Youth Ministry is Scary

It’s easy to be an insecure youth pastor.

Think about it. You are the only one in the entire church that “does youth ministry.”  There’s nobody to compare yourself to. There’s no “standard” to say you’re doing a good job, great job, or terrible job.

At the end of the week, who’s to say you did everything you were supposed to? What shows you that your priorities were straight and that you spent your time wisely?

Better yet, what tells you that you did a good job and made a difference?

That’s when insecurity can so quickly set in. With nobody giving you a thumbs up or thumbs down, there’s a temptation to just feel like you’re not doing it right and all your efforts are in vain.

Plus, with no shared standards or common expectations, every expectation any leader or parent might have, quickly becomes the standard they hold you to. You’ll never live up to all their expectations, so a lot of the feedback you actually do hear is, “Why didn’t you do this?” or “How could you possibly let that happen?”

I’m just being honest here. This is tough stuff. So how do you deal with this pressure?

I pray for the Lord’s favor in each of our lives so that we can survive and thrive because of His love, and in spite of our environment. And I know that His mercy and blessing is greater than all the worst the world could throw at us.