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.
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When you ask someone with a master’s degree to be a babysitter and party planner, tell him to pull off extravanagent events on a shoestring budget, and let him know in no uncertain terms that he’ll be fired if attendance doesn’t meet benchmark, you will find that no one wants the job.
What you didn’t talk about was how youth pastors quit because older leaders in the church make it very difficult to do actual ministry work that matters. Student pastors know how to reach students in effective ways and older pastors (executive/senior) want them in the office for 40 hours to fulfill an “actual” work week.
I was in Student Ministry for 20 years. I led MS and HS, spoke at camps, worked on inter-church youth committees, ran a 5 person staff, worked in small churches and multi-site “mega” churches, the whole gambit of student ministry. I’m not currently in paid, full time student ministry, because in all of those contexts, I was not spiritually cared for properly by the church or other staff. My wife, kids and I were used and abused for the sake of these places saying they had a student ministry to potential visitors. But none of them actually valued student ministry (no matter what they said or would say currently). In each case after I left (never fired), I was either replaced by a younger, cheaper leader with less experience/training or was not replaced at all and it was given over to unpaid interns/volunteers. They didn’t want to care or compensate for my years of experience. I was expendable because of budget and treated as such. I know that it is sad to say, but you can really tell what a church values by where it spends its dollars.
Churches aren’t valuing student ministers correctly (training, care, or compensation), therefore it’s harder to find one because there are better opportunities in other areas of the church or outside the church. Which is my current case, I can be better compensated secular, still volunteer my time in student ministry at my own discretion., and be in a place where my family is valued and taken care of spiritually.
It’s been 2 years since I left full time ministry and I’m in a better place spiritually, physically, and emotionally. My family is now thriving at our current church. Since I’m a volunteer and not staff, I can say no when asked to do things (which I hardly do) and it is wonderful. The pressure churches put on paid student leaders that they don’t care for properly is awful. That’s why I left being a pastor and that’s why there are less quality candidates for these positions.
So from 2004 ( when my Daughter entered 6th grade) and then 2005 when my son entered 6th till Fall of 2016 (thru HS and into college for both I was as a parent with the Youth Group. I served with Five Youth Pastors in that time and very few most times zero other parents. I felt it my responsibility as a parent to be involved, other parents looked at Youth Group as just a place to drop their youth off. This was a First Gen Chinese Church with both Mandarin and English based congregations. My wife is Chinese and both Son and Daughter were adopted from China at age 1. The Chinese parents just did not feel a need to be involved as I did and the Chinese Lead Pastor did not insist they get involved. I got along well with all the Youth because I cared and could dialogue with them. This lack of parental involvement and inactions and actions by Senior Pastor is what caused Five Youth Pastors over that time. My son and I left that Church ( which my wife still attends) because the Lead Pastor and Chinese congregation would not back the Youth Pastor forcing him and two other English congregation Pastors to leave. Parents need to be involved with their and whole Church youth, otherwise you ask much of your Youth Pastor and don’t give him the support he needs. He quickly will burn out and move on usually damaged for a short or long while from the experience. I’ve seen other Churches with thriving youth groups because the parents, Senior Pastor and others are involved and empower and support their Youth Pastor and ministry, but it starts with the parents goes either up or down hill from there.
I appreciate all the comments above and find them extremely enlightening. I have always served within youth ministry and I am currently on my 11th year on staff at this church. I have a MDiv and DMin from seminary and i’m currently working on a DEdMin. I also want to mention that I have been serving within an ethnic-specific church in Houston, Texas where most of our students (and church members) drive on average 40 minutes to attend church. I am married with 2 young children and my wife works full time. That all being said, I would argue that youth ministry is still close to impossible based on the expectations placed on this role from the church and myself. I say it for the following reasons:
1. Longevity: Even if I were to be generous and say the average youth pastor stays for 2.5 years, how is that possibly enough time to even develop a sustainable philosophy of ministry? Many of the lessons and structural approaches of ministry came probably around year 5-7 and that was only because God was gracious enough to bring me through certain things with my church, personal growth, and experience. Had I not been there long enough, there would be no way for someone who just starts out to even know what is asked of them. I was fortunate also to being my role as youth pastor with already 8 years of experience and a Masters of Divinity underneath me and still I had no clue what I was doing. It begs the question that many people here are asking – “How do we treat our youth pastors with longevity in mind?” Especially taking in their youth, life stage changes, and understanding. As many of the youth pastors know, youth ministry looked drastically different as a single youth pastor than a youth pastor with a family. I would argue that I’m a much more equipped and wiser youth pastor now than 11 years ago but it’s totally different just because of age, family, and priorities in the ministry itself.
2. Youth leaders: What i’ve found to be difficult for the youth pastor is the amount and quality of the youth leaders they surround themselves with. The leaders that have stayed with me since the beginning also had to work through life stage changes and it affects how they relate to students and their time commitment. But on top of that, i’ve had to really narrow down the expectations for my leaders – are they teachers? disciplers? logistics? chaperones? all of the above? Are they supposed to know theology at a seminary level? Are they supposed to be trained as a christian counselor? How in the world am I suppose to train them to teach small groups and classrooms when the christian educational system at our church is barely able to sustain themselves? Again, i’m speaking from a largely ethnic-specific church that is only 65 years old without much prior education and systems built it.
