Are You Thriving or Surviving? 7 Tips For Becoming A Better Youth Worker
Let’s face it: Some days in youth ministry work can be overwhelming. We can feel underequipped, undervalued, and undereducated. (Not to mention underpaid.) Maybe it was one of these feelings that drove you to scour the Internet today, hoping to find something that would solve some of your youth ministry problems, or at least today’s woes. We realize that much of what we have learned in our past hasn’t equipped us to do what we are called to do.
In light of this, it’s so important for youth workers to keep improving.
Here are a few tips we can follow to make sure we are always growing and developing:
Pray, pray, pray
Take the day off. Go to the woods, or the lake, or your favorite park. Ask what it is God wants you to be doing to reach into the lives of young people. Believe me, it’s on His heart more than it is on yours.
Ask a ton of questions
Many of us think we’re experts on youth because we were once young ourselves. However, if we want to be professional youth workers there is no way that our experiences qualifies us as experts. Ask young people about their experiences rather than talking about your own.
Change your vocabulary
If you’ve grown up in a “church bubble” the odds are the average teen will not know what you’re talking about when you speak to them. I’m not talking about trying to speak the lingo of your students, but merely getting to an even playing field. Consider this: if you have to explain what a youth pastor is then maybe it isn’t the best way to introduce yourself. Of course it doesn’t change your calling or your job description; it’s about helping others understand what it is you’re there for.
Get out of your office
Get out of your comfort zone and go to a place you know students hang out. Try the places where you won’t know any of them. Pick those kids that you think would have no idea what a youth pastor is and try to talk with them. If you have nothing to talk about, it’s a sure sign you need to be there more often.
Recruit a teammate
If you’re trying to do youth work on your own, you could maximize your effectiveness by joining up with someone that is just as passionate, but has a completely different personality type. You’ll learn from each other working shoulder to shoulder.
Be involved
Stop trying to get youth involved in what you do, and start getting involved in what they do. Do they go to drop-in basketball afterschool? Then why don’t you? If you have the word “youth” in your job description, doesn’t that mean you should be working with them more than with a keyboard? Just saying.
Repeat
I have been in some sort of youth work role for the past 14 years. I know how easy it is to get comfortable in what we’re doing. But trust me there is always something we could be doing better. The goal for us all should be to thrive rather than merely survive.
Danny Ferguson works for Youth For Christ/Youth Unlimited in the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. He has over 15 years of youth ministry experience and has spent the last 7 years involved in urban community youth work. He keeps a blog of youth culture and stories from his ministry at www.proyouthworker.com and he loves being married to April.
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As Danny’s co-worker and friend I can attest that he practices what he preaches. Especially the part about loving being married to April. Another simple but great article Danny!
Thanks Derian – You’re awesome
“If you have nothing to talk about, it’s a sure sign you need to be there more often.”
Amen.
It’s true isn’t it? We often make excuses about not spending time with kids that we think we have nothing in common with, but it takes time to establish that common ground with some students.
Yeah, I know. I loved that line. Good stuff from Danny.
The first youth pastor I volunteered with in college showed me a bus station he wanted me to hang out at every so often. It was near a huge high school that had open enrollment. Tons of kids from outside the boundaries had to take public transportation to and from the school, and that was where they waited after school for up to an hour for their buses to show up. It was nerve-racking at first to just show up and hang out, but I learned from that youth pastor, Peter, where my priorities should lie.
I can relate! When I worked for Youth for Christ in the late 90′s, I would eat lunch in a school where i knew 5 kids. The lunchroom held about 400 kids at a time. I would sit through three waves of lunch, just trying to get to know kids. My gosh, it was intimidating . . . for a while! Eventually I made some inroads, but it never felt “comfortable.” Which, looking back, was a great place to be!