Section 1: Why? And Who? And How? a good chance a youth worker. Maybe If you’re reading this, there’s you’re you’re a full-time leader with interns, associates, and a healthy group of volunteers. Or maybe a part-time or volunteer youth worker, holding down a career while you’re simultaneously leading your youth ministry. Whatever it looks like, church’s a good chance someone who invests his or her time and energy in the there’s you’re spiritual growth of teenagers. (As an aside, this makes you really, really cool in our eyes, but we digress . . .) And if this is the to ask a simple question: case, we’d like “Why?” Why do you do what you do? Why do you put up with the oftentimes ridiculous de- mands of youth ministry? Why are you willing to do more work for less pay? Why do you subject yourself to the frustration and stress that is an inevitable part of the job? We think we know the answer to the And we think “why.” it’s two-fold. First, we think you do youth ministry because you a calling, not a career. know it’s We think you do it because of what it looks like when it you’ve seen glimpses works. We think you do it because sometime in the (maybe distant) past someone invested in your life and it made a tremendous difference. And we think you do it because you believe that it works: you know that a vivid faith-life is possible for teenagers, and that this shapes their worlds in powerful ways. But we think the second part of the can be answered with a similar “why” question question: “Who?”
Section 1: Why? And Who? And How? If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re a youth worker. Maybe you’re a full-time leader with interns, associates, and a healthy group of volunteers. Or maybe you’re a part-time or volunteer youth worker, holding down a career while simultaneously leading your church’s youth ministry. Whatever it looks like, there’s a good chance you’re someone who invests his or her time and energy in the spiritual growth of teenagers. (As an aside, this makes you really, really cool in our eyes, but we digress . . .) And if this is the case, we’d like to ask a simple question: “Why?” Why do you do what you do? Why do you put up with the oftentimes ridiculous de- mands of youth ministry? Why are you willing to do more work for less pay? Why do you subject yourself to the frustration and stress that is an inevitable part of the job? We think we know the answer to the “why.” And we think it’s two-fold. First, we think you do youth ministry because you know it’s a calling, not a career. We think you do it because you’ve seen glimpses of what it looks like when it works. We think you do it because sometime in the (maybe distant) past someone invested in your life and it made a tremendous difference. And we think you do it because you believe that it works: you know that a vivid faith-life is possible for teenagers, and that this shapes their worlds in powerful ways. But we think the second part of the “why” question can be answered with a similar question: “Who?”
winterfest-2015---4---post.docx