If you haven’t followed some of the great stuff that Barefoot Ministries is doing you need to get on board because their future is going to be amazing. Chris Folmsbee is leading in some pretty innovative ways and I love the people he is partnering with. He grabs great youth workers and thinkers. People like Mark Oestreicher from the Youth Cartel to lead the Slant33 blog and Mike King from YouthFront to oversee the Immerse Journal.

So I have a small piece in this too. I’m on the advisory board for Immerse and this year I am a contributor to Slant33. The first slant I was asked to write on came out yesterday and I’d love to have you go there and see what myself, Josh Griffin and Brian Berry think about how we plan out our Youth Ministry Calendars.

This post had way to many links in it so just consider this day my way of telling you about some people that I am amazing to be in relationship with who I think are doing cool things. I’m using this blog as a landing pad of awesomeness. If you are in the Youth Ministry world click any of these links and you will be rewarded with stuff that will make you think and encourage you about the ministry career you are in.

If you are reading this and work in a church you will probably agree with me that most of us didn’t enter into our career with the goal of making money.  But, I do think that a calling to Youth Ministry is not a calling to being poor.

I think  there are generally a bunch of reasons why youth workers make some of the lowest salaries of staff in churches. 

1. In general youth workers are young

2. Most youth workers don’t stick around very long

3. Many youth workers are single

4. Most youth workers don’t know what they are doing when they are negotiating a salary.

5. Many churches don’t see the youth worker role as a life career but more as a stepping stone to something else.

One hard thing in youth ministry too is that we often feel guilty leaving a church or job to look for something else because of the relationships we have with students and families.  Hear me when I say that I’m not telling you to leave your current job.  In fact your longevity there may be your greatest asset to negotiating a better package.  I’m just advising you to be smart. Get some others opinions about what you are being offered and be careful to know fully what you are saying yes to.

I’m a huge fan of friends at YouthMinistry.com they have done some great research into the area of salary surveys for youth workers.  For more detailed info and to check out Groups 2010 Youth Ministry salary survey go here.

After checking out that list you are either going to feel pretty happy with your salary or sad that you are eating ramen again tonight and starting to look for a new job.

A few years ago I wrote a series of posts about how to get a job and negotiate with a church.   It’s been one of my most read series and I think it’s pretty good stuff to helping you think through some areas that you might want to consider before you say yes to any church or salary package.

If you are in the youth ministry world and ever want an opinion of someone who has been doing this for a while look me up and send me an e-mail. I’m always wiling to take a look at an offer and help anyone negotiate.

I should probably tell you too that just last week I offered someone a full-time job in my student ministry department.  And as a part of the conversation I had with him I told him that he needed to negotiate with me if he wasn’t comfortable with the offer I gave him.  I let him know that I was 100% comfortable with that type of conversation and that this was really his only chance to have it for a while.  I tell people all the time that you will have more negotiating power when you are first offered a job than you will again for years.

So I don’t believe you need to be poor.  I don’t think it’s a prerequisite for youth ministry.  I think many youth workers end up in that place feeling the crunch every month because we do a poor job of knowing what to ask for and how to negotiate.

I’m guessing that some of you reading this though might be stuck in a situation at a church where you feel like you are not being paid enough and you are considering looking for a new job or giving up on youth ministry entirely. Here’s a couple bits of advice for you.

1. Pray-  I am a part of a denomination that believes very strongly in being “called” to something. Ask God to clearly make your path known to you and what you are supposed to be doing with your life.  If it’s not youth ministry you might want to start considering something else.

2. Network- Find other people doing the same thing with you and ask how they manage.  I have a bunch of friends who are not youth workers who have a very different life and financial situation than me. In general they are pretty useless to talk to.  But, I also have a bunch of friends in ministry who I can ask questions about how everything is supposed to work.

3. Write out your needs-  You may be getting by now but you realize that if you get married or need a new car or start paying back student loans you won’t.  Write out all of that and talk to your supervisor way in advance of those things happening. They may be able to help you walk through those transitions with you. But, it’s not a good idea to wait till those life changes happen and then go try to negotiate.

4. Ask to renegotiate-  You can play this card very few times so save it up for when you really need it.

5. Be realistic-  You may feel like your job is one of the most important at the church but the reality is you may be alone in that thinking.  You may have to work to build your resume for a few years and transition to another church before you receive that package that will sustain you. I’m not an advocate for leaving too soon but the reality is that may be your only answer.

I apologize if it seems like I’m always pointing to things I’ve written to help in this area but as I’ve written a lot about this stuff I want to point you to one more article. This came out in Youth Worker Journal a few months back and it’s all about how to make your ministry job a “career”.  I’ve been told by a bunch of people that it has really helped them.  You can find it here.  

Youth Ministry Falsehoods.

