For a 2 week period, Tim Schomoyer did a poll asking if you, a youth minister, are thriving in your ministry position or are you frustrated in it? It was a great question to ask. The results are posted here.
For me, the results were very surprising as a good majority of youth ministers were frustrated in their position. Of the 112 votes, 58% of youth ministers said they were frustrated by it.
So, trying to figure out why this was the case, I began processing my own youth ministry experience and in going over my 13 years of full-time ministry highs and lows. Out of that I came up with 2 main reasons why youth ministers can become more frustrated in their position. There are likely more reasons but here are 2 that really stood out to me:
- Unrealistic Expectations from our Supervisors. This is due largely from a lack of clear job description. Whether you have one or not, it boils down to your boss having different expectations for you than what you expect. This can be very frustrating as you often get assigned tasks that do not fit the ideal job description of a youth minister.
- Unrealistic expectations from Ourselves. I have found this to be the case that when I get passionate about a direction our program should take, yet students fail to follow. I get frustrated when I see student struggle with the same issues over and over again, never giving it fully to the Lord. I get frustrated when I see God wanting to work and students failing to take a step of faith. I think the bottom line for me and many others is I get frustrated because I think everyone should “get it” and they don’t.