Yes
Mature and well-supervised twenty-somethings can make great youth pastors. And later, God can call them elsewhere. Since I'm someone who prays that God lets me do this for my whole life, know that I'm not saying young = good in youth ministry 100% of the time. However, young pastors who have great leadership skills and one day will use those gifts to be great senior pastors can be great youth pastors for 5-7 years, then move on. I still feel weird typing that, but I've come to believe it's true.
God calls us to do different things at different times. Nehemiah was a cup bearer, and God used that experience to put him in a position to lead the remnant to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. David was a shepherd, then became a king. If I equate my identity with youth ministry, I delude myself. My identity is a child of God, bought by Christ's blood. If he asked me to stop being a youth pastor and lay bricks for the rest of my life, I ought to be willing to do that for his glory.
Very few senior pastors have always been a senior pastor. Pastors need to learn from other pastors. A great way to do that is to work in a church under a wise, faithful senior or lead pastor. There's nothing wrong with a pastor who has raw leadership gifts to serve at a church under the tutelage of a great lead pastor as a missions pastor, a small group pastor, or an education pastor. So why not as a youth pastor?
But...
Students and their families deserve pastors who will serve them with all their hearts. Youth ministry can't be seen as only a training ground or as place to "pay my dues." That's self-centered, not Christ-centered.
Youth ministry isn't a place to put any young adult who feels a faint call to ministry to see if it "sticks." We wouldn't put someone in charge of music just because she claims to love God and love music, but has no actual experience in music or leadership. So why hire a youth pastor who might be called to ministry but has little to no experience in youth ministry? I'm not saying that God can't "equip the called." I'm just saying that churches show surprisingly little discernment in who they hire as a youth pastor.
Churches can avoid being a revolving door of youth pastors by hiring for the long haul. Ask a candidate for your youth ministry position what his or her long term goals are. If you're looking for a youth pastor who will be able to see at least one class of high school students all the way from 9th grade to graduation, make that clear. I should add that not every church can afford a full-time youth pastor. But that doesn't mean that you have to go through a part-time youth pastor every one or two years. If you know if will be a while--if ever--before you'll be in a position to have a full-time youth pastor, there's plenty you can do to have a stable youth ministry if you have the vision to do so.
Let me finish by sharing a very cool fact about our church: three of our church's former youth pastors go to our church. One (who was actually our church's first paid youth pastor) has served with me for the past year as a volunteer, and the other two are still pastors on our staff--one's our missions pastor and the other is our executive pastor. To be honest, I wasn't sure how that was going to work, because I'm aware that I have a style of ministry that is different from these three awesome guys. But it's been such a blessing to have them as great friends and supporters. There are some things we agree on, some things we don't, but having them as allies has been one of my biggest assets in my first sixteen months at my church. And all three are doing amazing work for the kingdom, not because they moved on from youth ministry to "better" things, but because they have done their best to discern where God is leading, and followed him with all their heart--even if that meant moving away from a youth ministry position each of them really loved.
Other posts in this series:
Youth Ministry, Longevity, and Calling - Part 1
Youth Ministry, Longevity, and Calling - Part 2: Am I Called?
Youth Ministry, Longevity, and Calling - Part 3: How to Burn Out in Ministry
