Thoughts From a Struggling Youth Pastor (An Anonymous Guest Post)

Happy Groundhog Day! Many of us will take the opportunity today to watch the brilliant Bill Murray film in which a weatherman gets stuck living the same day over and over again. It becomes somewhat of a nightmare for him until he learns a few things about himself and escapes into February 3rd. This post has almost nothing to do with the movie- except for the repeated nightmare part...

I was asked to share the following anonymous post by a friend, and I am glad to do so. Youth Pastors everywhere carry heavy burdens. Too many many churches and church members fail to see the importance of the work, often viewing student ministry as glorified babysitting when it should be seen as ministry to one of largest mission fields around. They treat youth pastors as second class staff members who someday hope to be a "real pastor." I was a youth pastor for nearly 30 years, and while these are not my words they certainly could have been on several occasions in my own life. It is my hope that reading this post will open the eyes of those who take youth pastors and student ministries for granted. The Groundhog Day effect (it just KEEPS happening) will only end when we all step forward to offer support in word and in deed to these brave women and men who have such an impact on the students they serve in the name of the God they serve. Read this with the knowledge that YOUR youth pastor could have easily written these words. And then pray. Hard.

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An Anonymous Post:

I feel broken. I am emotionally exhausted and burnt out. I have labored for years for this place I love and these people I love. But I just don't think I have it in me any more. Everyone seems to really love me and the work I do, but the church has given me no resources to carry out my job. My budget has been cut just about every year. I have been given the worst piece of real estate on the church property and the church sees to it that every building is cleaned and cared for except for mine. It seems the only priority that has been placed on youth ministry is my salary.

I feel while I'm paid to do youth ministry, I spend my time doing other things. If there is a problem in the sound booth, I'm the one who does it. Guess who runs the church website? Yours truly. I also assist the pastor with hospital visits. And the meetings...Church Council, Trustees, this committee, that committee. Most weeks at least one or two evening meetings. All of this is in addition to the two nights a week I'm already at church for youth meetings. I just run from fire to fire putting things out. There is no vision or direction. I just run around like a dog chasing my tail. Parents and kids tell me they want to go on more fun trips, but when I plan them they don't attend, usually because they are busy with some other event they feel is more important. Oh wait, they will go on ski trips. People will come out of the woodwork to go on a ski trip. But a week long mission trip? Forget it. I have had no support from adults in the congregation who have a heart to make our ministry what it needs to be. Parents will bend over backwards to support every other activity their kids are involved in, but when I ask for help, I'm on my own. 

I just can't believe it. I told myself when I came here I wasn't going to be that guy that tried to do it all himself. I wasn't going to be a Lone Ranger. I was going to have helpers and leaders and it was going to be dynamic. And it was for a while. But I wasn't able to sustain that. Now kids are starting to leave because the other groups have more kids. I feel like I'm supposed to make something out of nothing. I feel like there has been no fruit to my labor and it is really hard to feel inspired to keep plowing the ground. And now parents are upset because I don't have the emotional fortitude to keep farming this fruitless ground. Besides that, I have all of this other stuff I'm supposed to be doing anyway.I have no tools, and no support. I do have a couple of people I can depend on but they do everything else that needs to be done around the church and I hate to ask them for any more than they already do. 

People are now hurt because I think people know my heart isn't in it. But instead of asking how they can help or what they can do, people only want to go somewhere else where they can find what they're looking for. Of course this thrills my senior pastor. (Yes, that was sarcasm.) He wants me to continue to build this program with the ridiculous lack of resources that has been given me. So I not only have pressure from the church but from my supervisor as well. 

I want a fresh start, but I don't know where to begin. I want to right this ship but I feel it has taken on too much water already. I love the job. I still love the people. But I don't know how to continue. Jesus is the miracle worker and that is the only thing I think will save this program at this point. Come, Lord Jesus come.

Dreaming Big and Running with Endurance

I am honored today to feature a guest post from one of my favorite writers, Teresa Reep Tysinger (at left). To be completely honest she is not just one of my favorite writers- she is one of my favorite people!  Teresa is sharing today about dreaming, and about one of her dreams. I urge you to share in her dream (as I have) by clicking the link at the bottom of the post and doing something amazing and tangible- GIVE! Join me and be part of her Dream Team. I'm not promising anything, but there may be t-shirts! And thank you, Teresa, for being willing to share from the heart. Always.

