Pain and Promise

Now that my kids are in school full-time, I’ve started to think about my future. I’m at an age where I will probably work for at least another 30 years.  I’m a youth director. I love being a youth director. I am really good at being a youth director. I feel called by God to this particular ministry, but I wonder if there is a future in working with youth?

The average church is declining in membership and resources and numbers of children and youth are leveling off or falling. Combine these factors with a deteriorating infrastructure and it is clear to me why churches are opting to let go of staff or to reduce their hours and packages. The challenge for someone like me, someone who is called by God to minister to young people, becomes how to interpret God’s call within our current context.

Recently, I attended an ecumenical meeting with my pastor. During our introductions I was asked if I was the Associate Pastor. The head pastor answered, “yes” and then proceeded to qualify his response with the title “lay leader.” It was the first time that I had heard him publicly identify my role in the church in this way and it meant a lot to me.

What I learned from that brief moment was just how important it was to me to have a public witness to my call. In the Presbyterian Church, pastors, elders, and deacons all receive this public witness prior to the start of their ministry. Individual churches may have commissioning services where they will introduce lay staff members to the congregation and ask the community to commission their work, but what future is there for those of us who are devoting our lives to a ministry that could end as easily as it starts? I could give my entire life to the church and end up set aside by that same church.* And if thinking about the future is at best unimportant or at worst fatal, then explain to me why pastors enjoy unions, health care, and pensions.

I am at a crossroads where I could go back into computer programming. I could give up this calling, better provide for my future and most certainly provide a nicer life for my children, but here I am…called.

So, two weekends ago I participated in a Seeker meeting, the beginning stages of discerning my call to ordained clerical ministry. Even though I am excited about the possibilities associated with this process, I am incredibly frustrated that there is no other option for me. Our Presbytery, the church*, doesn’t have a way to provide for those who work in our churches to be publicly recognized, to be connected, to be supported.  

Where there is pain there is also promise. We need ideas for how to better support those who are devoting their lives to doing great ministry. There must be ways to acknowledge that someone may be called to youth ministry and may not be called to ordained clerical ministry. 

For those of you working in this field, I would love to hear from you. Take the time to share your ideas for how we can better support our lay ministers.


*By "the church" I am referring to the broader church. I feel very loved and supported in my current congregation.