Youth Pastor Wanted...

Ok... before I'm perceived as trying to be clever or picking on a particular style of youth ministry or playing games with words, this post is genuinely about something I'm learning.

I've been a youth programmer for over 15 years. I've been privileged to run some of the most exciting programs for students in the church; outreach events for hundreds, evangelism training classes, a layered small group ministry with dozens of leaders and coaches, and mission trips around the world. I've seen numerical growth and spiritual growth and lives really touched by Jesus Christ. But could I say that I've also been a youth pastor?

Being a youth pastor is about more than Biblical teaching, missional leadership, creative purpose-driven events and keeping in line with the elders. Being a youth pastor is more than clear parent communication, showing up at times of trial, mobilizing a healthy volunteer team and being a Christ-like example. All of these are important, event critical, to maintaining a healthy youth ministry but I'm discovering that being a youth pastor (or a pastor of any kind) is about something even more important.

I'm discovering that being a pastor is about shepherding the flock entrusted to my care. Like a good shepherd, my job is to care for people; to feed them, protect them, carry them, guide them, corral them, retrieve them and (like a good shepherd) live with them. My job is to care for the flock and for each individual sheep, keeping count regularly. For the majority of my ministry I did many of these things by accident. Kids would show up at my house, raid the refrigerator and lounge on my couch. I would have conversations with confused and hurting students who approached me after a weekend service. I would receive a pastoral call for a student in the hospital or even jail and drop in for a visit and prayer. I would be asked for attendance figures and reluctantly fill out a report form.

However, lately, I've been asking myself what it would look like for me to be a proactive shepherd. What would it look like if I counted my sheep by name and face? What would it look like to show up at their homes and lives before they were in need? How could I identify a needing and hurting student before their world crumbled? What would it look like to be their guardian and defender against both physical and spiritual threats? What would it look like to feed my sheep with living messages communicated every day outside the walls of my church?

I don't have all the answers to these questions but this next year I want to be a pastor and I am committed to becoming the pastor God has called me to be.