These days, the term "youth pastor" is often used synonymously with the term "youth worker." We'll take a look at just what it means to be a youth pastor, then apply that knowledge to how a youth pastor should function in his or her role.
Look in the Bible for a youth pastor as we know it, and you won't find one. But you will find "shepherd," a term referring to a leader of the local church in the New Testament, and from which we derive the word pastor. A few observations about the term "shepherd" in the New Testament (as it applies to a person other than Jesus):
A shepherd is a church leader, often associated with an elder (presbuteros) or overseer (episkopos). The Greek term for the noun shepherd is poimen and the verb form is poimaino. In Acts 20, Paul calls together the elders of the Ephesian church, and in an address to them, he tells them that the Holy Spirit has made them overseers to shepherd the Church (v. 28). Paul also lists "shepherd" as a particular gifting alongside apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers (Ephesians 4:11). And in 1 Peter 5, Peter exhorts elders to shepherd their flock. You will note that different churches and traditions align the term "shepherd" with different church offices (Elder, Overseer, etc.), and I won't address those issues here. The point is that a pastor--biblically speaking--holds a position of authority within the Church.
There is no detailed "job description" of a shepherd in the New Testament. Some who see the current state of youth ministry point out that there is no such thing as a youth pastor in the New Testament. While I do think those of us in youth ministry have some serious evaluation to do regarding the state of youth ministry, to point out that there are no youth pastors does not really tell us anything. There are no worship pastors or electric guitars, either. (No offense meant here to my Church of Christ brothers and sisters here.) Some areas had several elders, and while we can speculate just how the early church was organized (especially under the leadership of Paul), we don't really have a lot of information to go on. What we can know are the qualifications of being an elder or overseer (1 Timothy 3:1-7) and what the goal of an elder was (to equip the believers in the church for ministry, not to do all the ministry; see Ephesians 4:11-13). The rest is speculation.
"Elder" doesn't necessarily mean "old." This assertion does not have a lot of data, but I do believe it fits the biblical evidence. Obviously, the word itself assumes that those who are elders in the church will be older rather than younger. However, the emphasis in the Bible is on spiritual maturity, which often implies a physical maturity as well, but this does not have to be the case. For instance, Timothy held some sort of leadership position in the church in Ephesus (tradition holds that he was appointed the overseer (episkopos) there in 65 AD. The point here is two-fold: 1) that a pastor can be young; and 2) we should take the spiritual leadership of our churches seriously, perhaps restraining from licensing a young youth worker who directs a youth ministry as a pastor right off the bat. But more on that later.
The Implications
So, what does this have to do with Youth Pastors? Here are a few conclusions:
A youth pastor needs to be seen as pastor for the whole church, not just one area. Wayne Rice notes this in his book, Reinventing Youth Ministry (Again), and I definitely recommend it as a good read for all church leaders. A youth pastor's congregation is not the teenagers, or even just the teenagers and their families. A youth pastor holds a position of authority in the church, just as the other pastors do. While a youth pastor has a distinct role, a youth pastor should be seen as a spiritual authority for everyone in the church, not just for the teenagers. If a person is not ready for that kind of spiritual authority, don't give him or her the title, "pastor." Which leads us to...
There's a difference between a youth pastor and a youth director. Again, the term pastor does not indicate just a job, but rather a church office. Different traditions handle licensing and ordaining pastors in different ways, so I won't really go into details here on how this can work in a particular congregation. But regardless of your church tradition's ecclesiology, it's difficult to read the New Testament and not see that God intended for the Church to have people set aside as spiritual leaders. A church can make two big mistakes in this area: 1) hire someone to run a youth program and give him or her the title of "pastor" when that person is not yet mature enough to be given that spiritual authority, and 2) hire someone as a youth director, but give that person the responsibilities of a pastor without giving them the authority that goes along with it. In fact, I think those two issues are what set most aspiring youth workers up for failure in a church ministry setting.
A youth pastor's job is to lead and equip, not to do all the ministry. I know, this should be obvious by now, but it's worth saying out loud. There are several debates going on regarding the nature of youth ministry, what a youth ministry should look like, and how it should relate to the broader vision and structure of the local church. But I'm convinced that if we would stop encouraging teenagers to consume and start encouraging and equipping them to use their gifts to love people in Jesus' name, and if we could start equipping and encouraging believing parents to be the primary disciplers of their kids, we'd be very much on the right track, no matter what that "looks" like practically. See Ephesians 4 for more on this.
And there you have it: a brief theology of the youth pastor. What are your thoughts on the role of the youth pastor in the local church?
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