Featured Hiring a youth pastor

My last church was like that (going through youth pastors). I don't know if it was an issue of the right person or simply an issue of an inadequately defined position.

My current church (I've been there about 8 years) has had the same youth pastor for that period of time. He's in his mid to late 40's but has done an outstanding job in the position.

I'm not sure what you mean by "grown up" church. Even our children attend worship service with the congregation (this was true in the last church I spoke of as well). The reason we have a ministry for children and for youth is to work with them in Sunday School, evening study groups (Sun. and Wed. nights) for events geared for that category (VBS, camps, and other activities) and to meet their needs throughout the week. If a church grows to a moderate size congregation, there sometimes comes a time when one pastor cannot personally and effectively meet the needs of his congregation. But my personal experience is limited to only a few churches. Are there many churches which use the youth ministry as a substitute for corporate worship?

 

I love our youth pastor. He's been on staff since....well, he could be on staff!! He started as a student, became a student leader, became a pastoral intern and then became a pastor. Through this time, he never wavered from his commitment to youth ministry. He now is married and has three children of his own. When we first started at the church, the youth pastor was amazing and had been my brother's gym teacher at a Christian school back in the 80s. He is now one of our campus pastors so while he did move on from being our youth pastor, he is still on staff and still in contact with many of the former students in youth group. So in the 20 years we've been at the church, we've had two youth pastors and both are still pastors at the church and have been there since before we came!

What I love is the heart for the Lord our youth pastor has and his heart for discipling these kids. He has the kids in small groups, discipleship groups, the large group teaching and encourages the kids to be in ministry in the church. He's feed a lot into my own kids and I appreciate his partnership in bringing up my kids through the rough teen years to be strong in the Lord.

 

Maybe it's a regional thing. I spent my teenage years around the same area. We moved three times and attended a large church each time. But every church I attended we worshiped with the congregation. When we got older we wanted to sit with our friends instead of with our parents. But I never experienced that type of segregation in church (I'll add that I grew up attending SBC congregations). My last church did have a "crying room," which unfortunately was often ignored by a few proud parents.

 

I may have. He said that he was a good fit for the fundamental church, but at the same time indicated that it was sad he would have to conform to their beliefs. Either way, I suppose it's a "no go" vote. If the man teaches theology that John supports then he doesn't fit the church. If he fits the church then his theology is not something John would support. I don't know that he could vote his conscience regarding proper teaching while supporting the interest of the congregation.

 

It certainly would lean towards a matter of church discipline (not disagreeing with some doctrines but posting about those disagreements).

I took this to mean that the man held to a view closer to Evan's theology than to the churches. But I could very well have misunderstood.

 

I disagree that the church should be run "from the pulpit," but certainly it's direction comes from the pastor. I have attended churches that were "run from the pulpit," which accounted for the lack of growth. But I don't think we mean the same thing when we say "run from the pulpit."

If you don't mind me asking, what in area of the country do you life? This segregation and asking children to pick their pastors seems so odd to me. Is it common among certain denominations or in specific areas/cultures?

 

Thanks. Like I said, I think that we agree about the pulpit thing (I've also been in churches where a few in the pew ran the church.....they actually owned the land that the church sat).

I've never attended an IFB church, not really because of any issue of doctrine but simply because we've always settled in a good SBC church (...and 'cause Paul was a Southern Baptist...not Paul Washer....although he is....but the other Paul ). Seriously, though, thanks for the information. I am not as familiar with IFB churches as I would like to be (partly because I assume they are as diverse as the SBC).