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As a parent, my children's experience with church and its ministries is important to me. I want to know that those serving in these critical areas are faithful and organized in their responsibilities. However, over the past 25 years, I have noted the high turnover of Christian workers in youth pastoral ministries. MB youth pastors resign, on average, every 18-24 months. Other evangelical denominations are faced with similar staffing dilemmas.
I am a student services professional with a major technical institute. My graduate training and current duties in career development sensitize me to the issues I raise. I have concluded that the high turnover may be due to a fundamental flaw in the role expectations and/or training for those entering this ministry.
My conversations with youth pastors and my observation of their activities leave me with the impression that they often view their service from one of three perspectives. First, the youth pastorate is an entry-level position for those with ambitions for congregational leadership--in the near future. Youth work becomes a stepping stone. Second, some are relatively fresh graduates from Bible schools. They are full of enthusiasm to serve God in youth work. However, these individuals often lack the skills to sustain credible youth programs (leading to sometimes questionable Friday night fun nights). The third group includes people with insufficient formal training and limited creativity who "want to work with kids". They may be well-meaning but fragile people who choose to identify with the least threatening of age groups in the church. (Some readers may question the last point, but my colleagues and I see a large number of wounded people, including some Christians, who are attracted to training for human service work at my institution.)
Each of these scenarios suggests talents and gifts (guitar playing aside) which are underdeveloped or poorly placed. The outcome is often youth pastors who soon face program vacuums. Then pressure arises from parents, pastoral colleagues, church councils and youth. The failure to meet congregational expectations can lead to terrible stress on these pastors. The typical result is discouragement with Christian work, personal isolation, burnout--and those frequent resignations.
Recently, I shared these issues with the head of the Recreation and Leisure program at my institute. He readily grasped the problem. He is familiar with "Protestant" denominations and their failure to see the relevance of professional recreation programming geared for the church. He said many Catholic churches have a philosophy of youth ministry which encourages local parishes to hire Catholic graduates with formal recreation training. These youth leaders have not only the interest and enthusiasm but also the training and know-how to plan, administer and supervise youth programs. They are professionals. Moreover, they tend to maintain stable employment, well past the two-year mark--because they demonstrate the understanding of programming needed to go the distance. Can one imagine calling a minister of worship who lacks musical training?
Instead, we anabaptists frequently appoint search teams to fill, all-too-quickly, repeatedly vacated positions. The cycle persists, and the requisite background for candidates continues to be fuzzy.
I therefore submit that there could be some justification for looking at youth ministries as a special stream within Christian service. I suggest that, for the interim, Bible colleges and seminaries consider augmenting their base programs with recreation and leisure courses offered by mainstream post-secondary institutions. If these prove useful, then these Bible training centres may begin offering their own courses in these areas.
A search committee might look favourably upon a candidate who has the requisite Bible training, but who also has additional training, including a supervised practicum, in such areas as youth program planning and development, recreation and sports management, facilities operation and age-appropriate activities developed from a knowledge of lifespan psychology.
Hiring such a candidate for youth ministries could yield positive results. This candidate would have the methods and skills to get a program off the ground. The "pressure to do activities" dilemma would, instead, be replaced by an application of tried and tested youth activities. This candidate may be more likely to avoid contributing to a bored or restless youth group, could assure the parents of competence and could reduce the fear of personal burnout. Churches would be able to call and retain quality candidates for youth pastorates for longer and more productive terms.
Tony Kesler is a member of Forest Grove Community Church in Saskatoon and an Education Equity Coordinator/Counsellor with the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology.
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