cow tipping: wrestling with youth ministry

Calling: Just try and resist it

I've been thinking a lot about my calling these past few weeks. As I interviewed with my ordination committee I recalled the few times that I tried to run from my calling. Those times were always filled with so much pain. Just like Jonah ran from his calling and met with isolation and pain, I ran and experienced the same consequences. I am convinced a call will never rest unless we are in total rebellion. I think it was Charles Spurgeon who encouraged a young man to "try not to be a pastor, and if God wants you he won’t let you do anything else." If we can get peace and fulfillment doing anything else than it won’t be a call. God will not be frustrated by our refusal. God will restore us and call us again.

Do you pass the test?

Tell me what you think of this self-assessment designed by Dr. Mark Lamport. Dr. Lamport has written some of the most important work on youth ministry (he inspired my thesis), but I'm not sure what to think of this exam. I know some people who would probably score real high, but shouldn't be in youth ministry. I also know some people who would probably score very low, and are still amazing youth ministry volunteers. If it was this easy to determine "readiness for youth minsitry" we wouldn't have so much turnover, burnout, and overall misunderstanding about professional youth minsitry. What, if anything, determines readiness for youth ministry?

Signs of Readiness for Youth Ministry
1 = low to 10 = high

1. Sense a personal calling.
2. Is able to articulate a biblical philosophy of youth ministry.
3. Demonstrates an ongoing relationship with God.
4. Is competent in handling Scripture.
5. Knows basic counseling and has referral skills.
6. Effectively communicates the faith to teenagers.
7. Can administer people and program resources.
8. Understands adolescence and youth culture.
9. Deals capably with adult leaders and parents of youth.
10. Exhibits both creativity and critical thinking skills.
11. Understands the history and mission of the church.
12. Can evaluate curriculum.
13. Is able to work within (and around) organizational structures.
14. Has and instills vision.
15. Is a person of integrity.
16. Loves kids and can work effectively with them.
17. Is able to take direction and receive feedback from supervisor, peer, youth and parent of youth.

____ TOTAL SCORE

If your score is less than 115, you may not be ready for fulltime youth ministry. If your score is less than 65, you may not be ready for volunteer youth ministry.

Copyright 1996 by Mark A. Lamport, Link Institute, Huntington College, Huntington, IN 46750. All rights reserved.

Calling: Just try and resist it!

Agree or Disagree: The truth of a calling can be known when one has expended all efforts to resist it and finally must give in - surrender - to that calling.

Joyce Ann Mercer claims that is poor theology and an unfair question. In her article "Are We Going on a Vocation Now? Ministry with Youth as a Lifelong Vocation" Mercer says "it pits human and divine desires against each other in an unfair match in which God always wins, in such a way to make it seem like human desires are necessarily opposed to God's."

As much as I agree with Mercer, I have found that test to be true in my life. I have found myself running from youth ministry more than a few times only to be dragged right back in.

Your thoughts?

Are we our own worst enemies?

"...I come across pastor after pastor standing bewildered before the same or a similar abyss. Sadly, many turn back, abandoning their ordained vocation for a religious job. I don't want any of these men and women, whom I count my colleagues and friends, to turn back. The vocation to be pastor, while not, perhaps, hierarchically conspicuous, is nonetheless essential in the revolutionary gospel work of inaugurating and practicing the kingdom of God. Every time one of our company abandons this essential and exacting work, the vocations of all of us are diminished."

Eugene Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992), pp. 2-3.

Our First Review: Youthworkers Go To School

Thanks to Walt Mueller at Center for Parent/Youth Understanding for reviewing and sharing “Tassel Flipping: A Portrait of the Well-Educated Youth Ministry Graduate” with his readers. Not only did he provide a PDF version of the article (which I didn't even have), but he also said some nice things.

I had a chance to read a phenomenal study in the Fall 2005 edition of The Journal of Youth Ministry. Written by Andrew Jack and Barrett McRay, the study is titled, “Tassel Flipping: A Portrait of the Well-Educated Youth Ministry Graduate.” It’s worth a read as it paints a picture of the current state of undergraduate youth ministry education, while asking some very timely constructive questions meant to expose some holes in the swiss cheese of how youth ministry education is being done. The combination of this article and my visit have combined to stir up a fire that’s been burning in me for a long time. I’m convinced that each and every one of us doing youth ministry doesn’t know nearly enough and could always stand to know some more. Perhaps the starting point is for each of us to accept this fact. Then, we need to do something about it. While the school of experience, trial and error, and hard-knocks is always a great learning environment, it’s never enough.

We continue to be pleasently surprised by the feedback we recieve on our research.

We are not freaks!

"Welcome to the freak show, freaks!"

Let me start off by saying that I don't think this is the exact quote and I don't know who to attribute this statement. What I do know is that this sentiment was expressed by more than just one person from the main stage and seminars at the National Youth Worker Convention. It seems like we youth workers love embracing this title. We embrace it not only with our language, but with our hair styles, facial hair, piercings, tattoos, and immature social skills. Why do we embrace and live into these horrible stereotypes? We complain about parents, pastors, and elders not respecting us, but then we do everything possible to perpetuate the image. I have never heard anyone refer to an adolescent psychologist, social worker, middle school teacher or park district employee as a freak. Maybe because they work to make their fields credible and strive to develop their profession. We do no favor to youth ministry by calling ourselves freaks. Maybe that is why youth workers don't last long, we get tired of being called freaks. What if we embraced titles like shepherds, critical thinkers, ethnographers, researchers, story-tellers, theologians, wounded healers? What if we became the kind of professionals who parents, teachers, principals, social workers, and psychologists came to for professional guidance?

Theology of Vocation

I'm starting a new project on discerning our callings to youth ministry. I wonder how poeple are "called" to youth ministry.

According to a study conducted by the National Pastoral Life Center, youth ministers have the shortest occupational life span among all parish ministers: “over one third stay in the field one year or less. Even when remaining in the profession, youth ministers may rank just behind migrant workers in length of time in one place.” (Philip J. Murnion et al., New Parish Ministers, New York: National Pastoral Life Center, 1992, 52.) These kinds of statements are discouraging especially when 76% of vocational youth ministers cite God’s call to youth work as their reason for entering vocational youth work (Richard R. Dunn and Mark H. Senter, Reaching a Generation for Christ: A Comprehensive Guide to Youth Ministry, Chicago: Moody Press, 1997, 243.). This begs the question of whether or not a person with no knowledge or experience could be called to such a vocation. There are people who are clearly gifted for work with youth and yet they are clearly not called to vocational youth work. Others are may sense a strong calling, but do not have the experience or maturity to handle the responsibility of vocational youth work.

Any one want to share their theology behind calling and vocation? I'd love to get my hands on some good resources on this topic?