Youth Minister abuse and burnout
I received my BA in Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2006. There were hundreds of students in my graduating class that immediately took jobs in ministry (and many became youth ministers). It used to be that attending a Catholic youth conference or a national gathering of youth ministry leaders meant that I would have the opportunity to catch up with old classmates. I recently returned from a gathering of youth ministry leaders from all over the country. This was the first time in recent memory that I knew virtually no one in the room. When I catch up with old classmates now, our conversation usually centers around, “this is why I gave up and left ministry.” While I am always an advocate for bringing “new blood” into leadership positions in ministry, I can’t help but lament the incredible loss of talent in the Church because of all of the highly trained and experienced ministry professionals that I know who are no longer working in ministry.
Why do so many talented people leave?I have worked in parish youth ministry for nearly 16 years. For the first 5 years, I built, from scratch, a “comprehensive youth ministry.” This meant my responsibilities included running middle school youth ministry, high school youth ministry, sacramental formation for the Sacrament of Confirmation, management of a weekly youth liturgy, volunteer recruitment and training for all of these programs, relational ministry with over 150 youth, organization of camps, conferences, retreats and mission trips, fundraising for my entire operational budget, and representing and advocating for the youth on the parish staff.
While these responsibilities may sound like the status quo for a youth minister, I assure you that it is WAY too much for one person. To build and sustain these comprehensive youth ministries I could easily make the argument that these responsibilities could be separated into as many as 3 full-time parish staff positions. This is to say nothing of the many parishes that combine a youth ministry job description with other un-related roles in a parish (like parish receptionist, school teacher, or communications coordinator). The result is that the youth minister is typically the only person on a parish staff working 3+ evenings and weekends every week and that doesn’t include time away working on mission trips, retreats, etc. This kind of schedule wrecks havoc on a daily routine, which subsequently wreaks havoc on the consistency of a person’s prayer life. When you throw in the fact that youth ministers are VERY poorly paid and most pastors want their youth minister to have a college degree in theology from a Catholic university (funded by large student loans), it should be no wonder that the average burnout for a parish youth minister is 2 years. Over my many years in ministry, I have had countless numbers of conversations with youth ministers who feel abused, under-appreciated and unsupported.
This past summer, I took some time to peruse the job listings for parish youth ministers. The job descriptions continue to get longer while the compensation remains inadequate. I always tell pastors that it takes at least 3 years to build a sustainable ministry. Those 3 years do not take into consideration that many youth ministry leaders are inexperienced and have a learning curve. Given that youth ministers burnout in 2 years, the result is that a parish is frequently starting the ministry over from scratch, and pastors grow frustrated as they are having to restart an exhausting hiring process every 18 months.
When seeking to hire a new youth minister, pastors are essentially left looking for a unicorn. The kind of candidate that they are looking for generally doesn’t exist. Honestly, the job posting for a typical youth minister should look something like this:
Wanted: Youth Minister
Qualifications: Single, on-fire, devout (and naive) young adult with no intention or prospects of getting married and starting a family. We are looking for someone recently out of college with a theology degree from a reputable Catholic university and less than $20,000 in student loan debt.
Responsibilities and Expectations:We have no existing youth ministry. The person in this position will be required to build enormous programs with excellent results in one of the most difficult mission fields in the world today. Even though we are looking for a person with little experience, we also expect to see immediate results. We will be providing no training, mentorship, existing volunteer team, or operational budget to help build this ministry. The ability to turn water into wine and walk on water is also preferable.
Additional information to know:The youth minister should expect to be working constantly, have very little routine, and have no friendships outside of ministry due to working constant evenings and weekends. in general, expect to be working in an environment that does not support physical, emotional, or spiritual health.
Compensation:You could make just as much money working as a barista at a Starbucks.
The job expectations for a youth minister are unrealistic and unsustainable. It may sound like I’m blaming pastors or Church leadership for this problem, but I’m not. I genuinely believe most of our Church leadership want something better for our youth ministers. I don’t believe the root of the problem is the pastor or church leadership. The root of this problem is the system.
To put it bluntly, the way that the Catholic Church has been building and supporting the work of youth ministry DOES NOT WORK.
Those who are familiar with my work with Andrew Ministries know that I am a big advocate for change in youth ministry. I have long said that the methods of youth ministry we employ in parishes are no longer meeting the needs of our youth. It is also true that these systems are no longer meeting the needs of our youth ministers. When our youth ministers drop out of ministry it is our youth who suffer the consequences.
The good news is, I believe there is a better way. When I flipped my youth ministry to focus on small group discipleship, I reclaimed my nights and weekends because my ministry began focusing almost entirely on a small number of people to mentor and support (mainly my volunteer leaders). The result was a sustainable ministry, with excellent results that also supported a healthy lifestyle for me.
Do you want to learn more about this model? Sign up for our newsletter below and you will receive a FREE start-up manual with information about our unique approach to youth ministry.
