Churches are funny. They actually hire people to babysit the teenagers….to take them to amusement parks, weekend camping retreats, and other fun activities. These babysitters are also known as Youth Ministers. Sure, these youth workers might occassionally have a teen pregnancy or other crisis that pops up, but for the most part everything is smooth sailing. Imagine being paid to have fun? Boggles the mind. It’s not that have have some type of resentment toward youth ministers. They’ve choosen their field because it’s something they enjoy and can easily have fun at. I might have chosen it if the pay was better and I had better speaking ability. For the most part, youth ministry is not a full time job. Teaching a class on Sundays and Wednesday nights accounts for 2 hours. Then there the weekend road trips which could account for maybe 20 hours. I’d imagine at the very most it would be a part time job of 24 hours a week.
Why has youth ministers become the cool thing to have a church? Mostly its because parents refuse to be parents….to get involved with their child’s spiritual well-being. Instead we let youth ministers carry the brunt of a kid’s spiritual well-being. You see, “Deacon in charge of Youth” doesn’t sound cool enough for most people. Deacons have to be married and with some kids. Once they get to be that age, they are uncool in the eyes of most teenagers. The title of “Youth Minister” is hip right now.