A Day in the Life of a Youth Pastor
Do you have students come up to you occasionally and ask… “What do you do?’ Oh the mystery of the Monday through Friday pastor. I guess they think we don’t do anything but sit around and wait for them to come back to church. You and I both know there are a lot of things we do though out the week. Planning. Meeting with Pastor. Guest follow up. Room clean up and set up. And so much more.
So in a response to some of the preconceived ideas many of them have, I made a instragram reel of a typical day of a youth pastor. It was a fun exercise and enlightening to those who watched it.
Here is the fun moment… I shot the video, but one of our students edited it and formatted it for me.
What do you do during the week? What does your follow up and preparation look like? Are you spending time with your wife and kids too? Leave a comment or book a coaching session with Steve to take a deep dive in the behind the scenes look at what a youth pastor does any given day.
Youth Pastor’s Job Description
This is a scary exercise! One day I was randomly thinking, what in the world do I do? So, like any detailed person would do, I made a list. Here’s a picture of the list.
Yeah… I was feeling overwhelmed that day and to be honest this is NOT the complete list of all the things we are asked to do as a youth pastor! We carry a huge burden. It’s a struggle to keep our heads above water. I’m not so sure what the answer is other than good time management and delegation.
So how in the world do we manage to keep the ship from falling apart or worse yet, let someone down? I think the answer lies in perspective and a strong sense of God’s calling on your life. We are not good at keeping our perspective because there is typically always someone in our faces or there is another event to put together. We are also not good at keeping God’s call on our life front and center either. Why? Busyness is the destroyer of perspective and exhaustion is the distractor of calling.
I also believe the answer lies in spiritual, emotional and physical health. Yep, some call it “balance”, but I call it “harmony.” There are seasons in youth ministry. (School season, equipping season, travel season. Etc.) We need to learn the harmony of the year and seek to give ourselves grace when it’s tough. Knowing your limits and working hard to create margins for family, rest and sabbath help bring our calling and perspective back in line.
Have you made a list of all the things you’re responsible for? I would love to see it. Post a comment OR better yet schedule a time to meet with me and let’s regain our sense of perspective and calling.
First Love. Part 1.
“What is love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me no more…” These lyrics from “Haddaway” (yes, that’s a little 80s trivia for ya!) are so catchy and for most of us we can sing it at any given moment. But as you read this lyrics we feel as though this is how love ought to be.. no hurt. Everything is rosey and seems like every moment is written out of a fairy tale. Love doesn’t look like a fairytale! Really!? So, the the girls in the room have this “fairy tale” love story going through our minds and have become hopeless romantics. Love doesn’t look like this in reality. Our world has twisted and skewed the definition of love. Made it romantic and perverted. The perfect definition of love can only be found in the arms of our Father in heaven.
You would think that we will be talking about romantic love in this series… but we’re NOT! We will be talking through what it really means to love others as Christ would love them. When in conflict or “life-changing” events arise, we need to make a choice to love FIRST. When “break ups” happen, and we want to throw the boy out the window! First love… not romantically, but in an agape God love kind of way. When we hear the news of parents getting a divorce… first love! When we get cut off in traffic by an impatient little punk!! First love.
How do you respond to others in your life? Are your words filled with so much sarcasm that your friends can’t tell if your serious or not? Is your heart filled to the top with selfishness that if a stranger came into your life, you wouldn’t give them the time of day!?
First Love. God’s love was at the very beginning. The creation of the world was a motivation of His love toward us. It was His love for us he made a way to deal with the penalty of our sin. It was His love that put Jesus on the cross. It was His love for us that defines who I am and why I was created.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (NIV)
He first loved. Love is found in Him. He is the beginning of it. His heart is where love begins. Not in the heart of man, nor in the heart of another. Love begins with Him. He first loved.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:9-10 NIV
So convicting! This truth is taking root in my soul and creating a collision of faith!
Collision at the prayer wall.
In our student center we have a prayer wall. Most youth groups have a space where students can freely express their prayer concerns to the rest of the group anonymously. Thursday morning I was passing through and stopped to read some of the requests from Wednesday night. There was one request that captured my attention. “God help me to stay on the path. I don’t like being separated from you.” We’ve been talking over the past few weeks about how our sin separates and the cross bridges the gap our sin has created. My hope as a youth pastor is students would know and believe Jesus is the one true hope! This request broke my heart.
This is a collision of faith for me. I believe this prayer card speaks to my passion and calling as a youth pastor. I genuinely desire for students to find all they need in Christ and my calling is to lead them through the pages of scripture to discover His great love for them. Moments when I cry with a student over the mistakes of the past and leading them to a deep understanding of His grace cause me to dig deeper. Moments like this one at the prayer wall. When I weep over the simple request of this student to experience what a “right” relationship with God is.
There is no greater calling on the planet than to lead others to the Cross. What has been your experience? Have you had moments like mine? Collisions with the reality of the sin in this world and the beautiful grace of the Cross. He is in the business of making all things new. Renewing your heart and mine. Driving us to our knees in humility and burning a passion deep within us for teenagers. This calling is worth all the tears. It’s worth all the sleepless nights and hard conversations. To be used to make an impact in the lives of teenagers. There is no great calling.
I love student ministry.
Separation Anxiety. Desperate to be reunited. (Part 3)
The level of anxiousness we have in our relationship with God directly determines how desperate we are!
The shear amount of resources and training Search and Rescue Teams use is inspiring. These guys spend hours training and tons of resources to be ready when called on. When something important is missing, we’ll spend a ton of time, effort and resources to insure their return. And rightfully so! We should do everything in our power to reunite those who are lost. When searching, they are relentless. They will use every available resource to insure the lost are found. They can get pretty anxious in the search… and it motivates them to keep going.
In your relationship with God, how anxious are you to be with God? Is the separation of your sin bothering you? Making you anxious? I believe this anxiety we feel in our relationship with God is healthy. It’s the motivator we need to find the one thing that can satisfy this longing deep within.
Separation Anxiety. Desperate to be reunited. (Part 2)
The separation is killing me!! I have young kids and it wasn’t too long ago I remember dropping them off at the nursery. If you have young kids you know what I’m talking about. As we walk down the hall toward the nursery our kids get quieter and quieter. They sense the separation coming. You arrive at the door. Bend down to drop them off… and this is what you see…
The moment of separation from mom and dad can be so stressful. The very thought that mom and dad would leave me in the hands of a “stranger.” It almost feels like we are torturing our kids. But, the big question is… Do you feel like this when sin separates you from God?
Separation Anxiety. Desperate to be Reunited. (Part 1)
The distance between… I’d like to describe it as “anxiety.” Its the feeling of being separated from the one’s we love. When I was in high school, my father who was serving in the Air Force was called up to go to Kuwait… 6 weeks before the war became public. All I remember was a kiss on the forehead in the early morning hours. When I woke up, my mom told my brother and I he “had to leave.” For the next 6 weeks we didn’t know where he was. Just vanished. When all the news began to break about Desert Storm, we got a fuzzy phone call from my dad telling us where he was, and that he was not in harms way.
During these anxious 6 weeks of separation, my heart was filled with a constant tension. I wanted to know where he was, if he was hurting, I just wanted to be in his presence again. I knew in these moments what it feels like to be genuinely separated from the one you love.
Husband, Dad, Youth Pastor, Writer
Fresh Calling: Ministry Coaching and Consulting 
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