3. As mentioned in the article, the culture plays a massive factor in the landscape of youth ministry in 2019. Not only are students and student culture drastically different than 3 years ago, the predominant elite culture is more aggressive and the new youth (or even old) youth pastor is already a few steps behind. What i’ve noticed is that students are being “discipled” more quickly and frequently through social media earlier in age as well as throughout the week. So in a given week, my students have already been discipled in 10-20 different narratives that there is simply no time to correct, engage, reteach, and instruct. There’s simply no way 1 youth pastor could handle that right? Yes, the youth pastor must disciple the parents to disciple their students but the assumption is that the parents are already on board and willing. That’s also assuming the parents respect the wisdom, education, and heart of the youth pastor as well.
I am a firm advocate for the position of the youth pastor. It’s not only needed but it’s vital for this demographic in so many ways. But the church must do a better job training and finding these candidates. Then the church must provide the resource to allow this pastor to thrive – i.e. education, counseling, mentoring, finances, etc.
I would say that as a person looking to enter the ministry full-time, I see many opportunities for youth ministry. I have spoken to many churches who were looking for youth ministers for their church for a long time and it seems to be a trend everywhere.
You forgot to mention a bullet point: churches are constantly turning applicatants who are millennials down.
I’ve received a “dearth” of rejections from churches after applying and even interviewing for the position of student pastor.
I’ve felt called to this position since I myself was a senior in high school and have pursued it relentlessly, but have continuously been rejected by churches because they want someone with “more experience.” Which is laughable given that I have years of experience serving in student ministry and have been in an internship with my own church.
There is a bigger issue that you fail to address: the church won’t give some people a chance.
I would agree with this. Many churches will not give someone who might be seasoned in the secular world but fresh out of seminary because of “lack of experience”, yet cannot answer the question, “How can someone gain experience if a church is not willing to give someone an opportunity?”
You can’t overlook that student pastors are usually not paid very well, making it harder to be a viable full-time vocation.
We hired a new student pastor to replace me as I became the Lead Pastor at our church about 6 month ago. We did not receive many applications and most of the ones we did receive didn’t seem to be people passionate about student ministry, but instead just wanted to be in some sort of ministry. This led me to believe(and I know this is an assumption) that if we hired any of them and another opportunity in a ministry area they were more passionate about became available, they’d bail. Instead we hired the most qualified candidate who also showed a passion for student ministry. Hiring someone with the intention of longevity is the only way to go because many students take significant time investment for you to gain their trust and turnover will keep trust from ever forming.
I also understand the desire to be a church planter that a lot of these young folks have, but a lot of those same folks could be helpful in revitalization of existing churches or simply help a thriving church move to the next level.
I’ve been waiting a bit to see how I would give my thoughts to this. I agree with many of the statements from above. Many are very valid points, lack of pay, your too young, your too old, what is the right age? Ive been in youth ministry for over 25 years and have experienced all of these.
We Southern Baptist have had a rich history of being on the cutting edge of youth ministry and Im not so sure any more, and that concerns me. We seem to be following not leading. There were some great youth ministry professors at our seminaries and I just see anyone out there leading and teaching the next generation or the current one! I see this not only in our seminaries but across out denomination in general in youth ministry. If I want to stay current and cutting edge, I have search outside our denomination to find materials, speakers, and events for youth ministry that are most effective. Maybe I’m missing something, but I pray that we don’t become obsolete. Im almost 50 and doing my best youth ministry ever, and having the most fun!! If you are in student ministry, remember your calling, stick with it!! Youth and their families need strong youth ministry!!
It’s sad for me to see what’s happening in the student ministry arena, of late. I started as a part-time youth pastor back in 1975 (I was 27 years old), when “professional” student ministry was in its infancy. I watched it blossom and grow over the next 3 decades, as more and more training & resources became available to youth workers; as the doors were finally opened to women who felt called into this area of ministry; and as student ministry gained more and more credibility. I was passionate about and felt privileged to be called by God to love on and serve students…and I still am, today. But there was always a tension within church circles that concerned me, and made me wary. And many of the comments on this thread simply confirm what I already knew — banking on a lengthy career in the student ministry, these days, is a very risky proposition. And considering how many parents (And I’m talking about church-going parents) are abdicating their God-given responsibility to be the major spiritual influencers on their children, it makes the decline of student ministry even more significant.
For me, personally, the bias against older student pastors has affected me more than even the lack of financial benefits has. When I hit the age of 55, I was rejected by almost 200 churches looking for youth pastors, that I had sent resumes to, despite having solid references and a history of being able to grow student ministries numerically and spiritually (Obviously, God had far more to do with that, than I did!). So I spent much of the next 15 years as an active youth ministry volunteer, and I very much enjoyed it. But then God got my attention, as I was forced to lay low for a month, after I snapped my left humerous bone in two, while playing slip & slide kickball with our teens (Stop laughing!!!).
God told me that it was time for me to amp-up my weak devotional life, but He also led me to “get back on the horse”, again, and seek a student pastor position where I could best utilize my 40+ years of experience. Obviously, I realized that 99% of churches would send my resume off into cyperspace, as soon as they saw my age, but I began my search. It took me over a year to find a church that would hire me, but it happened. My frustration is that it’s a small church, full of disfunctionality, which is going to make it extremely difficult to build a student ministry here. But because of so many churches’ assuming I was too old, it’s where I eventually landed. Unfortunately, mine is just one small example of why fewer and fewer men & women are going into and staying in the student ministry.
It has been my experience that most churches don’t look at, treat, or compensate Student Pastors as real pastors. It’s as if the identification of “Student” in the title, is indicative of some lesser status.
Student ministry is hard and requires full time work, many times for less than the salary of local High School teachers.