The Busy Youth Minister: Living in the World of Doing

Student ministry in the church plunges you into the world of doing. You are constantly planning, preparing, writing talks, hanging out with students, doing busy office work, making endless attempts at communication (calls, Facebook posts, texts) with parents, leaders, etc. The work never ends. There is always more you can do at the end of the day. And you know it matters. Lives are at stake. You can work yourself to the bone and still feel haunted by Jesus’ call in Matthew 11 to come to him ... but you can’t see how his burden is light and easy when to you it seems so hard.

But let me assume that you want that life. You want a close fellowship with Christ in the midst of a busy life and work in church world. You see your need for the grace of Jesus for yourself and not just for your youth ministry and others.  Here are a few key elements, knowing that how you or I observe them must remain flexible and may often change.

Scripture and prayer. Indispensible.  We have to begin and end here, for both what fuels us and what we have to offer others flow from the same source.  My usual pattern has been to read, study and try to pray through a different gospel each month, plus taking some time in Psalms and other parts of God's word.  This year I want to read/pray the gospels again, particular seeking Jesus' leadership through the Spirit, and read through all of Scripture. To this end, we youth workers shouldn't hesitate to teach out of our personal learning OR let our teaching (if pre-determined) be an opportunity for our personal, prayerful learning. Calvin once said “prayer is the chief exercise of faith.” If kingdom-living is the with-God life, then prayer from a worshipping heart occupies the central place.  This is probably my #1 need and desire in 2012.

Read theology and read for fun. What? Read theology in a disciplined way? Isn't that soul-killing, straight-jacketing academic stuff? It can be, but it doesn't have to be. It's amazing the way some of the older writers (who started and ended their days on their knees in the church) fuse devotion and exposition and exploration. And if you don’t get what the Trinity has to do you with your life in the Spirit, you are missing out on the great resources of the gospel. Theology is essential to student ministry because in our actions with students, the very character, heart, and intention of God is meant to be on display! (If you don't believe me, be convinced by 2 Cor. 3-4 or reading Kenda Creasy Dean or Andrew Root or Christian Smith or Kara Powell.) The fundamental question we are facing now is "what is God really like - and what does that mean for me? For us? For our world?" You need heavy stuff to help you with that. And read for fun. Read genres outside of ministry: fiction, biography, culture - whether novels, magazines, websites, or hobby-related materials. It keeps your mind sharp and it widens the circle of stuff you know. Plus, you'd be amazed how it works into conversation and teaching.    

Community. I had an experience this fall that drove home to me the necessity of really living and loving and ministering in community. I cannot recommend enough the words of Henri Nouwen here: ministry is always communal and mutual. For me, that means four primary things. First, with Robin (my awesome wife). Second, with close friends - honest conversations, and (if not local) solid letters/email and seeing each other during the year. Third, community within your church. I am a strong advocate for finding real spiritual friendship and community among the people with whom you minister, whether leaders, parents, friends, or even a small group. Fourth, you must have a team of leaders who you equip for ministry. Nothing is as anti-Jesus and soul-killing in student ministry than to bear the burden and shoulder the work alone.

Body.  I am more and more convinced that we live in a gnostic culture (read theology for that) and how we practice life in the body is going to be more and more a part of our Christian witness. Now, the paradox is that our culture worships health and we obviously don't want to go that far. But working yourself to the bone and neglecting your body isn't healthy or God-honoring.  Our eating, our sleeping, and our physical exercise matter if we want to run the race of the ministry that God has entrusted to us. I cook a lot and try to eat well. I exercise most weeks.  Since you have to start somewhere, my minimum goals for this year are 6 hours of sleep a night and at least 10 miles of running each week.

Sabbath. Where to begin ... through a teaching series last spring I became convinced that we need to recover a practice of the sabbath. I'm no strict sabbatarian, but the practice matters and Jesus makes it clear that it was made for us. There's a negative/abstinent dimension to this (stuff you don't do) and a positive/engaging one (stuff you intentionally do). Figure out a way to take a day off of your work. For me that means a day off of technology, too - no Facebook, Twitter, phone, email, and laptop (as much as possible, they stay on the desk and powered off).  I like to read for fun, try to talk with friends, exercise, cook a lot, and spend as much time as possible with my family. The tough thing for me is that the only day I can really do this is Friday - and when you are youth worker, that doesn't always work.


The call of Jesus is clear: “Follow Me,” he says to us – not in addition to the work he has called us to as laborers in student ministry, but in its very midst. May God draw you deeply into Himself.

