Your First Few Years in 

Youth Ministry

Your first few years in youth ministry aren’t primarily about building a great youth ministry. They’re about becoming the kind of pastor who can faithfully build one.

5 key Scriptures in ministry:

John 6:60
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Luke 24:27
Romans 10:17
Luke 6:45

PART ONE - Before you lead anyone

1. Guard your walk with Jesus
2. Remember you're a Christian before you're a pastor
3. Learn to love the Word before you learn to teach it
4. Don't neglect your own soul

Before you become a Bible teacher, leader, strategist or youth-worker extraordinaire, learn to walk with Jesus when nobody is watching.

Your first years should be about:

• learning to love Scripture for yourself, not just preparing talks from it

• developing rhythms of prayer and dependence

• learning to repent quickly and receive grace (you have permission to fail!)

• cultivating holiness when ministry is busy

• remembering that your identity is son/daughter before pastor

• learning that ministry flows from communion WITH Christ, not merely competence FOR Christ

Here are 3 personal disciplines that I come back to constantly:

Your outward ministry is the manifestation of your inward quiet life
Luke 6 says “out the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”. 

Matthew 6:6 says “your heavenly Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you”

The fruit in your ministry will flow from and often reflect the fruit in your quiet life. If you do one thing well in the first few weeks, don’t neglect your devotional life. Create a routine, guard it, keep it.

Know how you rest, and do it

Everybody rests differently. I’d encourage you to think about: physical rest, mental rest, spiritual rest.

If you’re resting physically, but you’re in fact mentally exhausted, that’s not going to help you. I could be lounging on the sofa scrolling on my phone, resting physically, but my mind is far from switched off. Physical rest may well be sleeping, chilling at home. Mental rest for me includes walking the dog in the forest. Spiritual rest may be spending time in the Word, in prayer, or listening to worship music. Knowing how you’re exhausted, what rest you need, and that each rest could cancel another out, is vital to maintaining a healthy rest pattern. We give out of what we have. If you run yourself dry, what do you truly have to give?

Find your Paul, Timothy, and Barnabas

Paul is your mentor – the one who teaches, guides, corrects you – usually an older mature Christian.

Timothy is your mentee – the one you’re investing in – younger perhaps, newer to ministry, you already have much to offer.

Barnabas’ nickname in the book of Acts is Son of Encouragement – find someone who encourages you immensely – always building you up in words and actions – you’ll need them. Encouragement is the most neglected spiritual gift In the church – find an encourager and be an encourager. 

PART 2 — Learn Your People

5. Be present
6. Learn names and stories
7. Love the difficult teenager
8. Pastor parents, not just young people
9. Learn to notice the person on the margins

Your first months shouldn't be about changing everything.

They should be about being there.

Learn names.
Learn stories.
Learn families.
Learn who is struggling.
Learn who is lonely.
Learn who talks too much.
Learn who never talks.
Learn who comes every week.
Learn who has quietly disappeared.
Learn which parents are anxious.
Learn which volunteers are exhausted.

And particularly:

Don't just learn the programme. Learn the people the programme exists for. I think there's a beautiful pastoral principle here: proximity precedes influence. You earn the right to lead people partly by being willing to simply be with them.

Here are some practical things to help you get started:

Keep a notebook in your pocket
Write down names, key features, ands stories – this might help you remember names. After you’ve finished a conversation, subtly write it in your notebook.

Can you meet every young person one-to-one in the first term/year?
Get to know them, ask them about their home life, school life, spiritual life. Be genuinely interested and walk alongside them. Discipleship flows from relationship.

Explore your community
Consider getting in touch with local schools offering partnership. Get to know where the local parks and coffee shops are, places you might find young people. Introduce yourself to local young people and ask THEM what they want to see in their community. 

Establish key relationships with parents
There will always be ‘influential’ people in churches, whether for good or bad reasons. Find a few key parents that support you and your ministry and keep them close. These people will encourage you, may even serve with you, and certainly partner with you in discipleship in the home.

PART 3 — Learn to Lead

10. Build a team, don't become the team
11. Recruit character before competence
12. Give volunteers ownership
13. Encourage ridiculously well
14. Have hard conversations
15. Learn to delegate

We need to be pastors who learn to lead people, not just programmes

A young youth pastor can very easily become the person who:

• writes the talk

• organises the games

• sorts the rota

• runs the event

• sends the WhatsApp

• fixes the problem

• stays late

• does it all brilliantly

And everyone thinks: “Wow. They’re amazing.” But that isn't necessarily leadership. Eventually the question becomes: Can I help other people become amazing at ministry too?

That's the transition from doing ministry to building ministry.

So I'd want to teach you:

• recruit slowly and prayerfully

• invest deeply in volunteers

• give people ownership rather than merely jobs

• delegate outcomes, not just tasks

• give clear expectations

• give generous encouragement

• have difficult conversations early

• don't tolerate dysfunction because confrontation feels awkward

• celebrate volunteers publicly

• care for volunteers privately

• develop leaders who can eventually develop leaders

And perhaps one of the most important lessons:

Here are 3 principles to remember:

Grace, godliness, gifts... in that order
As you lead, and you seek to recruit others, this is the goal. Lead by example.

Character over competence
Every day of the week. This is so Bibilical - check out the role of deacons in Timothy.

F.A.I.T.H
In everything you do, and everything you seek within a volunteer, strive to be:
Faithful, Available, Integral, Teachable, Humble

If you always have to be in the room for ministry to happen, you've built a ministry around yourself rather than around a team.

PART 4 — Learn to Build

16. Establish culture before adding programmes
17. Think discipleship, not attendance
18. Build for the young person who will arrive in five years
19. Don't be afraid to change things — but don't change things just to make your mark
20. Make yourself increasingly unnecessary

This is the leadership bit.

The first few months naturally feel like:

Sunday → Tuesday → Friday → Sunday → Tuesday → Friday...

And suddenly you've been there two years. I'd want you to learn to lift your eyes and ask:

What are we trying to build?

Not just:

What are we doing?

What event is next?

What talk am I preaching?

Questions I'd encourage you to be thinking about:

• What kind of disciples are we trying to make?

• What do we want an 11-year-old to know by the time they're 18?

• What does a healthy youth ministry actually look like?

• What kind of culture are we creating?

• What do we want our volunteers to become?

• How are we discipling parents?

• How do we help young people transition into adult church?

• What are we doing now that will bear fruit in five years?

That's ministry maturity.

Some (hopefully) helpful articles for you

Some tips if you’re starting a youth group from scratch

Possible interview questions to prepare for and for YOU to ask the church at interview

How do we create and sustain a healthy youth culture?

How do I go about recruiting volunteers?

How do I go about growing volunteers?

Helping volunteers engage with young people

Preparing a youth talk

Preparing a youth Bible study

Preparing a youth session

Facing weakness & self-doubt in ministry

Safeguarding Training Essentials

A Final Charge:

Be faithful before you're successful.
Be pastoral before you're impressive.
Be present before you're strategic.
Build people before programmes.
Develop leaders before doing everything yourself.
Preach Christ, not yourself.
Care deeply without carrying everything.
Work hard without making ministry your identity.
Think long-term while being faithful this week.