Youth Pastors Aren’t Replacement Parents

Why are youth pastors blamed for every bad thing any young person ever does in church?

And why do some parents put so much pressure on youth pastors to disciple their students, while taking little responsibility for their own kids’ spiritual lives?

These questions will probably continue to haunt us for a while, but it’s interesting to see study after study demonstrate just how influential parents can be (like this one, and this one).

Here’s the kicker. In spite of the incredible influence parents have on teens, they don’t use it. “The majority of children in America have less than 10 minutes of significant and meaningful conversation with their parents each week. If you remove the mother, you can measure this statistic in seconds.“ (It came from this article, although they did not mention a source.)

Youth pastors are not and cannot be replacement parents. In fact, instead of traditional “youth ministry stuff,” we might find that some of our time is best spent helping parents be better spiritual leaders in their own homes. What do you think?