Andy Cornett is the Assistant Pastor and Director of Student Ministries at New Hope Presbyterian in Fort Myers, FL. Andy earned a Masters in Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA and has over ten years of experience in youth ministry.

The Busy Youth Minister: Time Management

It seems like when you ask someone ‘how things are going’ everyone gives the same answer, ‘busy’. There is a quote that has been reeking havoc on my mind and in my heart for the last month. I tweeted and and wrote it down, but for the life of me I can not find it. The essence of the quote was, “Don’t mistake busyness for communion with God.” This simple statement has been challenging me to think through my busyness - and I would assume that each one of us is in the same place - with ‘way to much to do, not near enough time to do it.'

What Matters - I need to not only know what matters, I need to allow it to lead me. Above everything else, what really matters is the gospel of Jesus. After everything else is said and done, Jesus still stands. So my time needs to be doing gospel-intentional things. Meaning I might go to the movies, but I go to the glory of God seeking God and learning more about Him. I might take a walk, but I do this unto the glory of God, enjoying his beautiful creation. Everything we do needs to flow out of what it is that matters most. If I only have limited time to devote, I need to devote what time I have towards the things that really matter.

The core of what matters is going to look the same for each of us. Loving Jesus and others matters; teaching about Jesus matters; being in communion matters; being Jesus unto my children, wife and students matters. Although the core should look the same, there is going to be a vast difference in what matters for you and what matters for me as we start.

Making Time - There will never be enough time to do everything you want, so you are going to need to make time. This means that once you know what matters you need to make room for it. Good managers of time spend time thinking about what they will do with their time. If you don't, the time will do what it wants with you. So if I conclude that I need to take one day a month and spend it alone and dis-connected, I am going to have to make time to do this. This might mean I have to remove stuff, stuff that I might even feel is important, but if it does not matter in the grand scheme of things, then it is not where my time needs to be put.

Redeeming Time – All too often we say we don’t have time, and this is partially true, but for many we are just bad at redeeming [using] our time. If you have a 30 minute commute to and from work, don’t just drive aimlessly listening to music. No, redeem this time. Download sermons or audio books onto your iPod or put them on a CD. Have list of prayers that you can crank through. Make phone calls that need to be made (use a hands free device please). Here is a short list of things to do to redeem your time.

• Take a book wherever you go
• Download free audio books to listen to in-place of music
• Download sermons to listen to
• If you have a long trip, take someone with you (Discipleship and community in one)
• Read in the bathroom (I know it sounds strange, but it works. Just don’t loan out the book after...)

Passing off – To be a good leader, especially if your schedule is jam-packed, you need to learn to pass things off. What I mean by this is learn the things that God has called you to do - the things He has gifted you to do, the things that you know you’re to do, and no one else is to do them. Everything else needs to be passed off. It could be said do what matters, and have others do the rest. If you are called to study and preach then don’t waste your time updating the youth group facebook page or twitter account. Pass those things off to other people.

God is Sovereign & I am not – I am a type “A” guy. I like to work and I like to work hard. Many times at the end of the day I need to remember that God is sovereign, that He is the one who must work. This does not give me licenses to be lazy and do nothing of eternal worth with my time, but it frees me to know I can give it my all, my GTD list might not be completely done, I might have emails I need to send; yet Jesus gives me freedom to rest. Knowing that His work goes on. He will minister to the students, He will speak to their hearts. Even through we should work hard, manage our time well and be ubber-productive we must remember it is God who works, not us.
Josh Cousineau is a church planter at Redemption Hill in Auburn, Maine, coordinator of the Lead Conference, and a former youth minister. This piece is reposted with permission from www.joshcousineau.com

The Busy Youth Minister: Theology = Methodology

My mentor in my early days of youth ministry was a straight-talking, loud-walking, 6 foot, 9 inches, 280-pound man who had done student ministry for over twenty years. He had about eight maxims that he would repeat, reminding me they were the only things I needed to know.

He used to love to say, “Big C, baby, what you gotta know is that theology equals methodology. What you do tells you everything you need to know about what you believe.” His words stand as 100% pure gold.

With about 90 hours of work under my belt one week – between mission trips, Sunday school, small groups, administrative work, contact work, etc. – I was strung-out and tired. I felt immense stress, and when I examined my methodology, as my mentor had taught me to do, looking to see what it revealed about my theology at a heart level, I realized that my work schedule included no prayer.

The busy lifestyle and absence of prayer clearly showed what I believed: that I had sole responsibility for moving the Kingdom forward and bringing kids to Christ. Even worse, this methodology uncovered an arrogant attitude that not only did I have to save the kids, but that I could. Sadly, it suggested that God could not.

