Minister’s Kid Blog

I received an email recently from a friend asking for some pitfalls that often plague Youth Ministers during their day-to-day ministries. This friend is the type that you would do anything for, so of course I hit the “Reply” button and immediately started typing.

In replying so naturally, thoughts followed the same pattern, just flowing as they came to me. Here were some of my thoughts:

Pitfalls for Youth Ministers:

• Procrastination Syndrome - If you don’t know what this is, you’re not a Youth Minister.
• Superman Syndrome - getting it all done yourself so you can poke out your should-be-shaven-or-waxed chest…
• Clown Syndrome - becoming the court jester of your youth rather than ministering to them (aka Funny Fat Youth Guy syndrome)
• Slob Syndrome - Youth dudes are known for having the most messy, disorganized offices…. and lives.
• “I’m Not an Accountant” Syndrome - Not making budgets and budget planning/tracking an integral part of ministry - leads to irresponsibility and poor stewardship, along with a poor reputation with the staff

Now you must know that this friend and I are the kind that can sit in a Starbucks for hours and tell stories and laugh until we pee ourselves (I hope you have a friend like that. If you don’t, you need to go be one to someone who needs that kind of friend like you do). Therefore my natural flow of thoughts followed this pattern. But the interesting thing about my friendship and this list is that they are characterized by a spirit of honesty… the kind of honesty that is sometimes missed in Christiandom, and professional ministry in general.

You cannot be honest without having a time when you laugh at yourself. I have worked in Youth Ministry for years and I must say that these thoughts are funny and yet oh-so-indicting at the same time. The problem is that if you drop the “funny”, you’ll often drop the guilty feelings too. Which also drops the honesty… a truly daunting charge, especially on those in ministry.

So laugh… at yourself… at the things that go along with being a minister’s kid. SMILE… Living the life of a minister’s kid is a funny place to live.

Be honest about those things which may be a funny indictment on life in a ministry family… Then… and ONLY then, will you be able to truly attain health and happiness in the land of all things “Minister’s Kid”…

Until We’re All Home…

Walter