Student Ministry 101: Student Ministry Must Be Your Passion Not Your Stepping Stone

Youth pastors are infamous for using their position as an entry point to church leadership. It makes sense. You want to be senior pastor or church planter, but you don't have any experience. Therefore you take a position as a youth pastor to get a foot in the door. Then you take a position as a family pastor or associate pastor. From there you make the jump to senior pastor or church planter or whatever your passion is.

There's nothing wrong with following that path, if you're actually passionate about your ministry all along the way. However, if you're simply using your ministry for personal gain, you've got a serious problem.

The idea for this entry came this quote from Ed Stetzer's "Comeback Churches."

Too many pastors love someone else's community

While he's talking about literal geographic communities, the same principle applies to positions in the church. Ask yourself...

• Is that you?


• Are you enduring your current position until you can move onto something closer to your real passion?


• Do you have a greater heart for a position down the street than you do for the people you're actually responsible for?

If the answer is yes to any of those questions, you need to either start working on your heart or get out of there. No ministry needs a leaders who's heart is bent towards something else.