If we’re not careful, a youth pastor’s job description becomes very bloated very quickly, not just with all the stated expectations, but with all the unstated ones, too. Before we know it, we’re juggling so many balls we’re doing nothing but stressing out and ignoring what it is that God actually put us in youth ministry to do in the first place. Most of us seriously need to step back, take a deep breath, and figure out what it is we’re spending all our time on that is truly important and necessary for the ministry that no one else can do but us.

For me, the responsibilities boil down to three areas:

1. Relationships
No one else can build relationships for me. That is something only I can do and something I must do for the sake of effective ministry. That includes relationships with students, with parents, other staff members, school teachers, coaches, youth workers at other local churches, my family and most importantly, with God.

2. Solid Bible Teaching
I went through four years of Bible college and three years of seminary for primarily one reason: to know how to “correctly handle the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) and to learn how to effectively communicate it with others (Ezra 7:10). There’s no one else in our youth ministry who has that kind of training to take teenagers deep into the Word of God, not just to put a different twist on the same basic Bible stories they’ve heard since first grade, but to provide deep spiritual nourishment that the Holy Spirit uses to move them from spiritual milk to solid food (Hebrews 5:12; 1 Peter 2:2). I take lesson prep and delivery very seriously. What a tremendous responsibility and privilege (James 3:1).

3. Training Adult Leaders
As the resident “expert” on youth ministry, no one else can provide the training for adult youth workers that I can. Ministry to kids increases exponentially when I can multiply myself into other mature and passionate adults by training them to be effective in their relationships with teens. I can only reach a limited number of teenagers by myself, but together we can reach our entire community as I lead us.

That’s how I spend and prioritize my time. Anything that doesn’t fall into one of these three categories can typically be done by anyone else. I feel no need to organize events, make schedules, or design newsletters when anyone else can do it just as easily (and probably better) than I can. That’s why almost all of the major events in my church’s youth ministry are led and organized by adult youth workers. I don’t even coordinate most of our weekly meetings. If no one steps up to lead the fund raiser, for example, it just doesn’t happen — that’s all there is to it.

I have the privilege of just showing up to youth meetings, building relationships and teaching God’s Word alongside of leaders who are well-trained. That’s the way a body is supposed to function anyway.

Lately I’ve felt so overwhelmed with everything a youth pastor needs to do. How in the world can it be possible to fulfill all these things with some level of equal success? I’ve always thought it better to do a few things well than do many things half-way, but there really isn’t anything on my list that can be cut out or eliminated — they’re all important things!

1. Build relationships with students and spend time on their turf.

2. Ensure that volunteers are building relationships with students, too.

3. Train and equip volunteers to be effective in their various rolls.

4. Train parents and provide resources for them to be godly spiritual leaders.

5. Prepare ministry summary reports for church leadership.

6. Prepare students spiritually, emotionally and mentally for life in the “real world” after high school.

7. Plan, organize, and evaluate youth programs and then re-plan, re-organize, and re-evaluate them all over again.

8. Work to earn a voice and respect in the church community.

9. Become an expert on almost all teen issues, including (but not limited to) suicide, cutting, eating disorders, homosexuality, death, divorce, school drop-outs, hazing, incest, depression, pregnancy, rape, smoking, peer-pressure, STDs, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, and various other addictions.

10. Become an effective communicator in both speech and writing.

11. Stay up to date on youth culture, trends, and value systems.

12. Develop counseling and listening skills.

13. Cast vision and recruit others to come on board.

14. Keep a current and accurate budget tally.

15. Learn to correctly handle God’s Word.

16. Maintain a healthy personal walk with God.

17. Enjoy down-time for yourself to relax.

18. Make sure your spouse and family comes first before everything else.

Youth pastors gotta work with almost everyone: students, parents, church leadership, and volunteers.

How in the world is it possible to keep all these balls rolling at the same time, plus everything else I didn’t even mention here, with only 40-50 hours per week (or, in my case, 30 hours per week)? Whew.

Yesterday was great! Most of the Sr. High guys had the day off, so we hung out at my apartment and had a Halo 2 LAN party. It’s been a while since we’ve done this and I think most of us missed it. My eyes even starting hurting shortly after my throat became a little rough from yelling. The best part, though, was an opportunity to talk one-on-one with one of them about issues going on in his life. That’s the part I live for.

And then today I come to my other job where I’m the IT guy. Almost immediately I’m asked why certain projects aren’t finished, what the status is of such-and-such, and how come a certain option isn’t working. The stress hits right away due to unrealistic expectations and I think, “Man, I wanna go back to my other job.” Seriously, I don’t get paid enough for this. If they want someone who knows everything there is to know about every software package and every technology out there, then they can expect to pay over $200/hour for someone else who will still fall short. I’m pulled from one project to the next before I can finish any of them and then I’m later asked why the first one isn’t finished. Plus, they don’t even see all the work I have to put in to things that take place in the background, such as the backup system, security updates, and spam control. It’s a stressful and frustrating situation.

My heart is in youth ministry. Nerdy computer stuff is just a hobby I picked up somewhere and am apparently proficient enough to keep a job in the field. Days like today clearly confirm my heart’s intent.

