My church is going through a lot of transitions right now. One pastor is retiring, another is being sent to plant a church in our community, and various administrative staff are moving away and stepping down. It’s all very positive and I’m excited for how God is leading each individual, but with all the staff changes in such a short amount of time I can’t help but wonder where God is taking us in the very near future.

My Sr. Pastor and I have spent some time vision casting, dreaming, and talking through our church’s future ministry and direction. They’ve been very healthy discussions. My Sr. Pastor knows that our vision and direction needs to be clearly defined before we start to bring new staff members on board to help us move in that direction, which I wholeheartedly agree.

As we’re evaluating all the different areas of ministry in our church, the youth ministry included, and revisiting things like job descriptions, I thought I’d pull out my church’s old job description because it’s been a long time since I last looked at it. Here it is:

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What this person is:
A person called by God to further the mission of the Evangelical Covenant Church as we experience and express the life and love of God through Jesus Christ. This person will reflect God’s heart for people and our commitment to Jesus’ Great Commandment and Great Commission, with a special focus on targeting middle school students through college age students.

What purpose this person commits to:
To provide an atmosphere where youth feel accepted, God’s love is revealed, and where all can grow in their desire to serve and honor God. In light of that purpose, this person will seek to reach out to uninterested students helping them get connected with Christ and other Christians and challenge interested students to grow in their faith.

What this person does:
Nurture a Spirit-filled relationship with God and Jesus Christ through the spiritual disciplines of the Christian faith.

Partner with the Youth Ministry Team and pastoral staff in ministering to youth and families. Participate in weekly staff meetings and regular Youth Ministry Team meetings.

Partner with parents in student’s spiritual development.

Develop a relational style ministry that includes:

• Connecting with students in their culture.
• Identifying and equipping volunteer adult leaders.
• Establishing and maintaining small groups.
• Training adult leaders for student ministry.
• Developing student leadership within the youth group.

Communicate and promote youth ministry to the broader congregation.

Keep good records of activities and programs.

Keep financial records and manage student ministry checkbook.

Work in conjunction with other churches in city wide youth events.

Work in conjunction with the Northwest Conference and Evangelical Covenant Church in the area of youth ministries.

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I’m glad to see that it is still a fairly accurate reflection of my role in the youth ministry, but there are some things I’d like to add, emphasize, and specifically address that aren’t reflected as clearly as they should be.

Here’s a challenge I’m going to take and I want you to do it with me:

If you could write your own youth ministry job description, what would it say? I’m going to write mine and review it with my Sr. Pastor as an exercise that will probably facilitate some good discussion. I’ll share my self-written job description with you later after we’ve had that discussion.

In the meantime, write your own job descriptions and share in the comments below. Take this seriously, not just some general “help kids grow spiritually” statement or something.

• What’s your vision for youth ministry?
• What roles and responsibilities should be yours and not yours?
• What degree of supervision and accountability should you have?
• How much of your job is doing youth ministry and how much of it is supporting and encouraging others (i.e. parents, youth leaders, and teens) to do youth ministry?

Posted on May 11, 2010