Columns
Churches responded to this challenge in the 1980s by developing professional youth pastor positions, and youth ministry majors at colleges and seminaries grew in number and in enrollment. However, until fairly recently, many youth ministry students and others in ministry have seen the job as a stepping stone to later pastoral work. Churches thought the same way, and paid accordingly.
Thankfully, times have changed. More students view youth ministry as a valid, respectable life vocation, choosing it because they feel a clear call from God, instead of treating youth ministry as just another rung in the ladder. Churches have also stepped up to the plate, offering competitive salary and benefit packages commensurate with the demanding responsibilities of a youth pastor.
An annual survey done by Group Magazine found that average compensation for a full-time youth minister rose from $27,259 in 1990 to $36,696 in 2003 to $39,049 in 2005, partly due to increased training and education.
“It’s a really hard job,” says Dr. Terry Linhart, Dean of the School of Religion and Philosophy and Associate Professor of Youth Ministry at Bethel College. “It’s demanding. I think it’s one of the hardest ministry jobs out there, because you are usually under the authority of pastoral staff above you, parents to your right and left, and it is a first and second shift job . . . when you have family, that gets to be a push.”
Youth ministry is much more difficult to define today than it was 20 or 30 years ago. Descriptive terms such as relational, theological, service-oriented, experiential, interactive and disciple-making may try, but this bare sketch doesn’t do youth ministry justice. Sometimes it is a safety net, other times a theology class or a community service project. For many teens, “youth group” is a favorite social event, a time to connect with their peers and adult mentors.
"Youth ministry as a life vocation is relatively new", said Linhart. “There’s an increased demand for professional graduates, and we have more positions open than students to fill them in this area.”
This bright future comes after a sometimes-rocky road through the 20th century. Adolescence as a life stage is relatively new, emerging since World War II, the Depression Era, compulsory high schools and more youth-focused media. As peer groups and youth culture developed, mainline denomination churches recognized a need to reach this new category of people called “teenagers.”
"At first", said Linhart, “it would be this crazy group down the hall that would play with games and then they’d send adults down there to make sure they were behaving.”
Adults, mostly untrained, did their best to give teens a healthier alternative to the secular party scene with trips, events and activities. However, during the 1970s and 80s as ministries like Youth for Christ grew, congregations began to see a strategic need to truly reach and connect with their young people.
Colleges and seminaries, including Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana helped to meet this need by offering more and better programs in youth ministry, separate from other ministry majors. What are Bethel youth ministry students learning? Certainly, they are learning how to plan and execute a well-rounded, modern youth ministry program.
According to Linhart, the ideal program would look like this: “The purpose of any ministry is to make disciples. To me it’s a disciple-making process. It involves the teaching role, I think that’s high; I also think it’s a relational role. There’s a smell to them [the youth pastors], there’s a lifestyle. You’re kind of also a safety net. An adult who’s not a family member, who’s a reliable, trusted person, can help catch [teens].”
Although respect for the position is greater than in past years, there is still a lot of misunderstanding in congregations. A recent New York Times article titled “Evangelicals
Fear the Loss of Their Teenagers” discussed the alarming, but suspect, claim that only four percent of teenagers will be “Bible-believing Christians” as adults, if current trends continue.
In the article, Ron Luce, founder of Teen Mania, a 20-year-old youth ministry, said, “We’ve become post-Christian America, like post-Christian Europe. We’ve been working as hard as we know how to work—everyone in youth ministry is working hard—but we’re losing.”
Linhart doesn’t believe that’s true. “Kids are actually doing better than society believes they are,” he stated. Later in that same article, Lauren Sandler, author of “Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement,” seems to agree. “This generation is not about church,” she said. “For a lot of young evangelicals, church is a rock festival, or a skate park or hanging out in someone’s basement.”
That statement puts a different spin on the concept of youth ministry. Teens are taking their faith outside the four church walls—can youth ministry follow them? Many well-known youth-oriented speakers try. Efrem Smith with Compassion International, in a recent visit to Bethel College, compared Batman and Superman to help students remember key concepts about Jesus. Like Superman, Jesus is a citizen of another realm whose purpose on Earth was to deal with evil. And, of course, no one can forget the superpowers!
Many modern youth ministries are embracing similar “youth culture” lesson material. Oftentimes teens feel like their home church is too traditional, too staid, for them to feel comfortable. It just doesn’t mesh with their everyday lives. Cutting-edge youth programs focus on reaching teens where they are, meeting them in their lives, instead of waiting for teens to wander into Sunday school or youth group.
If teens are comfortable with a youth worker in a social setting, they are much more likely to participate in a spiritual setting. This is Mike Emerson’s philosophy. The director of Five Pines Live (FPL), a non-denominational Saturday night program for youth held in a rural camp’s barn, believes that being outside of a church setting allows teens to relax and be themselves. Emerson frequently visits students during school lunch, goes to their football games and cross-country matches and generally tries to be a presence in teens’ lives.
FPL, he says, embraces a more modern philosophy with their student-led worship, “styles of teaching and creativity and things like that. I think anytime you meet in a barn, it breaks down barriers of discomfort!”
Emerson’s definition of youth ministry is “teenagers interacting with adults to mutually grow in their faith.” One way FPL fosters that growth is through care groups, a time for mature adult mentors and teens to relate in a smaller group setting, discussing their lives and faiths. The topic this year is service, with the groups working through Brent Eastwood’s book Serving Others in Love.
Service is one of the primary focuses at FPL. The group has sponsored a child from Haiti through World Vision for the past several years. Many students have taken a personal interest in the International Justice Mission, or IJM, a ministry that intercedes around the world on behalf of those who can’t help themselves. Various projects throughout the year also bring FPL attendees together serving and loving others in their community.
Youth ministry has certainly gained a stronger service orientation in recent years, often manifested in short term missions trips, a hot button in youth ministry right now. Most Christian colleges have similar “task force teams” that go out to serve in needy areas of the world. At Bethel, recent teams have been traveling south helping with hurricane Katrina relief. So far, Bethel task force teams have ministered in approximately 18 different countries and 60 locations, with “an amazing number of students participating,” said Linhart.
Most youth pastors would probably agree that these trips, to any and every corner of the world, primarily affect the participants.
According to Linhart, “It’s very much an identity process for those who go. It’s about the personal transformation . . . Then the group that comes is a blessing and an encouragement [to those served].”
Often when groups return, they ignite a much-needed spark in their churches and communities, as existential and spiritual experiences translate into real-life practice and change. At this point and many others, youth ministry intersects with and impacts church life as a whole.
Emerson believes “too many people say that youth are the future of the church, and I think as soon as you do that, you tell them that they’re not important right now.”
He shares that his church integrates teenagers as fully functioning members of the congregation, serving as ushers and on worship teams among other roles. Youth are an important segment of the 21st-century church. Not only are they the future of the church, but they are as much a part of the church today as you and I. Youth ministers have the critical job of guiding teens in their current faith lives and giving them the tools they need to succeed as tomorrow’s leaders.