Interview with a Youth Worker. Free Essay for You.

How did you come to faith?

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I came to be saved due to the miracle that God performed in my life, I had cancer and had only six months to live. However, my colleague at work connected me with her pastor and invited me to her church. I was prayed for and by grace, I got healed. I therefore decided to dedicate the rest of my life to Christ, to proclaim the word of God and to teach nations about the goodness of God.

Why did you want to go into youth ministry?

I wanted to mold the youth to know God, make them appreciate what He has done in their lives and thank Him for His goodness. I felt that my life was wasted away as I had not known God and this made me face various challenges that God can easily tackle. I felt that the youth need to begin enjoying the glory of God from a tender age so that they can enjoy His goodness early enough. Joining youth ministry would also enable me to build the youth in Christ and help them avoid unrighteous lifestyles in the modern society.

How long have you volunteered and/or worked at your current church as a youth worker and in what capacities?

I have been a youth worker at my current church for three years and I have held positions such as Operations Director, Junior High Associate Director and Missions Coordinator. Such positions have given me the opportunity to mentor the youth in various capacities and help them conform to the Godly way of life.

What are some of the biggest challenges in working with young people?

One of the greatest challenges as a youth minister is lack of time. This is because the youth are mostly busy or do not take their time to read and understand the gospel or to attend youth meetings. This negatively affects the growth of the ministry. The second challenge is the shyness of the youth and their inability to be upfront, this affects their participation in the activities in the youth ministry. Third, there is the challenge of the youth being either boy-crazy or girl-crazy and this affects their commitment in different groups (Salehi & Habibi, 2014). In this manner, putting the youth into groups proves to be an uphill task.

What are some of your biggest challenges in leadership?

One of the first challenge that I do face as a youth leader is the difficulty in inspiring the youth. Inspiring the youth requires that they be satisfied with the activities they do and that they do their jobs smarter and more effectively. This becomes a challenge because the youths have different interests and grouping youths with the same interest in a team becomes a challenge. The second leadership challenge is developing the youth and molding them to become responsible adults. The challenge results because inasmuch as I try as a leader to mold them, many of them do not put the required efforts for the success of the mission (Pierce, 2016). The final challenge as a leader is leading a team of youths; this is because it is common for any group to have differences, however, the youth do not have the right conflict resolution skills and this increases enmity between them making it challenging to lead them as a team.

What are some of the challenges in working in the church/denomination that you currently are in?

The first challenge I experience in my church is lack of funds to run the set projects, although amount collected as tithes and offerings is a lot, the church has numerous projects that require huge funding. The second challenge is apathy and lack of effort to reach out to the lost to bring them back to God. Finally, there is the problem of time constraints as the followers are mostly busy in their personal activities and this reduces their commitment towards the building of the church.

What are some of the blessings in doing youth work?

There are various blessings I get in doing youth work and one of them is that by mentoring and leading the youth, I obey the teachings of God and therefore attract Gods blessings, this also helps me to be justified with God making it easy to tap the power of God in me. Secondly, I keep myself pure and walk in the ways of God which helps me to refrain from unrighteous living in the society. Finally, I get the blessing of preparing a Christian leadership by mentoring the youth and this enables me to continue with the ministry of Christ.

How do you recruit, train and equip leaders?

When recruiting leader, the church forms a ministry team tasked with laying out a strategic plan for launching and developing leaders. The process of training and equipping leaders then involve checking the attributes of the leaders to confirm their interests, commitment and their ability regarding spiritual work. This process involves developing relationship with them to affirm their gifts, learning their stories, understanding them and encouraging them to improve their commitment on the gospel (Holm, 2016). Finally, the team challenges the leaders to grow spiritually by coaching and modeling them.

How do you craft a budget for your ministry?

When crafting a budget, the budget team checks on the available funds and the sources of funds. The team then checks on the pending projects and gives priority to such, the second plan is to check on upcoming events and programs and ranks such basing on their priority and allocates funds accordingly.

What advice would you give to potential youth workers?

Being a youth worker is a difficult job but very few people appreciate efforts that workers put. Workers therefore need to do it not considering the benefits they would get neither should they expect appreciation from others. They need to volunteer, work whole-heartedly and expect to receive rewards from God.

References

Holm, N. (2016). Bonhoeffer as Youth Worker: A Theological Vision for Discipleship and Life Together, written by Andrew Root. Journal of Reformed Theology, 10(3), 286-287.

Pierce, B. (2016). Haven: Asceticism, Spiritual Formation, and Youth Ministry. Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry, 2(1), 3.

Salehi, T., & Habibi, M. (2014). Examining social capital and sense of competence of employees and managers in the field of sports and youth ministry staff, and the Academy of National Olympic Committee and sports federations of the country. Journal of Applied Sciences Research, 10(5), 541-545.