Pastoring God's People
For all those who have been commissioned to
pastoral roles of all kinds.
Youth need the senior pastor
by Anna Rehan
During my teenage years, I was fortunate to have a pastor who took a keen interest in the youth. He involved us in a variety of ways in Sunday morning worship, and if we made mistakes, he encouraged us to try again. When he led the occasional youth Sunday school class or Bible study, he let us express our doubts. He attended youth events and sometimes invited us to his home for fun and refreshments.
I thought of him the other day, when a worried pastor came to my office. His congregation has no youth pastor, no volunteer youth sponsor, and no youth program. Some families, he lamented, were thinking of going to a church that had more for the youth. His church council felt that they had failed their youth. This pastor told me that he had no training in youth ministry, and he didn’t know where to begin with the youth in his church. Like many pastors, he felt lost when it came to the youth of his congregation. What could he do?
What is the role of a senior pastor in the lives of youth—whether or not there are other staff and volunteers to attend to the needs of youth? I believe that youth are always encouraged in their faith, and more inspired toward ministry, when they know their pastor takes them seriously as key people in the congregation. Here are some simple things that every pastor can do:
1. Build relationships with youth.
Get to know their names. Acknowledge their presence with words of greeting. Find out about their accomplishments, their struggles, and the things they enjoy. You don’t have to keep up with their slang of the day; just listen to them, ask questions, and show an interest in what they have to say. And let them get to know you. Tell them of your own faith story, your current visions for the church, and your struggles.
2. Pastor them, too, not just their parents.
Youth are at a difficult time in their lives, and they need pastoral care as much as anyone else. They need to hear that God walks with them in their anxiety, pain, sin, doubt, error, weakness, loneliness, and success. Let them express their doubt and cynicism without judging them.
3. Show up at their events.
Ask to lead the occasional youth Bible study, speak at a retreat, or attend a fun event. You don’t have to be at every event; your presence at a few things means more than you may think.
4. Be an advocate.
Treat youth as an important part of the church, with gifts and talents that they love to give. Invite their participation in worship as well as other areas in your church’s ministry. Make sure that publicity on youth events is prominent in the bulletin and other venues. Support their fundraising efforts for service experiences and conventions. Ask youth to share some highlights of such events.
5. Let them into the sermon time.
In your preaching, consciously include examples and stories that connect with youth culture. And if youth show promise in the area of public speaking, allow them to preach or to team preach a sermon with you. If the youth group plans a worship service, encourage them to be creative in presenting the message. And whatever they do, affirm them.
6. Publicly recognize important events in their lives.
Baptism, getting a driver’s license, graduation, and being hired for a first job are all important life markers. If your worship leaders are not planning these celebrations into Sunday morning worship, take the initiative in suggesting them.
In your work as pastor, perhaps the most important youth ministries you will have will be on the street, in the church foyer, or at a basketball game. It might be a note in a youth’s mailbox or a greeting in which you call the youth by name. As Carol Duerksen notes in Building Together: Developing Your Blueprint for Congregational Youth Ministry (see page 47), “youth ministry is people first, and program second.” No matter what else is happening—or not happening —in youth programs at your church, the interest you show in the youth will go a long way toward nurturing them toward faith and ministry.
Anna Rehan is youth minister for Mennonite Church Saskatchewan and youth ministries facilitator for Mennonite Church Canada. She lives in Langham, Saskatchewan.