I’ve worked as a School Teacher. I’ve worked as a Youth Pastor. I’m currently working as a Youth Worker. School teaching is the most secure and structured of the three. Youth pastoring is the most exciting, being able to preach Jesus without holding back. Youth working is wild, unpredictable and sometimes dangerous. My recent observation: of the three roles, Youth Workers have the most street cred with teenagers.
Lots of the crew I work with as a Youth Worker are rough nuts. That means that, when they turn up to school, they are often getting in trouble from their teachers; in the unlikely scenario of them stumbling into a church, they may feel judged by the Youth Pastor; they have a passionate hatred and paranoia toward the Police. But Youth Workers? In between dropping f-bombs*, they show signs of great respect toward Youth Workers.
This was illustrated a few weeks ago during a conversation I was having with a 17 year-old. I was in a team of 3 youth workers and 2 security guards on a late night Street Work shift. In the conversation I found out that this guy had left school at age 14. I asked him if he had a job, but he lost it a couple of years ago. I then asked him what he gets up to during the day. He hesitated, but then confidently and with a smile said: “Ummm… oh, I can tell you, you’re a Youth Worker… I smoke bongs all day!”
While Youth Workers may have street cred, in the end, all local government Youth Work can offer hurting and broken teenagers is a band-aid. Ultimately, my hope is that broken teenagers will turn to Jesus knowing that he loves them.
I know there are plenty of Youth Pastors who read this blog – I’d love to chat to you sometime about how to reach some of these rough nut kids that rarely come to your programs.
*dropping f-bombs = swearing at you
Hey Dave, this is great stuff to think about.
My pipe dream is that one day I’ll be able to fuse the two together and create a position within my church (if it’s God’s plan etc etc) and create a youth worker position which allows use of youth work skills and preach Jesus. It’d be hard to convince a parish council, I imagine, to put money into something that doesn’t have much return, but I think we’re called to reach out to the poor like that.
Although youth work is often band-aid stuff, I think evangelicals have had a tendency to treat social issues as minor and focus on eternity alone (not saying you were implying this). The gospel addresses both of these issues.
Thanks geoff.
I’d love to chat to you sometime about how to make your dream happen, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
I think you’re right about evangelicals. The band aid my employer offers has more of an impact on broken teenagers than Christians, Christians don’t hang out with these type of kids enough.
I love your idea the more I think about it!
Hey Dave – how do you get a job as a youth worker? seems like getting paid to do what I love… hit me up!
get some qualifications
i’m a trained school teacher AND i have lots of experience working with teenagers through 10+ years of youth ministry.
keep an eye out on the jobs section of a local government website. the council i work with will probs be advertising soon.
even if you don’t have formal qualifications, it’s still worth applying if you’re passionate about doing it.
peaceout