Even while I was a preaching a Gospel of grace, teaching students that the Cross frees you from a life of performance, I was living as if the Cross had accomplished very little and as if God could not be trusted to fulfill His promises.

Ministry requires urgency; it truly is life-and-death business. But the nature of our sinfulness – constantly desiring to be “little gods,” as Martin Luther phrased it – requires frequent reality checks, daily repentance, and renewed trust in Christ.

When we are caught in the all-too-common lifestyle of the “busy” youth minister, we must ask ourselves: who, in fact, is the Messiah? When we feel overwhelming responsibility, we must examine: are we forgetting whose role it is to bring forward the Kingdom? When we are inconsistent or infrequent in our prayer life, we must question: do we really believe God can and will act? If we feel immense weight, we must remember: Jesus has already relieved our burden on the Cross; why should we feel compelled to pick it up again?

Cameron Cole is the chairman of Rooted: A Theology Conference for Student Ministry and the Director of Student Ministries at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, AL. He is a candidate for a Masters in Religion from Reformed Theological Seminary.

The Busy Youth Minister: Grace Enough to Rest

Mark Howard is the Youth Director and Assistant to Pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Covington, GA. Mark has a Masters in Theology from Wheaton College Graduate School. 

Maybe it’s because right now in our Bible study we’re looking at the book of Acts, but when I stopped this morning (on my day off: hypocrite) to put down some thoughts for this blog, my mind went to Acts 20 where Paul gathers the Ephesian elders.

In this passage, Paul says goodbye to these friends, and in doing so, he exonerates himself by claiming that he is “innocent of the blood of all.” (Acts 20:26)

And I thought to myself, “How would I go about defending my innocence before those to whom I minister?”

Sadly, my first thought wasn’t the answer Paul gave: “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:27)  It was something more like, “Well, I stayed busy and worked really hard and met with the kids and their parents...and...and...and...”

...And I started to realize that in that moment I had forgotten the gospel of grace.  Paul understood that it was the whole counsel of God that changed lives - it wasn’t his impressively full calendar or how long his appointment book was that gave him hope.

Grace comes through faith by the Spirit’s work, and faith comes by hearing the whole counsel of God.  My job isn’t to be busy, but to be available to speak the truth in love when opportunity arrives.

Our call, then, isn’t to be busy, but to be alert and ready to preach the truth in love.  Our hope is in the power of the gospel.

Paul’s claim to absolution was that he “did not shrink from declaring...anything that was profitable.” (Acts 20:20)  I need to remember that God’s Word is the agent of change; I am just a vessel (and a broken one at that).  

There is freedom to rest in knowing that it’s the whole counsel of God that has the power to change lives, for it means that salvation isn’t up to us.  It makes sense: it is the gospel of grace, after all.  Praise be to God!

The Busy Youth Minister: Busyness Check

Josh Cousineau is a church planter at Redemption Hill in Auburn, Maine, coordinator of the Lead Conference, and a former youth minister. This piece is reposted with permission from www.joshcousineau.com.

Busyness; It has become almost a badge of honor in Christian circles today. Everyone says they are, and we use it as the excuses to get out of almost anything. This wonderful little word has become a critical part of our vocabulary, on a far too often basis. It seems like everyone is saying they are busy, even the high school drop out who works 14 hours a week at the mall (this is a real story!).

At the root of all this busyness is something more then simply cultural lingo: there is a heart issue. In Tim Chester’s book, A Meal with Jesus, he talks about how meals are enacting the mission of Jesus. When we eat with people we are able to share the gospel with them in a deeper way than simply handing them a tract, or knocking on their door and telling them about Jesus. Yet one of the excuses we often make for not living on mission is, yeah you guessed it; busyness!  Chester offers this helpful examination:

Above all examine your heart. God did not make a mistake when he spun the world into being, making twenty-four-hour days instead of twenty-five-hour ones. He expects you to serve him and glorify him in those twenty-four hours. But he doesn’t expect you to do twenty-five hours’ work in a day. The person responsible for your busyness is you. We’re too busy because we’re trying to do more than God expects.

• You may be too busy because you’re insecure and need to control life. But God is great and cares for you as a sovereign heavenly Father.

• You may be too busy because you fear other people, and so you can’t say no. Bot God is glorious, and his opinion is the one that matters.

• You may be too busy because you’re filling your life with activity in a desperate attempt to find satisfaction. But God is good, and the true source  of joy.