1. You must be with students 24/7
2. You must be young
3. You must be single/married
4. You must be irresponsible and fly by the Seat of your Pants
5. You must be theologically trained
6. You must be an extrovert
7. You must a great upfront communicator
8. You must be wild and crazy and a kid magnet
9. You must be willing to be poor
10. You must want to be a “real” pastor some day

I’ve been told over the years that I have a bit of craziness in me.  It comes out in general on trips when I have an large amount of free time and am spending a ton of extended time with students.  There are appropriate times for this kind of ministry.  We do an event every year for our 5-6th graders which basically ends in a huge shaving cream war.  A similar thing happens on a Middle School event. Come to think of it most of our fun events seem to end with me covered in shaving cream.

But there is a lot more to ministry than just being wild and crazy.  In fact sometimes being crazy is what hurts your ministry the most.  I’m a parent of three kids.  I want my kids to have fun at church and I appreciate leaders with energy but I’m also a bit leery of leaders who sometimes clearly don’t know how to shut it down.  Like I said above there are appropriate times for it but sometimes it gets in the way.

Being a kid magnet is sometimes a great thing and helpful in ministry.  Who doesn’t want to feel like kids want to hang out with you and without trying to hard they come to you. But, there is also a great place in ministry for the man or woman who  is consistent, regular and prepared.  For someone who week in and week out has proved that they will always be there and students know that they can always turn to them.

I had a volunteer who was a part our ministry early on in California.  I haven’t worked with him in 13 years. But, every year without fail he calls us on our anniversary.  This year I happened to post that on Facebook and a whole bunch of people commented that he does the same thing for them.  That’s an amazing testimony to commitment.

There are times in ministry that all of us need to break free of our comfort zone. For me I have to “gear up” and get ready for events.  It’s literally almost like a locker room talk that I give myself before an event. I mentally think through how I need to act and the energy I need to have in order to make sure that students have a good time.  Of course afterwards I’m a wreck and tired but generally it’s worth it.

How do you do it?

Youth Ministry Falsehoods.

1. You must be with students 24/7
2. You must be young
3. You must be single/married
4. You must be irresponsible and fly by the Seat of your Pants
5. You must be theologically trained
6. You must be an extrovert
7. You must a great upfront communicator
8. You must be wild and crazy and a kid magnet
9. You must be willing to be poor
10. You must want to be a “real” pastor some day

This post may seem slightly similar to my last post but I think there are enough differences that I decided to write it separately.  I do a lot of consulting with churches and youth workers who all have decided that they need the same things.  Many churches just feel like a great “Up front” dynamic presence who is a master communicator and story teller will likely draw students into the ministry and then they can feel successful about their youth ministry.  Youth Workers in general have bought into this belief too and the most highly prized ones are those who are the most visibly gifted up front.

But the truth is this is hurting our field.  Think about it for a second. How many of us have sat in a seminar or a youth ministry event and listened to a super engaging up front communicator tell story after story without really saying anything.   I’ve fallen into this trap too. There was a joke at a church I worked a few years ago that I couldn’t teach without telling some sort of story about the Island I grew up on.   I was really good at telling stories and keeping students attention. But, I was really bad about doing what I was supposed to do which was teach the Bible.

When we overemphasize the role of the upfront communicator we put that person in a position where they start becoming as important as the content/message/Bible they are supposed to be teaching.  Think about some of these dynamic communicators. What has happened when they left?  Is the Youth Ministry teaching time about Jesus or is about their communication style?  Did we make the youth ministry about entertainment and keeping their attention or did we fail at promoting a real concept of what following Jesus will look like.  It’s hard.

Now if you know me then you know I am a good communicator.  It’s something I do value and  for whatever reason God gifted me in it.  If I wanted too though I could not study, prepare or plan a message and just get up and teach from the seat of my pants. And students would like it and keep coming back.  So maybe this post is my way of telling myself to be careful.

But, I also think there are a ton of great youth workers who feel like they are constantly out of place because the expectation is that they will be great up front communicators and they just don’t know how to do that.  My friend Mark Riddle wrote a pretty great yet scathing post today about a youth ministry he was involved in where the youth pastor couldn’t think of anything for Mark to do if he wasn’t going to lead a small group.   Have we decided incorrectly that any gift is more important than others in the youth ministry world.

So if you are a youth worker who doesn’t feel like you can be up front. If you feel like you aren’t valued because you aren’t dynamic, if you feel marginalized because your church (or places you’ve interviewed) don’t value your gifts. Please know that you are valuable.

I write a lot of blog posts resolved that if I could make a difference then I would. I can make a difference with my influence and with my team.  My encouragement is to hold tightly to the words of Paul from 1st Corinthians.

12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body–whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free–and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles,second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing,those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues ? Do all interpret?

Youth Ministry Falsehoods.

1. You must be with students 24/7
2. You must be young
3. You must be single/married
4. You must be irresponsible and fly by the Seat of your Pants
5. You must be theologically trained
6. You must be an extrovert
7. You must a great upfront communicator
8. You must be wild and crazy and a kid magnet
9. You must be willing to be poor
10. You must want to be a “real” pastor some day