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Don’t Quit Youth Ministry: 7 Compelling Reasons to Press On

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If you’re discouraged, youth leader, think twice before you quit. In fact, think seven times. Consider all the reasons below before you decide to hang up your youth ministry hat.

Youth ministry can be highly rewarding and highly discouraging…sometimes within the same hour. Helicopter parents, apathetic teenagers, and eye-rolling, finger-wagging church leaders can all add up.

They become a slow-moving vortex of depression that churns deep in the soul of the average youth leader. So why stay in such a low-pay, high-pressure position? Why not escape to get a “real job” in ministry, a job where you’re loved and respected? And where the pay is more than the typical barista’s.

Keep reading before doing anything drastic.

7 Reasons to Not Quit Youth Ministry

1. Teenagers follow Christ more quickly than adults do.

According to Barna, two out of three people put their faith in Jesus by age 18. After that, the odds go way down. In the words of my grandpa, “Get the gettin’ while the gettin’s good.” And the salvation gettin’ is good before age 18.

2. Teenagers spread the Gospel faster than adults.

Because the average teenager has well over 400 online and face-to-face friends, they have a huge (and growing) opportunity to share the Gospel like no generation before them. Gen Z, the nickname for this cohort of teens, is filled with “digital natives.” They’ve never known a time without devices and social media.

Because of this, these kids have an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate the spread of the good news through their many social media channels.

3. Teenagers are daring.

Part of the reason teens get into trouble so often is that their brains aren’t fully developed yet. The part that signals “DANGER! DON’T DO IT! isn’t fully operational. Believe it or not, this can be an advantage for getting teenagers to live out the Cause of Christ (Matthew 28:18-20)!

Teenagers will do and try things (both good and bad) that adults would never dare. So let’s use that to our advantage and mobilize kids to Gospelize their world!

4. Teenagers are fast learners.

Generation Z is a multi-tasking, fast-learning crew that loves to take in information and put it to use for causes that matter. Because there’s no cause greater than the Gospel, let’s unleash teens to advance it!

5. Teenagers can be a farm club.

If you want a strong professional baseball team, you had better build a strong farm club. If you want a strong church, you had better build a strong youth ministry. Teenagers can become strong leaders now and stay strong leaders later if you properly inspire, equip and mobilize them.