How and why youth ministry became such a specialized profession is an important topic for youth pastors to at least have a handle on. One can easily Google a brief history of youth ministry or find an interpretation in some YM books such as Mark Oestreicher's Youth Ministry 3.0. It's an interesting discussion (especially the "why") for another time when I can devote more effort to it. During this series, I hope to simply begin the discussion by considering whether the specialization of youth ministry is a good thing, via a list of pros and cons.
When I talk about the specialization of youth ministry, what I mean is the phenomenon of large numbers of institutions and companies catering to youth ministry: there are accredited youth ministry degrees (my M.Div. had an emphasis in youth ministry), youth ministry publishing houses, as well as numerous conferences (regional, national, and international). In addition, in the American church it is considered necessity to employ a youth pastor if one can at all be afforded. In fact, as I am writing this post, I cannot think of a single church that I am personally acquainted with that has the ability to afford a youth pastor (by my estimation of the church size) but does not employ one on at least a part time basis.
Is this kind of specialization a good thing? I think it's a bit more complicated than a one-word or one-sentence answer. However, I've compiled a list of pros and cons as I've been thinking through the issue lately. Over the next couple of days, I'll share some of those pros and cons and ask you to add your own. For today, I'll simply leave you with this question: Do you think youth ministry will become more specialized in the future (i.e. more resources, more specialized degrees, more conferences, etc.), or do you think there will be a movement to see youth ministry more as a part of the broader church, rather than its own thing?
Update: You can read the list of "pros" here and the list of "cons" here.
