Facets of Youth Ministry – Youth Pastor as Administrator
This is part of a series of posts detailing my own experience and what I have found to be helpful/necessary in my own ministry. It might not hold completely true for you, but maybe it will…
“I said no!”
This is perhaps the hardest and most time-consuming facet of youth ministry. This is the facet that takes place within the church office, attending staff meetings, putting together newsletters, sending reminders to students and adults, and the like. This is the part of ministry that tends to be the least glamorous, and a lot of the time the least fun.
Within this facet, there is a call for discipline. A youth pastor needs to make a plan to be organized and efficient, at least part of the time. It also will require communication with parents on many touchy subjects, and sometimes even on disciplinary matters.
But perhaps the toughest part of this particular facet is that it requires the youth pastor to be firm. There are times where the youth pastor must set a precedent and stick with it. For instance, a trip is scheduled that has a finite number of spots available. There is a deadline given, and spots fill up. In most cases a student attempting to hop on board at the last moment (even though they had all the advanced warning you could muster) must be told no – for two reasons. One, there is most likely not room left due to the finite numbers available (this may not be true, in which case see the second portion of this long sentence), and two, students need to understand that there are limits, rules and boundaries that they must follow. Youth ministry should prepare students for life as a whole, not just spiritual life, and it would be a failure on our part were we to not teach students about boundaries and following directions.
