I received yet another inquiry today: “Do you have any recommendations for a student minister? We just can’t seem to find one. We’ve been looking for over six months.”
For several years, I would get similar inquiries about worship leaders or worship pastors. Today, there seems to be a dearth of both worship pastors and student pastors. So, where have all the student pastors gone? I asked some key leaders I trust on this issue. Here are their and my perspectives:
- A number of young leaders decided to plant a church rather than enter into or continue in youth ministry. Youth ministry traditionally has been a field dominated by young males. Many of these young males began narrowing their vocational choices to student ministry or church planting. A large number decided to plant churches. On the one hand, that’s a really good development. We definitely need more church planters. On the other hand, many churches are now pleading for student pastors.
- Fewer schools are offering training in student ministry. It’s a chicken or egg question. Are fewer schools offering this training and, as a consequence, fewer young people are becoming student pastors? Or, are fewer young people seeking the training and, thus, the schools are closing the programs because of diminished demand? Either way, there are fewer trained youth ministers.
- It is becoming increasingly common for many churches to call a student pastor from their own congregations. These youth ministers then do not always seek training from a college or seminary and, thus, the schools often close their programs. Smaller churches typically do not have the pool of internal candidates the larger churches do. And these churches are among the most frustrated in their search for student pastors.
- Some churches have eliminated the position of student pastor and replaced it with a family pastor position. Family pastors often have much broader roles than ministering to middle school and/or high school students. Thus, these churches have lost a specific focus on student ministry for adolescents.
- Fewer middle school and high school students attend church. The Gen Z generation has fewer in church than previous generations. This development is not new. It began with both Gen X and the Millennials. But the trend continues unabated. Fewer students means a diminished need for student pastors.
A number of churches that contact me believe a good student pastor is the magic bullet solution to help grow their churches and make them younger. If a church is in decline and growing older, it is unlikely that one person can reverse those trends. The church as a whole must change first and follow in greater obedience to the Great Commission.
I am curious. Are you seeing this same dearth of student pastors? Have you been looking for one for your church unsuccessfully? I would love to hear your story on this topic. Let me hear from you.
Posted on March 4, 2019
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
More from Thom
119 Comments
The expectations placed on the student ministers by the leadership and especially the Pastor is often extreme which is disheartening to the student pastors. Through the years have seen this over and over and those student pastors today have actually left the ministry. Pastors blaming the student ministers for lack of attendance is one of the main culprits … supposedly it’s not about numbers …?
I served for 17 years as a full time youth pastor, then in a process of redirection from the Lord, I “backslid” into the pastorate (according to my youth ministry peers). 🙂 Now I’ve served as a senior pastor for the past 16 years. Recently, our full time youth pastor departed for another church. Simultaneously, our church experienced a significant down turn in finances. End result: A year later, our full time youth ministry position became a part time youth ministry position. Financially, we had no choice (which is sad). On the other hand, God provided a godly, experienced man in our congregation to step into the part time role. And it’s been really good (for which I’m glad). So why the financial downturn? Several reasons: Our church is a church of 125-150. We are in a very churched community. We have lost several key members to larger churches (and several who were financial heavy hitters). This seems to be a trend. Many smaller churches seem to struggle, while the largest churches seem to gain more people–at least on Sunday mornings. My conclusion (at least in part) is this: Smaller churches such as mine will need to adapt–which is fine. God is still in control. We will just need to do things differently than in the past.
Part of the problem is the focus of getting a quality pastor on the cheap and ignoring ordained and/or experienced semi-retired pastors who seek to serve smaller churches. Too many elders believe a pastor over 60 should be put to pasture rather than hitched to the plow. I speak from 8 years experience who has witnessed the drying up of pastoral positions, even the ones who state in their search criteria they want a pastor with10 years experience for very little pay. I have 40 years+ of pastoral experience with a BA and a ThM in theology. Let’s re-think age as a requirement for pastoral leadership.
I can relate to what Paul Laird is saying because so many people think a pastor has to be a certain age and in a certain stage of life to be effective in the ministry. What will happen when the pastor grows older or progresses to a different stage of life? Is he not the same individual with the same calling, spiritual gifts, and message from God’s Word? All the posts on this topic have examined various, realistic aspects of the situation and have done so very well, and I appreciate the insight of each contributor. However, for the past several years so many churches and their members have focused on using Madison Avenue tactics to operate a church or a ministry, leaving very few who focus on prayer, the leading of the Holy Spirit, cooperation among church members, and outreach to build a ministry and a congregation of all ages.
I do believe churches should return to the days of having and maintaining a parsonage so that a minister can devote his time to the ministry and get by financially in a church that perhaps cannot pay very well. As the saying goes, “Working for the Lord does not pay much, but the rewards are out of this world!”
