By: Dave Weiss

New Creation Fellowship

Reading, Pennsylvania

Angelprty1@aol.com

Does any of this sound like you?

·        You traded your sedan for a minivan so you could cart a group of kids with you everywhere you go.

·        You have the exact amount of time it takes to get from you day job to your youth group meeting calculated down to the second.

·        You use up your vacation time taking a bunch of kids to camp, music festival or (insert the name of you “vacation” here.)

·        You have never been to a local youth ministry network meeting because they all occur while you are at the office.

·        You footed the bill for your youth ministry resources yourself because your church’s annual youth ministry budget wouldn’t pay a youth minister’s salary for a week.

You know who you are.  You are one of the few, the proud – the volunteer youth minister.  You are the person who does youth ministry for the love of Jesus and for the love of teenagers, and you do something else for a living.  You saw a need in your church and you filled it.  Youth ministry can be both the greatest blessing and the most aggravating frustration.  You are a modern day miracle worker who does amazing works with limited resources and almost no money.  “Five loaves and two fish: is a way of life for you!

I have been there.  For my entire ministry career, I have been a volunteer.  If I were with you right now, I would wrap my arms around you, give you a big hug and say “Thank you!”

Volunteer youth ministry can be tough, and seemingly thankless at times.  Training opportunities are limited because most of them happen while you are doing what you do to earn a living, or require another week of vacation time to complete.  You scrimp and save every nickel of your extremely limited annual budget (if you even have one) and pay a lot out of your own pocket, only to be questioned about what you did with “all that money.”  Meanwhile, your colleague down the street paid more than your annual budget for a pizza party for his or her group.

Parents complain that you either have too many activities for the kids or not enough (at the same time incidentally).  They are also concerned that your students are not growing spiritually.  The fact that they pull their kids out of your ministry for every competitive tidily-winks match that comes along is irrelevant.  You get them for two hours a week (if something “more important” doesn’t come up.)  And they still ask, “What are you doing with all that time?”  You may find yourself asking your church, “You realize you don’t pay me, right?”  Or you may find yourself asking the question, “Why do I do this?”

You do it because kids need someone who cares, and God gave you the heart for the job.  You do it because God has blessed you with the ability to live on little sleep at yet another lock-in, tolerate (or even enjoy) the latest music and keep up with the social schedules of teens.  God has given you a heart to deal with adolescents and realize, while their problems may seem small to the average adult, you remember how earth shattering they were at that age and have compassion for them.

Most importantly, He gave you a desire to see kids come to know Jesus.

Some folks will consider your ministry to be small and insignificant.  Don’t believe it!  God has placed considerable trust in you.  He has entrusted you with His most precious creations at the most vulnerable, difficult, adjustment-filled period in their lives.  Your ministry is critical.  Keep at it!  Keep going!  Keep running your race!

Your kids need someone they can depend on to model Jesus for them – and God picked you.