
In my denomination, REACH-SA, one member of each church council is the “rector’s warden,” who meets with, prays for, and supports the senior pastor. Perhaps in your church you can find someone to fill that role for your youth minister, meeting with him, praying for him, and supporting him. If you have a similar setup and the rector’s warden is willing, expand their role to provide that care. This should be over and above your own regular meetings with him.
3. Cultivate New Leaders
Paul tells Titus to establish elders in each town (Titus 1:5). This indicates an important principle: cultivating new leaders is a key part of ministry that lasts. There are some steps you can take to do this, even now. First, establish the needs in your church. What does your youth ministry look like, and what might you look for in a youth minister? How long can you expect your current youth minister to continue? Are they permanent staff, a trainee fresh out of Bible college, or a layperson?
There will always be need for more leaders in Christ’s church.
Perhaps your next youth minister will be a graduate from a theological college as a trainee, or a more experienced pastor. No matter which approach you take, don’t wait until your youth minister moves to cultivate new leaders. Perhaps your youth minister can intentionally mentor and train current youth leaders to take on more responsibility. Even if they don’t end up serving at your church, or end up serving in another capacity, this training is well worth it: it is Christ’s church, and there will always be need!
Putting It All Together
Creating a healthy ministry environment where youth ministers—and, for the record, other ministry staff and congregants—are cared for and built up must go beyond recognising youth ministry as a valuable and legitimate ministry in its own right. We need to have an approach that also practically cares for our youth ministers as faithful servants of God, who need our encouragement, support, and prayer.
It’s about creating a Christ-like culture at the church.
There’s blessing in this. Your youth will benefit from a well-equipped youth leader. Your youth leader will benefit from the care he receives. Of course I’m not saying do this and be blessed; this is no works righteousness! Instead, it’s about creating a Christ-like culture at the church, where as believers we encourage one another and build one another up.
