A Difficult Job

Youth Ministry isn't for the faint at heart.  It's an extremely  taxing and often lonely profession.  If it's something you or a loved one is considering, please consider the fact that you will NEVER please everyone you come in contact with.  Some parents will dislike the way you teach as will some teens.  Some teens will dislike the fact that they can't go on the trip because they didn't get their permission form and money in by the deadline and will hate you for all eternity (if not for this reason, than some other).  Some parents will believe with all their heart that, no matter how busy you are and how many activities you are planning, you aren't doing enough for their teen.  There will be relationships formed and broken off within your group which will cause all the teens in your group to "take sides".  You may even have some parents who don't want their teens in your class or going to your events at all.  Don't take any of this personally.  You aren't here to please everyone that comes through those doors.  Your job is to teach to word of God to these teens and hope and pray that they turn their eyes and lives toward him.  This is not something you can force these teens to do.  You will have some who ignore what you teach completely.  You will have some who will take what you say out of context.  You will have some coming from different religious backgrounds and will questions everything you say and do.  You will have success stories (teens who heard the word, and are now living their whole lives for Christ), but more often than not, you will have stories of disappointment of teens you seem to have lost along the way.  It's so easy to get caught up in those disappointments.  Just remember, that when you are in a dark place in your ministry and Satan is telling you that you aren't a good youth minister and you probably need to find a different profession, that you may have planted a seed.  This seed may one day grow into a healthy and strong faith.  It may take YEARS for that seed to even begin to grow into a healthy plant, but it would never have grown at all without someone putting it there.  Also, if you've reached even just one teen, they can go on to plant more seeds elsewhere.  I say all these things not just for your benefit but for my own as well.  Sometimes I need a reminder of what we're doing here.  God wants my husband and I to plant seeds.  The hard part of it is, you almost never get to see if those seeds will grow.