If you will allow it, I would like to be extremely transparent here for a minute.
I don’t like the Student Ministry I lead.
The last few days at Orange Conference put me , for the majority of my time, in close company with some of the best Youth Pastors in our Country, guys who run some of the largest and best Youth Ministries, and who lead teams of people who love teenagers so much they volunteer to do it. It’s easy for me, and (from what I have seen) it’s easy for a lot of Youth Pastors to come to a conference like Orange, or see another Youth Ministry that is killing it and think “I want that. I want to lead a Youth Ministry like that!”
Heck, before I accepted my current role in Boston, I was fully prepared to take a job not doing Youth Ministry in a place that would enable me to Volunteer at a place like that. Because from the outside looking in, its such a compelling idea, being a part of a Ministry that rocks.
I see videos like this one below and think “What I wouldn’t give to be a part of something like that!”
But here’s the deal.
I think for too long the mindset in America has been “I’ll work at proving my worth where I am, and if I do a good enough job where I am, then maybe some day I will get to go to a place like that!”
And I said earlier, I don’t like the ministry I lead. For my volunteers, and students, and parents (and Pastor) who may see this, please let me finish.
I don’t like the student ministry I lead where it currently is at. But I love the Student Ministry I have been called to and want to Cultivate the kind of Ministry that other Youth Pastors look at and say “I want that!”
So I don’t know where you are, what your ministry looks like. I can’t even say I understand your unique calling in this season.
But as I hope to be writing about a lot more over the next several months, I think that we need to switch our frame of mind as Youth Pastors from “building a name for ourselves so we can go to a better ministry” to “Lets build a Ministry ourselves that brings in other names.”
Sorry, I felt I had to end it with some corny one liner.
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