What does a pastor look for in a volunteer youth leader?

Prior to coming to teach at Concordia Wisconsin, God blessed me with 24 years as a parish pastor.  At both churches we had Lutheran elementary schools which demanded much of our resources.  We could not afford a full-time church worker to coordinate or lead the youth.  That job fell to me, which meant that it fell to volunteers whom I recruited.

There were three primary criteria focused upon when it came to that recruitment.

Before getting into the three, let me offer one thing I didn’t look for.  I didn’t look for whoever said they’d do it.  That might work for the stewardship board or the ushers, but not the youth leader.  Please understand, I honor those who, when they see a need in the church will consent to fill that need.

But it won’t fly with teenagers.  They will know immediately that this person is serving out of a sense of obligation or to just be a good team player.  If the leader’s heart is not really in it, the effectiveness will be hindered, if not paralyzed.  That’s one reason we never opened up the youth leader positions to sign-up sheets or a show of hands.  We hand-picked our youth leaders and approached them based upon my observation or, just as often, the sage advice of someone I trusted.  So, what are the three things I looked for?

  1. A volunteer youth leader needs to be in church!

Unacceptable would be the youth Bible class leader who arrives after early service, teaches the youth, and then goes home before late.  Foremost, that youth leader needs to be fed by the very Word which he or she is communicating.  And because doctrinal inattention is not an option, that youth leader benefits from hearing God’s Word proclaimed in its truth and purity from the pulpit so that it may be communicated in such a way to the youth.

But there’s more.  Whether the volunteer youth leader is leading the Bible class or not, the young people learn by seeing.  When Mr. Smith or Ms. Black is present and accounted for in church, the youth pick up on the idea that this stuff really matters to their leader.  That saves the leader from having to repeatedly tell the kids how “important it is to be in church.”  They get it from the visual.

  1. A volunteer youth leader can’t be easily offended!

A volunteer youth leader should not be a person easily offended by offensive odor.  Teenagers smell, especially at 5:00am after a lock-in where they’ve played basketball all night.  The conscientious youth leader will allow that odor, or at least refrain from commenting on it.

  1. A volunteer youth leader needs to be authentic!

More serious than the last one, is authenticity.  Let’s capitalize this word as if we were texting with an attitude.  AUTHENTICITY.  Oh yeah, that’s real important!  The youth leader needs to be real.  When something is funny, she laughs.  When something is heartbreaking, he gets choked up.  When something is unacceptable, she makes it abundantly clear.  When something is brilliant, he marvels.

I was blessed to have such a youth leader at our church when my kids were in youth group.  After late service our family would often go to lunch, and once I had secured from my two teenagers that the sermon I preached that morning was probably the most profoundly impacting thing they’d ever heard, we’d move on to how youth group was.  “Well, Mr. M was in kind of a bad mood today.  I guess his mom is sick and he’s real worried about her.  In fact, he told us that and asked us to pray for her.  And then we spent most of the hour talking about when we had been afraid because someone close to us was sick or dying.  So I mentioned that I knew how it felt because I remember being afraid when grandpa was in the hospital.  That’s when Mr. M reminded us about Jesus and how he wept when His friend Lazarus died, and how Jesus gets it when we feel that way.”  Silence at lunch followed, especially as I realized that the really profound sermon I preached pretty much paled next to the profundity that occurred in the youth room.

Mr. M didn’t fake his way through that lesson.  He didn’t try lead a rousing edition of “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.”  He was too real for that…and the kids responded.  No, I’m not saying that the youth leader drags all his or her baggage into every session, or even most of them.  But moments of transparency will matter throughout the relationship between a leader and a teen.

Further, as the youth leader is communicating the wonders of God’s Word, how appropriate a real-life story or incident becomes; good or bad.  It’s true.  It’s relatable.  It’s understandable.  And it’s a doorway for the youth to be transparent themselves.  Oh, and when they come out from behind their meticulously fashioned external fortresses, God will be right there waiting to blow them away with His grace.  It’s true for all of us.  It’s most true for our youth.

I would have loved to have a youth leader who was highly theologically trained like the ones we’re turning out from Concordia.  But whether highly theologically trained or not, authenticity and honesty are so crucial; except when tempted to tell Billy how foul he smells after the lock-in.  Well, on second thought, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad.

Rev. Dr. Kurt Taylor is Associate Professor of Theology at Concordia University Wisconsin.  He has served as a parish pastor for 24 years in Rantoul, Wisconsin and Waltz, Michigan, and for the last 18 years has served as a chaplain in the US Air Force.  He and his wife Christine have two children, Christian and Karinna who are both college students in Michigan.

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