Hmm… I’ve been asked by the guy who directs the camp midsouth summer camp for the Evangelical Covenant denomination if I would be the director for the 7th-9th grade cabins and counselors this year. Surprisingly, I’m not really sure if should accept or not. I mean, I really want to! It would be a lot of fun, it lends itself to my gifts and abilities, and I have plenty of experience as a camp director. My hesitation is definitely not an issue of intimidation or unqualification (if that’s a word) — my main issue is time management. I don’t have the time to plan for Breakaway with Angel Tree in N.J., do everything that getting the Redeemer kids to CHIC in Knoxville will require, organize and lead the 7th-9th grade team for Frontier Camp, and somehow effectively maintain the youth ministry at Redeemer. There’s also the Ukraine missions trip this summer. Fortunately, I’m not in charge of that, but it will still require some time, planning, and preparation on my part, not to mention that each of these events eliminates a week of time that I could spend on preparing the other events. That’s also 4 weeks I go without a paycheck from my other job, assuming they even let me go for that long. It would be a ton of work and a lot to handle for one summer. I wanna do it all, but I’ll obviously have to pray about this and prioritize here. Anyone who wants to keep this prayer request in mind for me is greatly appreciated.

My free time lately has been taken up with two things: apartment hunting and Guild Wars. The lease at my current apartment is up at the end of this month and since my roommate is getting married in October, I’m now searching for a cheap 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment near the church in Carrollton. Last year I used an apartment hunter to find the place I’m in now, which is so much easier than searching around and making all the phone calls yourself. He’s referred me to a couple places by the church I’ve been checking out the past two weeks. The place I’d prefer to live in is pretty nice and is right next door to the church. I could ride my bike back and forth and only use the car for grocery shopping, driving to Dean’s on Mon, Wed, and Fri, and stuff like that. It would be the perfect choice except the monthly rent is at my maximum budget limit. There’s another place a little further away that’s about $50 cheaper each month, but it’s smaller, not as nice, and would require that I still drive to the church (although only a couple minutes each direction). The washer and dryer connections are in a closet out on the patio, which is kinda weird. I’m not sure what I think about that. They also can’t accommodate my refrigerator, so I’d either have to get rid of it for find someplace to store it. Being a bachelor means I could stick it in a corner of the apartment, but it’s not that big to begin with. I have to make a decision on a place no later than next week, though, so I have to decide if the extra money each month is worth the convenience of living next door to the church. $40 isn’t a huge amount, but over the course of a 12 month lease, that’s $600. If you have any input on my decision, feel free to post a comment to this post!

Of course there’s always Guild Wars. I’ve decked out two characters so far: a protection monk and an elementalist/necromancer. My guild has been becoming more active lately, which is a lot of fun. Tuesday night we battled another guild twice and whooped on ‘em both times. One profession, Mesmers, are very frustrating for my monk character to play against. They suck up all your energy, drain your health, and interrupt your skills, sometimes even disabling them, rendering me pretty useless to the rest of the team. So last night I decided to create a mesmer and tried being the character all opponents hate: it was a lot of fun!! It’s a completely different strategy than my other character’s professions. I can see how it takes a good mesmer lots of time and strategizing to develop a devistating build. I’m gonna give it a shot myself and see how it works out.

On Tuesday I crunched the budget numbers for the Youth Specialities National Youth Workers Convention in November down in Nashville. I also skimmed through the schedule of all the speakers and workshops. Oh man, it’s gonna be so awesome! I can’t wait to go!! It’s gonna be such a great time of not only specialized youth ministry training, but of spiritual renewal and rejuvenation. I’m planning on taking about 4 other adult youth leaders from church with me, so it’ll be a great time for all of us together. More information on the convention is here.

Earlier today I posted on www.schmoyerfamily.com about becoming a contributor at www.everysquareinch.com, a site dedicated to articles relating to Christians’ involvement with the world and culture. I’ll refer you to my family’s site to read more about it, so I’ll suffice it to say that my first article is posted today if anyone wants to read it.

Youth group is going well. I was hoping to have more breathing room than I did between the end of the missions trip and the start of the school year, but oh well. The youth leaders and I met last evening to finalize dates for trainings, small groups start-up, and other stuff. Everything is underway and going well, I just need to enforce my principle of leaving work at the church. There’s always more to do. I haven’t brought any home with me yet, which is good, but it’s tempting sometimes, especially since I enjoy doing it, ya know? But I know I need to pace myself and not burn out with too much work in the beginning.

Oh, I’m getting a raise at Dean International, too. I start paying back seminary loans this month and will no longer have a roommate to split bills with, so I approached the guy who contracts me about a raise and it looks like it’s gonna go through. I already have the raise for whenever I work on their struggling websites and the overall raise is pending the company CEO/owner’s approval.

Last weekend I went up to Texarkana to give Dana back her stuff and to get mine back. I ended up hanging out for a while, which was cool. We were able to talk and be normal again. It’s good to be able to be friends now and comfortable around each other.

This coming weekend I’m going down to Houston to spend Friday evening and Saturday with David and Adrienne. Apparently they’re both pretty bored already, so my entertainment is on the way… whatever that is. It should be fun regardless.

That’s enough of a book for today. I may not post often, Adrienne, but I think I make up for it when I finally do.