Sorry for the delay in posting today. I know many of you have anxiously waited by your computers wondering when I was going to post. (That’s a joke and what does it say that I feel the need to explain it’s a joke?) The reason for the delay is we hefted and hoisted our humongous beams up into the attic this morning. We still have to set posts and anchor / attach beams to rafters by the humongous beams are up in the attic. I’ll post a picture later of the beams. So now, without further delay, the top 10.
10. Lock In’s.
9. Questions such as "oh, youth ministry huh - when do you think you might get your own church?"
8. The salary and benefits package (or should I say lack of). (Why do we pay youth ministers and babysitters who we entrust to care for our children the least amount of money possible?)
7. The bus air conditioner that quit working as soon as you traveled 25 miles beyond the church building.
6. The summer schedule.
5. Lock In’s.
4. Hormone Management.
3. Youth Rally speakers and programs designed to scare the hell out of kids so they’d get baptized. (And I’m using the word hell in it’s biblical context here)
2. The parents who viewed Youth Ministry as a daycare service instead of partnership to raise spiritually mature young men and women.
1. Lock In’s.
5 Responses to “Top 10 Things I Don’t Miss About Youth Ministry”
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October 26th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Um………………you failed to mention lock-ins. I’d think they’d appear in anybody’s Things I Don’t Miss About Youth Ministry list.
October 26th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
10 - I concur.
9 - I get similar questions like,”When are you going to become an administrator?”
8 - This country values people who work with things over people who work with people or in this case - kids.
7 - We had one of those busses. I am convinced the bus hated me.
6 - Nope - I’m a road trip kind of guy.
5 - See #10
4 - Seems to be one of my life’s chief vocations.
3 - Haven’t seen one of those for a while.
2 - I knew “Parents” was going to make the top 5. Still have problems with them.
1 - See #10
October 26th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Love it.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:51 am
Great list. I noticed that youth deacons or elders didn’t make the list, nor did getting beat in golf by youth and trying to find proper balance between sports and worship. We had great parents… Sometimes.
October 30th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Regarding #2: When our last Youth Minister left a year & a half ago, our elders chose not to replace the position. Mostly at the behest of the parents. We moved to a parent-led model where the parents run the youth program (although we’re moving away from the term “youth group/ministry” b/c it seems to suggest a distinction/separation that shouldn’t be there if we call ourselves a family). Parents don’t “drop off” their kids anymore. We’re there, helping to organize & plan activities; teaching our kids to lead themselves from within; involving them in all aspects of the church; etc. It’s an exciting model and one in which we are much more vested.
So….., when the bus breaks down at least we’ll have a bunch of parents on the bus. Maybe one of us will know how to fix it.