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Author: Ed Trimmer, etrimmer(at)pfeiffer.edu
Head of School of Religion, Pfeiffer University
Date submitted: February 15, 2005
(The material on this page is used by permission of the named author. It remains the creative property of the author. Permission is granted for use by youthworkers in their non-profit local ministry setting. Other use or publication should only be by permission of the author.)
100 years ago Union Seminary in New York City hired the first full-time professor of Religious Education and thus helped to legitimize a "new" profession of Christian education. Today Christian education is a recognized career and "calling" in ministry. Similarly, a few years ago Princeton Theological Seminary hired a full-time professor of youth ministry (youth and culture), Kenda Creasy Dean - a United Methodist and author of The Godbearing Life. Today youth ministry is becoming a profession much like Christian education. There is a professional organization for those persons who teach youth ministry at the undergraduate or graduate level entitled YME (The Association of Youth Ministry Educators); a professional journal available both on line and in hard copy called, "The Journal of Youth Ministry"; more and more research focusing on "church" youth being spearheaded by institutions such as The Search Institute in Minnesota and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (they are in the middle of a huge research project on adolescent spirituality - youthandreligion.org ); and a myriad of organizations designed to help the local youth minister. Youth ministry is becoming a profession and not just one step on the way to "real ministry."
Check websites such as youthpastor.com, youthspecialties.com or UMC4youngpeople.org and you may be surprised by the large numbers of churches attempting to hire a full-time youth minister. While some may still think of youth ministry as a "stepping stone" into ministry (and it remains a starting place in ministry for some people), a large number of people are being called into this specialized form of ministry that focuses on youth for an entire career - and with the "calling" has come churches that are willing to support that "calling" in form of a paid position. One may now spend an entire career in "ministry" working with the adolescent populations of church and community.
Most of the larger churches in our denomination have rethought their staffing patterns over the past 25 years. Many of them have moved away from an "associate minister" position to hire people who have specialized skills in a particular ministry. Ministers of music, evangelism, visitation, education, religious communication, pastoral care, older adults, and youth ministries are just a few of the increasingly specialized forms of ministry being sought by the larger churches of our denomination. Often our seminaries have not been able to prepare men and women with specialized forms of calling, as the seminary focuses on preparing men and women to be pastors in charge of local churches or preparing them to do further graduate work in a "classic" discipline such as bible, theology or church history. This has meant that some of our local churches have been hard pressed to find a person who is able and qualified (in the traditional sense of a degree) to provide a specialized form of ministry, especially youth ministry. However, with Princeton leading the way many of our seminaries will be adding faculty whose expertise is in youth ministry. But while the church waits for the seminary some United Methodist colleges are recognizing the need and adding courses and even degrees in youth ministry. (Such as Pfeiffer University, Oklahoma City University, Ohio Northern and Kansas Wesleyan)
The United Methodist Church recognized this trend in the late 1980's when it called for youth certification, when it restarted a National gathering of youth (Youth 2003 will be held this summer in Knoxville), when it separated youth curriculum from adult curriculum, when it doubled the amount of resources being developed in youth ministry, and when it added staff in youth ministry. Youth Ministry is in a similar position as Christian Education was 100 years ago. It is developing into a new "profession" of ministry AND many youth and churches will benefit from this ministry.
Support your local youth minister with prayer!