Comments on: The daunting job description of a youth pastor

By: Tim Schmoyer

Tim Schmoyer — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:43:15 +0000

You're welcome! And glad to hear you're going into youth ministry! The field definitely needs more solid women!

By: brooke

brooke — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:17:29 +0000

Tim,

My name is Brooke. I feel the call in my life to be a youth pastor and worship leader. God spoke to my heart at 12 years old. I am preparing to go to college this year to work towards my passion and to embrace what God has instilled in my heart. I love poeple and want to show them Gods love… thank you for this site and for talking about being a youth pastor. It has helped. :) God bless!

By: The three essentials of a youth pastor’s job | Life in Student Ministry

Tue, 20 May 2008 05:51:57 +0000

[...] we’re not careful, a youth pastor’s job description becomes very bloated very quickly, not just with all the stated expectations, but with all the [...]

By: Job Description of a youth pastor «

Job Description of a youth pastor « — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 03:02:45 +0000

[...] a youth pastor, too, and posted my job description on my site. It’s a little exaggerated, [...]

By: mike

mike — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:17:52 +0000

good call on that article tim… add one about making no money a lot of money just so you can have something in your budget… that would be cool… enjoyed the talk and thanks for your prayers.

mikey

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 02:38:08 +0000

I guess I should specify that, although the feeling can be overwhelming to all us youth pastors at one time or another, this isn’t my personal job description nor the one I submit to. This is mostly a list of what is sometimes expected of us by church leadership, parents, students and the church body and the various pressures we face. My point was to show just how unrealistic the pressure and expectations can be. There’s no way I see this as a legitimate job description that anyone should follow.

By: Brenda Seefeldt

Brenda Seefeldt — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 00:04:55 +0000

I noticed in an earlier posting you correctly identified that the problem with today’s teens keeping their faith is more than just the youth ministry. However, in this job description the entire youth ministry is centered on the youth minister. Indirectly, this job description makes it the youth minister’s job to be responsible for the youth. All from good intentions, we have set ourselves up to be blamed for the teens faith failing. Maybe we need a new job description.

By: david

david — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 16:02:15 +0000

Tim, you are not alone! Look at the new Barna survey. Survey says – people just want a good nights sleep!

Relax. Running the world is God’s job.

By: harleyghost

harleyghost — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 11:46:54 +0000

not to be cute or curt … because I dislike both … but, pray a lot.

It is a good thing that you have a target of what you want to see happen. I guess if you have a lot of things to aim for … you are bound to hit something … and to some degree it will all be good. I’ve always struggled … not with the good and bad …. but with the good and best. You are one of the best guys, Tim. Keep it up Bro …

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 02:49:26 +0000

Great post. I liked the image of keeping all the balls in the air. Although for youth ministry I would add another person throwing more balls at you while you’re trying to juggle. It did make me think about how many guys and gals are out there doing youth ministry in addition to a full-time job. I know in our community, full time youth ministers are few and far between. And then add in seminary classes since most churches want that piece of paper, and then the list keeps growing, and growing, and growing.

By: Tom Kennar

Tom Kennar — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 22:45:10 +0000

Hey Tim – thanks for visiting my blog…my first overseas visitor I think! (The blog has only been running for a couple a wks). Had to laugh at your own job description…sounds very much like mine when I was a YMCA youth worker. And to think I gave all that up to be a minister! Now I have to be able to talk to all ages on every conceivable subject – as well as young people! Great to know you are out there. Praying for you!

By: paul

paul — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 20:35:51 +0000

I was just thinking about this same think. There are so many expectations out there and so many ways we can’t do all of them. The best thing I have seen to make this worse is that most churches only want to pay a person a very miniscule amount of money to do this. That means it is usually a younger person with less experience trying to do this. That can be very dangerous.

When I first started in youth ministry, I was in a church like this description. Because I was so achievement driven, I would work myself into a lather trying to do it all. Whether it is intentional or not, that is not a good position for a church to put a young leader.

My new job desciription, and I am thinking of making something really big to hang behind my desk, is “Make Disciples”.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 15:40:06 +0000

19. Educate the rest of the church who often think a youth pastor is nothing more than a recreation director on a cruise ship who does nothing but play games and get paid for acting like a kid.

By: tk

tk — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 15:12:17 +0000

Hey Tim,

thanks for stopping by my site.
60 year old jr high pastors are few and far between. I’m not sure if you can fulfill the list you outlined and make it to 60 without alot of help.

I’m not sure it’s possible to be an expert in all the areas in #9 either. It is critical for those of us on the front lines of Student Ministry to know when to ask for help or suggest help from professionals. That doesn’t alleviate our responsibility to stay involved in a student’s life. We need to know when to refer and then continue to walk along side those students struggling with the issues you mentioned.

Any way you slice it, it’s a tough gig. Worth every minute of it, but tough.

peace and prayers,

By: YouthMinistryTV.com » Blog Archive » Expectations?

YouthMinistryTV.com » Blog Archive » Expectations? — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 12:37:28 +0000

[...] Tim has a great post on his blog about the job description of a youth pastor. In it, he lists all the things that are expected of him in his role. I thought it was a great post, and it would be great to hear what are the other things that people expect of you in your job. It may be part of the official job description, or it could just be expectations that have been shown through various means in the past. Feel free to comment, or post on your blog about it and trackback here. [...]

By: Franklin County Youth Network

Franklin County Youth Network — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

setting an example for my students and others to follow. The fun summer activities will not happen unless someone else steps up and helps plan them. Check out the post from Tim. Here is how Tim begins his post. If we’re not careful,a youth pastor’s job descriptionbecomes very bloated very quickly, not just with all the stated expectations, but with all the unstated ones, too. Before we know it, we’re juggling so many balls we’re doing nothing but stressing out and ignoring what it is that God actually put