• You may be too busy because you’re trying to prove yourself through your work or ministry. But God is gracious and justifies you freely through Christ’s finished work.

You’ll never create time for people until you address the issues in your heart and find rest in God’s greatness, glory, goodness and grace.

When we dig deep, we quickly understand we are busy, because there is a lack of trust in God. So think through the four above points that Chester makes and see where your heart is. If not you may just end up spending your whole life busy, but doing nothing much for the Kingdom of Jesus!

The Busy Youth Minister: Boundaries are Best

       In my own experience, youth ministry has been a process of learning to relate and connect in different ways in different seasons.  There has not been any universal outline or structure that has provided the ‘best way for going about ministry,’ but there have been many words of wisdom shared which have helped me to gain a more holistic idea of what youth ministry can (and maybe should) be.
There are many who expect youth ministers to be the role models for their children, the liaisons with the broader church, the fixers of problems related to/caused by youth culture, and the facilitators of small groups, youth groups, mission trips, retreats, and the like.  Do we wear many hats?  Yes.  Are we meant to be the One who saves our youth?  No.  But we sometimes begin to live out of the subconscious belief that we can and must.  Henri Nouwen may say it best with this:

We are not the healers, we are not the reconcilers, we are not the givers of life.  We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people who need as much care as anyone we care for.  The mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God.

       -from ‘In the Name of Jesus’

One of the most important shifts that has occurred for me in relation to my ministry is realizing that it is not my ministry.  Am I responsible for my job?  Certainly.  Am I responsible for the salvation, wellness, connectedness, and health of the youth of the world?  No.  The kingdom of God is at hand!  Jesus is working and moving all the time to bring his beloved children unto Himself, and he uses any and everything we do- or don’t do- to accomplish His purposes.  We are invited to trust Him with this instead of trusting ourselves and believing that everything is up to us (and within our control).

We are invited to die to the deep pride within us that makes us believe (even if unconsciously) that we can be all things to all kids (and parents).  I really think we are invited to see ourselves in the same way that we see our kids- as the broken, needy, rescued and beloved humans we are.  Living out of dependence on Jesus instead of reliance on ourselves fundamentally shifts many of the ways we relate to our ministries.  No one can be expected to ‘have it all together’ all the time, and that means you as well.  God’s Word of grace is offered you everyday just as it is offered them.  And to love does not always mean to say ‘yes’ to every need of every youth, or of the church.  Andy Root explores well the idea of being both open and closed in relation to others in his book, Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry.  We relate to one another (and our youth!) as humans, not as semi-gods.  We are filled with the Spirit, moved by His Word, reminded of our need for Him, and we open our lives and experiences up to the kids we encounter with the prayer that they will come to see and know Him through us.  We are, all the time, at God’s mercy to provide deep and real love for the kids we work with.  

Additional roles in our lives (e.g. daughter, sister, coach, student, musician, EMT, volunteer) will naturally require different boundaries and levels of investment; seek the One who made you (and others in similar positions) to guide you in making healthy boundaries in relation to your ministry- or it can easily take over your life and your other relationships will suffer.  There is no way to do this perfectly; we will always fail at trying to navigate these things (and seasons & roles in life change, so something that works well for a while may need shifting later on), but boundaries can be a huge blessing in preventing burn-out and helping to remind us that we are needy, forgiven, beloved sons and daughters of Emmanuel, who never leaves us on our own.

*One wise & practical thought offered me years ago: in seasons where you are naturally spending larger spans of time on youth ministry (40–hour workweek, hah!), you might want to consider viewing days in 3 parts (morning, afternoon, evening).  For every consecutive 3 parts spent giving to youth ministry, try to intentionally take the next part to refill/recoup/replenish/refresh.

Liz Edrington is a Youth Minister at Christ Episcopal Church in Charlottesville, VA.

The Busy Youth Minister

As I come up for air from the chaos of the holidays, I look ahead to the expanse of spring and see mission trips to plan, forms to collect, hotel rooms to reserve, Sunday School to teach, Bible studies to prep, interns to recruit, students with whom to meet, parents to call, laser tag to book, and Quidditch goals to build (...is that just us?).  


My life is busy.


Surely I'm not the only one - if the number of books and resources geared toward helping student ministers learn time management skills and break away from their students long enough to take a day off is any indication, there are a lot of you who find yourself in the same situation.  How did it happen that the lives of Youth Ministers became characterized by chaos?


In our next series on the Rooted blog, we'll take a break from thinking about what the Gospel has to say to our students and look at what the Gospel has to say to us, the Busy Youth Ministers.