2 Year Shelf Life

I spent a few hours today helping a good friend of mine out at the property where he is building his new home... so many illustrations there, but that's not what this is about. I was the "hose guy" or as the McKenzie brothers would say, the "hoser." My job was to flood the dirt. I was going there expecting to be the one moving the dirt, so I was pleasantly surprised.

But I enjoyed spending the time with my friend. He resigned his position as youth pastor at his church on Saturday. I don't know the story in its entirety, nor do I want to, but I guess the entire staff (6 people, I think) resigned and left the senior pastor to operate the church alone. I do not blame him for doing this, as it is most likely the best scenario, but my friend needs healing. The rest of the staff needs healing. The senior pastor needs healing. The entire church body needs healing.

So as I reflect on this situation, a few things come to mind. Like why is there such a turnover with youth pastors? I read somewhere that the life expectancy of a youth pastor is 2 years. 2years!!!!! I am over the hill!!!!! At 2 1/2 years, I am the longest tenured youth pastor in our region. We have had 1 guy take over the senior pastors job after 12+ years. That I get, kinda. One resigns because of internal church issues. I get that. One moves into a college pastor role and made room for a "home grown" guy to take over. I suppose I can get that, since that is how I got to where I am. One left his denomination to go to another. One left to plant a church. One wasn't paid, so he split. A number of churches cant afford youth pastors so the youth leaders in charge get burnt out and give up.

So youth pastors are either stopping by on their way to somewhere else, or they are being mistreated.

I have seen youth ministry as the "default ministry" in many churches. Someone feels called to ministry, and that is evident, but we don't have a place for them other than the youth. Or, the church cant afford a full-time youth pastor, so they get a guy that is the worship leader/youth pastor/nursery coordinator/janitor/bagel boy, and they find out that they like being the bagel boy the best and work at that more than anything else, and eventually become Bagel Boy Extraordinaire and leave the church trying to find a new youth pastor.

So, the church suffers, the youth pastor suffers, but ultimately, the youth suffer. Teenagers are longing for some sort of stability in their lives. A lot of them aren't getting it at home, or with their friends or their boy/girlfriends. So, the person they look up to as the Christian leader in their lives (a lot of times) is only around for half their high school years at best? How is that stable?

The job of a youth pastor should be to bring at least a spiritual stability to these young people, and we are failing. What can be done to help alleviate this issue? Are youth pastors giving up too easily? Are churches burying the youth pastors? Can things change?