cow tipping: wrestling with youth ministry

Ebb & Flow Project: Part 2

I am writing a book – a book about the incredibly unique calling to youth ministry. Studies say that youth workers have the shortest occupational life span among all church employees: “over one third stay in the field one year or less. Even when remaining in the profession, youth workers rank just behind migrant workers in length of time in one place.” These kinds of statements are discouraging especially when 76% of vocational youth workers cite God’s call to youth work as their reason for entering vocational youth ministry. There are few books (certainly nothing new) on the topic of calling to youth ministry – little less, vocational ministry. Calling is incredibly personal, so for anyone to write a book on calling is simply a singular experience does not begin to represent the millions of other ways God has called men and women to vocational ministry. Before I get too much further in my writing, I want to collect your stories. Here is the format I am using to create this mosaic of youth ministry callings:

 

In an essay entitled, “Talking about Bicycles”, C.S. Lewis describes four ages of enchantment: the Un-enchanted age, the Enchanted Age, the Disenchanted Age, and the Re-enchanted Age. Lewis uses the four ages to describe an individual’s experience with bicycles: “As a little child I was un-enchanted by bicycles. Then, when I first learned to ride, I was Enchanted. By sixteen I was disenchanted and now I am Re-enchanted.” Lewis states that these four ages can be applied to nearly everything. I found it to be incredibly helpful in understanding my calling to youth ministry. It is not just a straight-shot to vocational bliss; it is a mess of twists and turns full of adrenaline-pumping-highs and depths-of-despair-lows. My hope and prayer is that Lewis’ road map will provide guidance (and encouragement) to youth workers wherever they are in their calling.

 

NOTE: If you are not comfortable posting your story on the blog, please e-mail it to me. I would also appreciate you spreading the word about the project and helping me get the stories of those who are early in their calling journey (college students) or who have “sold out” on vocational youth ministry (just kidding senior pastors). To make it more interesting, I will randomly select one post (every other week) to award an Amazon gift certificate.

 

What is your experience of DISENCHANTMENT with youth ministry?

Lewis describes his experience of the age of disenchantment as revisiting the prose of cycling, and that his bicycle became to him what an oar is to a galley slave. What once filled them with joy and passion can become a boring routine and may even lead to feelings of resentment and bitterness. My personal arrival into the disenchanted age was just as Lewis described. My enchantment with youth ministry slowly died, and left in its place were feelings of resentment and bitterness.

EBB-N-FLOW PROJECT: PART 1

I am writing a book – a book about the incredibly unique calling to youth ministry. Studies say that youth workers have the shortest occupational life span among all church employees: “over one third stay in the field one year or less. Even when remaining in the profession, youth workers rank just behind migrant workers in length of time in one place.” These kinds of statements are discouraging especially when 76% of vocational youth workers cite God’s call to youth work as their reason for entering vocational youth ministry. There are few books (certainly nothing new) on the topic of calling to youth ministry – little less, vocational ministry. Calling is incredibly personal, so for anyone to write a book on calling is simply a singular experience does not begin to represent the millions of other ways God has called men and women to vocational ministry. Before I get too much further in my writing, I want to collect your stories. Here is the format I am using to create this mosaic of youth ministry callings: [NOTE: If you are not comfortable posting your story on the blog, please e-mail it to me. I would also appreciate you spreading the word about the project and helping me get the stories of those who are early in their calling journey (college students) or who have “sold out” on vocational youth ministry (just kidding senior pastors). To make it more interesting, I will randomly select one post (every other week) to award an Amazon gift certificate.]

In an essay entitled, “Talking about Bicycles”, C.S. Lewis describes four ages of enchantment: the Un-enchanted age, the Enchanted Age, the Disenchanted Age, and the Re-enchanted Age. (I wrote an article on this essay for the Journal of Student Ministries) Lewis uses the four ages to describe an individual’s experience with bicycles: “As a little child I was un-enchanted by bicycles. Then, when I first learned to ride, I was Enchanted. By sixteen I was disenchanted and now I am Re-enchanted.” Lewis states that these four ages can be applied to nearly everything. I found it to be incredibly helpful in understanding my calling to youth ministry. It is not just a straight-shot to vocational bliss; it is a mess of twists and turns full of adrenaline-pumping-highs and depths-of-despair-lows. My hope and prayer is that Lewis’ roadmap will provide guidance (and encouragement) to youth workers wherever they are in their calling.

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What is your experience of enchantment with youth ministry? What is your calling story?

“Then came a time when to have a bicycle, and to have learned to ride it, and to be at last spinning along on one's own, early in the morning, under trees, in and out of the shadows, was like entering Paradise. That apparently effortless and frictionless gliding - more like swimming than any other motion, but really most like the discovery of a fifth element - that seemed to have solved the secret of life. Now one would begin to be happy.”C.S. Lewis, “Talking about Bicycles”