Youth Pastor Archives | Bad Days Better

It has been a long time since I have posted.  The primary reason for this has been related to my lack of funds.  You see my hosting renewal came up and I did not have the money to renew my hosting.  I pulled the trigger a few hours ago and purchased my hosting.

Not much new here in northwest Missouri.  The job hunt still continues. I have updated my resume I can’t tell you how many times but I know the best way for your resume to be noticed is for someone else to deliver it.  However I still keep plugging away.  Some people have asked if I want to be a youth pastor or a senior pastor and right now I am kind of in the either one camp.  I have 15 years of experience as a youth pastor and that is something I enjoy doing.  So in the right circumstance I would take a youth pastor postion.  However most of the churches I have submitted to have been senior pastor postions.  All of this to say the search continues.  It has been 2 years since I have ministered in a full time capacity and trust me I am ready.  But it is God’s timing so i will continue to wait upon the Lord.

I have always felt that God has called me to be a Youth Pastor in addition I have always been against those that merely use Youth Ministry to aspire to something better meaning a Sr. Pastor role.  But what if you feel maybe God is calling you to a Sr. Pastor role.  This has entered into my thinking and something I never thought I would think about is dominating my thought process.  I really have never desired to be a Sr. Pastor.  I guess all of the headaches that come with it I would like to avoid.  However there are just as many headaches within Youth Ministry.  I however have always liked dealing with teens and have not necessarily liked dealing with many adults.  However I have to ask myself has God been preparing me for this, preparing me for something different, even something I never dreamed I would do.

I have always said to my wife if I was going to be a Sr. Pastor I don’t want to do it in a small town.  I have just felt the potential for growth is so low.  However over the last few weeks I have begun to see that there are many smaller towns that either do not have a good church or they have a church without a Pastor.  Many people here in MO are forced to drive several miles if they live in a small town in order to find a good church.  In addition I have had several people recently ask me if I would consider being a Sr. Pastor.  I just struggle with decision.  Am I ready?

Sometimes God calls us to do things that we never though were possible.  Sometimes God wants us to think outside of ourselves and to focus on Him.  I am not saying I am call to be a Sr. Pastor but I decided today I should at least be open to the idea.  If you are reading this I would ask that you pray fro direction in my life.

I recently was talking with a pastor and this question was asked of me.  We had talked for quite awhile and he then stopped me and asked me so why do you still want to be a Youth Pastor.  The answer for me was actually simple.  Here was my response.  ”Because God called me to be a Youth Pastor.” 

In my years of being a Youth Pastor I have seen many use youth ministry as a stepping stone into something bigger.  Often times they may have what they feel is a good reason for this.  However, does God call us to use one ministry as a mere stepping stone into another.  Why do we seem so often to want to climb the career ladder in church?  Always wanting to move to the bigger or “better” church.  

I must confess youth ministry is often difficult.  It is hard to juggle everything that we must do in addition in having to deal with church life.  However I believe God allows us to go through things to only make us stronger and more moldable in his hands.

I remember as a college student at Hannibal LaGrange College a professor saying that ministry in lonely.  If I recall correct he said that to be in ministry is to be in some of the loneliest time you will ever know.  When asked why he stated because you feel like you cant have any real friends.  I thought this cant be true but it is.  Why is ministry so lonely?  Does it have to be that way?  Why do pastors and youth pastors feel like they have to shelter themselves from everyone?  Why do we not let people see the real us?

I have been a Youth Pastor for over 14 years and they have been some of the loneliest years of my life.  I have often wondered why?  It seems odd that we have certain criteria that we want followed and we often do not want people to step outside of our box.  Somehow and idea has invaded the church that a pastor can not sin or can do no wrong so Pastors shelter themselves trying to live the perfect life.  I rarely have had anyone that I could just poor my heart out to and tell them what I was feeling and why I was feeling it.   Even at times when I did share struggles or problems I was judged instead of loved.  

I can’t tell you how many times I would sit at home with my wife and wish we had someone just to hang out with.  Hoping maybe some people would just call us up or that we could just go out to eat with someone or watch a movie with someone.  This happened a few times with some people some more then others.  It is odd that a Pastor can stand in the pulpit and have people hanging on every word but outside of the pulpit no one seems to care.  I have some great friends that accept me for who I am unfortunately they are thousands of miles away some not that far but they all have their own ministries.  The funny thing is loneliest is one of the number one reasons pastors leave.  I do not like the loneliness especially right now with all that is going on.  But I think of those words from my professor “to enter into ministry is to enter into some of the loneliest time ever.”

And as I think of the possibility of getting back into ministry I am forced to ask myself this question.  ”Do I want to be lonely?”

Wow these last few days have been extremely crazy for me.  It all started yesterday.  My wife said she was having alot more contractions and our baby is at 32 weeks in addition she said she had not felt the baby move for awhile.  So I told her it was better to be safe then sorry and to call the dr.   She took my advice and the dr. sent us to hospital to get it checked out.  This was our 5th trip to the hospital during this pregnancy.  While there the nurse ran some tests and said that her water had broke and she was admitted.  We both thought that id were water had broke then our child would be born that night.  We were obviously wrong.  

So I spent the night in an uncomfortable chair and got about 3 hours of sleep before coming home showering and heading back to the hospital.  When I got back to the hospital we received good news.  The nurse said that another test was negative and that her water may not have broke so if she got three negatives she would be allowed to come home tonight.  However, you guessed it the next two showed signs that her water may have broke.  Confused?  Me too.  So they decided to keep her.  Not sure how long maybe until the baby is born we do not know.  

So in the middle of this I received a phone call from a Pastor who had been in contact with me about the possibility of becoming their Youth Pastor.  The kicker is everything with this church at the moment is matching up perfectly.  Well other then it will be 1,000 miles from our family still.  But everything else is perfect it is almost too good.  New building, in a place I have always wanted to live, more of a rural setting, Is this from the Lord?  God please make it known to me.  

In addition to all this my mom will be here next Friday and I have so much to get done for the move.  The plan is to send everything back to Missouri but my wife may still be in the Hospital?  This is crazy.  If you got some advice give it.

Sorry for the rambling just needed to say something.