I think one reason for the change is that more churches are calling younger pastor than they were in the past. When I was coming into ministry, I knew God had called me to pastor, but there was the sense that I had to be a youth pastor first; almost like a necessity. Right or wrong, that is the way a lot of people felt. Now churches are calling younger pastors, so many who would have had to start in formal youth ministry even a decade ago, can today begin as associate pastor or senior pastor. This is a trend that I have seen.
About 8 years ago when I was a senior pastor seeking a youth pastor, I visited all the BSM’s at local colleges within 100 miles of our church. It was good to meet the students and I could sense many of them wanted to serve God and do worthwhile with their lives, but had minimal interest in our Youth Pastor position.
I heard similar experiences from fellow pastors in the area. It was surprising to me because when I was in college (20 years ago now), that was a dream job to a lot of us ministerial students.
I couldn’t quite understand why there is such low interest now until I heard a representative from my denomination’s Chaplaincy endorsement department express similar frustration in recruiting the younger generation in Chaplaincy work. He stated that in his discussion with students at different campuses, many of them Baptist schools, a common theme he heard was a distrust of any established institution.
Of course, they are saying this while attending school at a established institution (they apparently don’t see the hypocrisy), but this seems to be a common thread on many college campuses these days, even the Christian schools.
Great article, but I think I might have a possible answer to your question of ” where have all the student pastors gone?”
As a young man who felt called to pastoral ministry, I realized early on that there are few opportunities for someone to ” get started” outside of student ministry. The ones that I was pushed towards are as follows: 1. Take a student pastor role. 2. Take a small congregation as the senior pastor. 3. Plant a church/be a part of a church planting team.
I applied to and interviewed for several student pastor roles, all the while I kept thinking to myself that I really didn’t feel called to student ministry. I also didn’t feel ready for options two and three. I think this might be your missing variable: young men aren’t applying to student pastor positions, because they don’t want to use it as a “stepping stone.”
To make a long story short, I did not take a student pastor role for the sake of getting started. God ordained a time for me to meet an assistant pastor of an SBCV church who offered me an internship, which then led to employment as a building supervisor/ guest services director combo role.
That being said, I think there are more opportunities to get started in ministry than ever before. I would be curious to see whether more internships are being taken.
All the comments are very good yet, with shrinking membership, perhaps the small church is thinking how to build the core of the church. To do that you emphasize a multicultural, multigenerational church. That means, all people are important to the core of the church. Often unpaid volunteer church leaders take the role of student ministries. This is probably not the best solution but, then, the small church is struggling against the tide of the mega church model . If students and youth are challenged to be a part of the local church ministries , to give back, to be encouraged and be valued, then leadership can emerge from within the group. The church tribe model needs to end for a church core unit to develop.
“Fewer schools are offering training in student ministry. ” – Schools are a great resource to provide education, but if congregations are not intentional in raising up men and women for vocational ministry, the schools will never be able to fill the gap. This needs to be a part of every church’s discipleship ministry, to identify and communicate the how, why, and when of becoming such a leader. Many churches have NEVER produced a single Pastor or vocational Missionary. The schools aren’t to blame.
A few thoughts:
– A student pastor, at one point, was one of the first hires that a growing church plant would make, while a children’s pastor was further down the list of priorities. I think that trend has now reversed. I think many churches see the trend that the experience of children on a Sunday morning has a profound impact on whether or not families choose to visit a church, and choose to return to a church after they’ve visited.
– As Josh G says above, I think many situations lend themselves to student pastors feeling like 2nd-class citizens on a pastoral team, so the length of time someone is willing to serve in this capacity is limited.
– “Youth ministry traditionally has been a field dominated by young males.” I think many churches begin their searches with this paradigm in mind, and aren’t open to those who don’t fit that profile. Casting a bigger net, and considering women & older guys for youth pastor positions, seems to be a wise course of action.
I think the drop in available youth ministers is related to the disappearance of mid-sized churches. There are fewer congregations that can afford to pay an adequate full-time salary for a student pastor. So young ministers who feel called to youth ministry will come up through the student ministry ranks in a large church. Others feel it’s not a career option. Accordingly, the small churches use volunteer lay leaders and maybe a part-time or summer intern out of financial necessity. I think the same phenomenon is happening with worship pastors.
The gap between “desire and hirable” continues to widen for sure. I’d echo much of the above, and would add that ministry is a very small reflection of what is going on in most fields in our country.
The gap between “desire and hirable” is growing for sure.
I read this post and agreed with it but feel it’s missing a concern/cause. What about in some churches (smaller), the head pastor makes way more, or there are non-essential people on payroll and then the church is left with pennies to pay a youth minister (not even) part-time/bi-vocationally. I came from that setting and the pastor repeatedly mentioned how much of a “cut” he took to come here. Clear signal for concern.
Anybody else see this as a concern?