Youth Ministries

Let us start by saying it is really humbling to be given a position to help other Youth Pastors and Leaders when we ourselves are still learning so much every day about God, ministry and teens. We definitely do not have all the answers but we are actively searching, praying and studying on how we can win this generation to Christ.

We would like to share one factor in our ministry that has made our lives incredibly easier. And that factor is reading.

I had a mentor about six years ago tell me, “There are two ways to learn in life, #1 is your mistakes and #2 is reading about other’s mistakes.” He then smiled at me and said, “It’s easier to read about other’s mistakes and do the right thing.”

I’ve heard John Maxwell say that not all readers are leaders but all real leaders are readers. I find myself totally agreeing with John Maxwell and one of my mentors. In ministry you will face an incredible amount of challenges. The only way to navigate the majority of them correctly (you will never be able to navigate 100%) is to read about how others navigated those problems.

In some cases in ministry you just make one wrong turn and that is the end of your ministry. Right now the average stay as a youth pastor is about a year. That is not healthy for the youth pastor but more importantly that is not healthy for the kids and the church as a whole. If you want to have success in ministry – read. I read about one book every two weeks and sometimes more.

Some pastors say I just don’t have time for that. But in reality if you make 1 right decision it prevents the 10 decisions you have to make to clean up a bad decision. You don’t have time not to read in ministry.

Lizzy Green
Conference Youth Pastor
[email protected]