Have you ever felt as if you were swimming against the current, going the opposite direction and all the while trying to get everyone else to turn and swim with you? This is what my first year on staff as a youth pastor felt like.

When I arrived on scene almost 3 years ago, accepting the position of student pastor at my church, I was handed a hefty job description. This job description was littered with a myriad of bullet points, given the focus each needed to succeed I knew (God willing) I would be in this position for some time. Most of my interview process 3 years ago was zeroed in on questions like…

• “Can you build a team?”
• “Can you recruit leaders?”
• “Do you know how to make leaders of leaders?”

I don’t have it all together. I’m not the best youth pastor out there and I have had my fair share of failures learning moments. Even so, God has allowed me to continue to partner with Him to build the student ministry I believe He desires. Exchanging war stories with other youth pastors it seems my humble beginnings at a new church may not be too rare…

I started with 18 volunteers and from those original 18 I had lost 12 of them [Read more…]