5 Reasons To Be Thankful For Your Youth Pastor

Not to sound cliché or anything, but I really do like Thanksgiving. It is a day we get to overemphasize the meaning and power behind saying thank you. We spend countless hours with dubious amounts of patience, teaching our children at a very early age to say please and thank you, yet somehow in our adult lives, we find it all too easy to forget what it means to be full of thanks.

However, having a day, or time of year like Thanksgiving offers us a chance to reorient ourselves with a proper posture of thanks. It offers us the chance to sit back and reflect on sometimes the countless ways we can be thankful. And for those of you who have teenagers or somehow your life is impacted by students, I want to give you an opportunity to sit and reflect on how you can be thankful for our youth pastors. These are an incredible group of people who do a job that, well; most of us would never dare even try.

Here are at least 5 reasons to be thankful for these amazing influencers of our teens.

Youth Pastors play an enormous role in helping students to own their faith

It might not come as a surprise but students cannot move on to college and beyond clinging to their parents' (or some other adult mentor's) faith. It just doesn't work. Students have to own it. Believe it and live it for themselves. This can be very tricky business. It sounds simple enough, but helping a student transition from an elementary understanding of Jesus to a desire and a practice of living the life that Jesus called them to, takes a particular degree of specialization. Few can navigate the journey. I don't have the space here to dive into the particulars of what that specialization looks like, but if you have ever tried to sit and counsel a student, listen to their cares and concerns, or even explain why Jesus matters, and why morality matters in a culture driven by relativism; then give it a try and see what happens.

Youth pastors have an uncanny knack for speaking into the lives of students in a way that cuts straight to what motivates them and turns them in the right direction. They are patient, methodical and calculated. Where many of us would grow impatient with the use of technology and social media, youth pastors know precisely how to leverage current culture trends for a kingdom advantage.

Youth Pastors have an incredible ability to minister in the space between adults and students

The older generations never seem to understand the younger. The younger generation thinks the church is boring and irrelevant. Older generations think students just don't get it. And surprise, surprise, the younger generation thinks the old people just don't get it. Parents and students seem to have a wall standing between them. This is true now. This was true fifty years ago. In fact, we might say this is true of every generation gap. If only there was a group of people who dedicated their lives to standing in that gap. Oh, wait there is. We call them youth pastors.

Standing in the gap is no small task. I taught in Christian schools for over ten years and believe me, filling that space is more difficult than you might think. Even more, than teachers, pastors have to simultaneously be a mentor, coach, friend, and pastor, even surrogate parent. They also have a serve on a church staff, communicate to staff members, and parents. They have to be able to have difficult and sensitive conversations with students that hold them accountable, and yet keep them coming to church. But they also have to have those same sensitive conversations with parents.

What is often, to some, seen as an entry level church job is actually a highly specialized ministry few know how to do or have the patience for.

Youth Pastors are some of the few in our churches who are dialed into youth culture in a way no one else is

Youth culture is a subculture. It has its own language, etiquette, and its own causes to champion. Marketers spend millions of dollars marketing to this one particular cross-section. Even training for secondary school teachers is in part on methods specifically with youth in mind. These students are tech savvy, innovators, who care deeply about relationships and face a myriad of challenges generations before never dreamt of. Youth pastors are called to be the experts of this group.

I am indebted to the many who labor to do the research and the writing so the rest of us can have a better handle on such a complex and diverse group of students. I recently searched Amazon for books on youth ministry. The search returned over 10,000 books. I also looked up a few other ministry categories. I searched men’s, women’s, children’s, etc. The only category that beat out youth ministry was children’s. However, no other ministry category came close. To make things even more challenging, youth culture changes at a rapid pace. As technology changes, as the political landscape changes, and our students’ challenges change, so goes culture. In order to be effective, youth pastors are required to be on the cutting edge of these changes.

Youth Pastors are actively engaged in Life-on-Life mentoring of students around the clock

I am not a youth pastor, nor am I a student. I know, big surprise. But I do know that the mentoring relationship between a youth pastor and a student is beautiful and sacred. So instead of me pontificating on either side of that equation, I went straight to the source. I asked some students to give me some much-needed insight. This is a small sampling of what they gave me.

Personally, the youth pastors and mentors who have focused on me during my middle and high school years are the reason I made the decision to live out my faith daily out of my own choice. Not something that was just part of a routine because I was born into a Christ-loving home. I am thankful for the youth pastors that see their position as the most important job in the world.

I appreciate the passion. I appreciate the love that all pastors and spiritual mentors are able to give and show; especially the one's who have to deal with kids like me. I appreciate the accountability I am held to, and that I am not treated like I am too small, too young, or too insignificant. I appreciate that my problems are not treated as minuscule. Instead, help me realize that I should not ignore my feelings but always acknowledge the truth.

I appreciate youth pastors because of the support they give to the youth that are trying to find themselves and lead them to find themselves in Christ. The support they give us, as youth, mimics the support of God, which is just one way that we are all encouraged to be Christ-like. I appreciate the leaders that take responsibility when they fall and are humble when they have success. I am thankful for the leaders in my church and the leaders in my life that focus on me and teach me how to serve by serving as well. I am thankful that youth pastors and my spiritual mentors are aware that they are examples and role models.

I am thankful for the chance to build God's kingdom and see my own hard work unfold for His glory. I am thankful for those who make me feel empowered, no matter my age, size, or gender. The thing that makes youth pastors, youth leaders, and mentors so special is that they help shape youth into who they are and who they want to be in Christ.

One last reason: The unseen, often unnoticed, behind the scenes work most of us never see.

When most of us see youth groups, we see the surface. We see the games, the worship service, and the highlight video from the last retreat or mission trip. But so often it is what we don’t see that has a far greater impact. Many students feel the same way as the students described above. But where most of that mentoring happens is not at a retreat, or even during Sunday morning worship. It is the subtle conversations; the school visits, remembering the big test, the big game, or the big dance coming up. It is walking side-by-side with students through the every stuff of life. But still, there is so much more than that.

Every retreat, mission trip, or big event requires countless hours of planning, preparation, organization of volunteers, working within budgets, fundraising, and a myriad of details that could make your head explode. They are stretched thin, sacrificing their family for yours, because they simply love students. At the same time navigating the successes, failures, critiques, and humble suggestions from the rest of us; and do so with grace and humility.

To the youth pastors: Thank you. Thank you for who you are and your unrelenting investment in a generation most can’t or won’t understand. You are reframing the future of the church. Well done.

To parents: What are some other reasons you can be thankful? And more importantly, how could you show them just how grateful you are for their impact on your students?