Do long term ministries equal effectiveness in youth ministry?

Dear Mike, Have you come across any research that indicates effectiveness of a Youth Pastor increases over time? Or do they get better the longer they stay at a church?

Stay in the Game!
Jeff from Minneapolis,
A 22 year youth ministry veteran

Dear Jeff, Thanks so much for the question. I cannot believe I have never addressed this issue in an e-letter before even though I think about it on a daily basis. I do not have any research information on this but would sure love some. (maybe one of our readers out there will share some information with us.)

The problem with your question of course is, what is the definition of effectiveness?

My definition of effectiveness is based on two issues.

The number of teen disciples. (This is really the percentage of teens within a church that are being discipled.) Therefore a church with five teens can be as effective as one with 100 teens. The number of adult leaders who are being discipled and making disciples. (again, this is a percentage thing)

I will give you some of my own thoughts based on my experiences and my definition of effectiveness. In the last four years, since starting Student Leadership Ministries, I have had the opportunity to work with 150+ youth leaders for a minimum of two days in a small group retreat or mission setting. Most of this occurred with groups of 4-8 adults. Through the course of our interactions I have come to understand a lot about being effective or ineffective in youth ministry.

The number one conclusion that I have made is that the most effective leaders are the ones who have been, or who are being discipled. An example is Kasey, who attended the Leadership Academy from Missouri. She is about 25 years old and I would rank her in the top five youth leaders I have ever encountered. She attributes much of her success in ministry to her high school experience of being discipled. Her effectiveness comes in her hunger to learn, combined with her ability to translate her own discipleship experiences into the ministry she now serves in. For her, it has not been age or tenure, but rather knowing what to do from the get-go. She knows what she wants her teens to be like. She has the passion to be effective.

In regards to the amount of time you have been in youth ministry translating into success, I have not seen that as such a big issue. What I have seen is people who have been successful in discipling in one setting, when they begin again, success is almost immediate. I know of individuals who have been in churches for months who have more disciples than ones who have been in similar situations for years. I believe that once we understand discipleship, and have discipled successfully, we can walk into any church and begin a discipleship based youth ministry within weeks.

In working with churches, I try to help them understand that even in the best situations it will take almost two years to see the fruit of ministry focused on discipleship. This time is speeded up some if the youth leadership comes from within the church and there is a good history of the leaders within the church. I often think that if Jesus was with the disciples for three years, then we might want to use three years as a benchmark for when we should expect to see spiritual maturity in our teens and adults.

Although it seems like longevity would be a good thing, I have seen that this is not always the case. I know of many situations where youth ministry is the same old, same old, year after year. The leaders blame lack of growth on external factors rather than the building of an effective ministry through discipleship. I think that with longevity, the leaders need a willingness to be reinvented on a regular basis as their ministry grows and matures. Just think how much the teen world has changed in the past ten years, I know some leaders who are still doing 1960's youth ministry even in the 21st century ministry.

For me, being in one setting for sixteen years was really a good thing. I think that my personality helped because I love challenges and change. I believed it was important to build a dynasty type mentality within the ministry. We continually grew outward as we strived to grow inward. We were able to take our local and national missions efforts from one day a month in 1981 to over 150 days a year in 1997. I believe that longevity was the key to this happening.

I guess I have rambled enough. Why did you ask that question anyway?

Mike
SLM