Hope is a foundational concept in the Christian faith. In fact, I’d argue that aside from grace, it’s the defining concept. We have hope for salvation because we trust in the promises of God’s love for us. We are renewed with strength as we wait on his plans to be made known. So what do we do in the meantime, as those full of hope?  We dream.

Throughout the course of history, “dreamers” have often been tagged as foolish, nonsensical, time-wasters. Undoubtedly there’s some merit to that. Dreaming is easy. Doing is hard. Doing takes planning, gumption, patience, and a willingness to fail (sometimes several times) before succeeding.  But while dreaming may be comparably easy, let’s not forget that dreaming is birthed from hope. Inventors dream up an invention hoping for added convenience. Artists dream of new ways to use various mediums in hope for creating beauty. Humanitarians dream of repurposing excess resources in hopes of bringing relief to hunger and poverty. 

These might be lofty examples of dreamers – inventors, artists, humanitarians. But I believe each of our individual dreams (i.e. ideas, brainstorms, and ambitions) are a product of the spiritual gifts God has distributed among us. At the most honest level, we dream of doing the greatest with our own talents, and leave those with talents we don’t possess to figure the rest out. What are your dreams?

One of my dreams has been to use my writing to express joy, hope, and grace to others. Since a young girl, I’ve found these things within the pages of countless books. As I’ve grown, however, the dream was packed away in a box deep in the recesses of my mind, covered up by demands of school, relationships, motherhood, career, etc.  I accepted that there’d be time for that particular dream down the road. One day. I hoped.

Have you ever noticed God’s tendency to make things more complicated than necessary? Weaving together expanses of time, involving numerous people in varying degrees, detouring to expose unexpected opportunities. But an intricately woven tapestry is far more interesting, memorable – and most importantly stronger – than a simple, loosely stitched piece of fabric constructed swiftly and haphazardly.

I’m so thankful to see God in the midst of weaving together my dream of becoming an author. A friend/co-worker urged me to consider participating in National Novel Writer’s Month back last November, through which you commit to writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Crazy, right? But the dreamer in me perked up. I channeled my inner gumption and willingness to fail and committed. I traded my precious evening couch time for the glow of the computer monitor late into the night. I painstakingly ignored my lack of confidence that anyone would want to read it. I was tired. I was weary. I doubted along the way. But I was also excited, hopeful, and felt alive. I trusted God to use my words to craft a story of grace and redemption that would mean something to at least one person who needed it.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us,
let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.  (Hebrews 12.1)

 Imagine my surprise when in less than 30 days, I had done it. It was hard. I wanted to quit – many times.  Now, thanks to the urging of supportive family and friends, I’ve found an editor I want to work with toward to road to publication. She’s the first one I checked out and it felt like an instant match. But God’s not done weaving. I’m taking another uncomfortable leap and asking anyone interested to join what I’ve affectionately named the “Dream Team,” and donate funds to cover the cost of a professional edit of the manuscript.

“I can’t ask people for money for something that’s just a personal dream,” I told my family and friends.

A friend pointed out that might be selfish of me – not giving others the chance to be willingly woven in to this beautiful and intricate tapestry of how God’s working through this dream. A dream that ultimately belongs to him anyway. 

So I created a campaign on PubSlush.com, a crowdfunding site specifically for aspiring writers and publishers. At the time I’m writing this, I’m 10% funded with 27 days to go. It’s scary. But I’m willing to fail. And I’m hopeful. A pretty powerful combination that leaves the door open wide enough to welcome God in to work his magic. The outcome is no longer really important.

What’s your dream? What amazing thing – big or small – might God do through your dreaming while we await the hope of eternal life with him? Working in the lives of your children as they experience you parenting with a servant heart? Integrating into your company’s initiatives a community service component? Building a water well in a small African village? And be on the lookout for people join your Dream Team. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Build your village. Bless others with the opportunity to be part of your tapestry.

Dream big, friends. Endure the race set before you. We are a hopeful people.

** If you’re interested in learning more, or – gasp! – donating to my crowdfunding campaign, please visit my PubSlush page (link http://pubslush.com/books/id/3267). Thank you! **  - Teresa Tysinger