YOUTH MINISTERS

 

One only has to look at the situations vacant sections of any Christian periodical to be made aware that the number of churches with youth workers is growing.  However, not every church that appoints a youth worker has thought through the implications. 

“The Church (not just the Church of England) has some distance, it would seem, to travel in recognising and affirming youth minsters.”  This summarises the conclusions of a survey by the Youth Officer for Canterbury Diocese, Dave Brown.  He set out to explore some of the stresses experienced by Christian youth workers in churches in East Kent, with the aim of encouraging better support and management for them.  He looked specifically at those attached to a local church, 10 of which were Anglican and 20 of other denominations, rather than Christians involved in secular youth work.

Having been in youth work himself for a number of years, he was aware of the range of stresses on full-time youth workers in a church-based ministry, but wanted to find out how widely his own experience was shared. 

The youth ministers were involved in the lives of a significant number of young people.  They encountered an average of 72 young people each week, though he does not say what ages these young people were - whether they included any children or young adults, or were exclusively secondary school-aged youngsters and older teens.

 

A Calling        

He found one key factor was the strength of calling to the role which the individual felt.  Combined with their commitment to young people this gave many a very strong motivation and a clear sense of purpose.  Unfortunately, that calling was often not clearly understood or supported by those around him or her.  A number of those in the survey felt a lack of recognition of their role which put them under stress and tension:

“I have worked in Churches where I have just been ‘the worker’...”

“No-one has come to see what we do ...”

There is “a lack of ‘grass roots’ understanding of what is really going on ...”.

The youth workers felt themselves to be caught between two sets of tensions: the ideal and reality, and young people and the church.  This model illustrates their position:

 

 

The recommendations of the survey fall into three sections: the church, youth ministers, and himself as Diocesan Youth Officer.

 

The Church

A major cause of stress was related to the nature of their employment with concerns such as security of tenure, lack or poor quality of job descriptions, unrealistically low pay and undefined hours.  As a Diocesan Youth Officer, Dave Brown has a wider perspective, and believes that the issues go much deeper than individual local congregations - it is about the culture of the Church.  “This culture has been for generations embodied in the people who run or manage the Church - the Clergy.  With the development of a new, specialised breed of youth ministers, issues around the recognition and role of this ministry are beginning to surface.”  Employing a youth minister raises the need for management of the person, clarification of roles, supervision, and managing change within the congregation.  Not every clergy person even recognises the need, let alone has the necessary skills.

The role and function of youth ministers would benefit from several developments.

* A range of exchanges on youth work issues using the skills of local statutory youth services as well as denominational youth officers to develop the Church’s knowledge, skills and understanding of youth ministry.

* Embracing youth ministers as a vital and living ministry, perhaps by ‘authorising’ them or encouraging ‘covenanted relationships’.

* Implementing a Code of Practice to provide recognised standards for ministry.

* Supporting and encouraging better management of youth ministers.

 

Youth Ministers

Youth ministers themselves are encouraged to work at a number of areas.