The UMC just released results of a survey on youth ministry salaries (click here for the article), with comparisons to the 2010 Group Publishing Salary Survey.

As I reflect on that article, let me first recognize that the bulk of people reading this blog and using the resources are volunteers, most of whom don’t even have a budget for the ministry they offer for young people in their churches.  In many ways salary is a small part of what should be a wider conversation about the spending of local church resources and what they reflect about how we value ministry with youth.

We’re not it in for the money, and that is as it should be.  Yet my heart breaks when I hear excellent youth ministry staff share the decision to leave youth ministry, or ministry altogether, simply because they can’t support their families on the pay.  The only way this changes is to begin conversations in our local churches about youth ministry, its value and fruitfulness, and how we allocate resources.  With that in mind, here are 4 ideas for starting a conversation about youth ministry and allocated resources in your church setting.

1.  Start conversations about money when you don’t need more money.  When you can honestly say that you love the ministry God has called you to and the money doesn’t matter, you are in a great place to have an honest conversation with church leadership, with a focus on educating leadership with no hidden agenda.

2.  Share the details of salary surveys or budgets with leadership, not just generalities.  To say to a church leader that the average youth worker makes $44,000 or that the large church down the street has a budget of $30000 tells little.  Telling what youth workers make in this area of the country, what the budgets are of similar size churches in the area, or even how the youth ministry spending compares to other areas in the current local church budget will be more helpful.  Anticipate and answer questions that help deal with specifics for your church.

3.   Invite a church leader supportive of youth ministry to present with you, or a group of supporters, to help you educate other church leaders.  By engaging others in the education, you minimize the risk of people perceiving you are asking for more money personally or that the conversation is about you instead of about the ministry.

4.  Log the details of your hours in ministry for a couple of weeks or a month.  Seldom do I meet a youth ministry volunteer or staff who, if they logged all of their time in ministry in a week, from texting to Facebook to Sunday school to youth gathering times, doesn’t spend way more hours than what are asked for or paid.  This detailed account will help leadership understand the needs of the ministry and what the ministry entails.

Often our churches, with the economy today, aren’t in a position to offer more money immediately for salary or budget, even if they perceive discrepancy between the stated priority of youth ministry and the resources allocated.  But if we desire change, we are often in a position to begin the conversation to help our local churches look to the future and assess the priority of youth ministry.

With an opportunity in the last couple of years to travel around Indiana, I’m amazed at the variety of relationships found between churches and schools in communities.  They range from strategic partnership and strong involvement of church leaders in the school setting to no relationship and an adversarial view where school leaders believe the church should stay away and the church sees school activities infringing on the Wednesday night and Sunday protected times of the past.  While much of what happens in these communities around school and church is cultural, I do have a few reflections if you’d like to see your ministry reach out to schools.

1.  Pray.  Pray for school leaders.  Pray with school leaders.  Pray for church leaders.  Pray with church leaders.  While this may be obvious, prayer opens us to possibilities we may not have considered as we seek to support our schools and invite God’s Spirit into our conversations and plans.

2.  Be open to hearing no.  School administrators may feel pressure to not allow the church into the school.  It likely isn’t personal but how they understand their role.  Perhaps there are ways that you can contribute that isn’t in direct relationship with students.  Ask what you and your ministry can do for the school.  Do they need tutors?  Do they need someone to do grounds cleanup once a month?  As you serve the school you create an avenue to future relationships.

3.  Understand agendas.  Likely you and your church have an agenda of reaching people with the love of Christ.  The school has an agenda of educating young people and caring for its students and school community.  There can be overlap in those agendas, but there can also be conflict.  Understanding those agendas, and communicating clearly, is important.  If the school senses you only care about getting students to come to your church, anypartnership or openness isn’t likely to last.

A couple of years ago a youth worker here in Indianapolis was called into a school in the midst of crisis with a number of pastors from the community.  The other pastors all brought a Bible and information about their churches to share.  The youth worker brought just her Bible.  She was very clear that her agenda at that moment was ministering to youth and families in the midst of that crisis, not church growth.  While the other pastors were not invited back, she both was invited back on a regular basis and developed a working partnership because her agenda of caring for students formed a wonderful partnership with a school that wanted to care for its students.

If you are in a ministry that has a great story of partnership with local schools, we’d love to hear it.  If you’d like to talk with a youth worker who has experience, let us know and we’ll put you in contact with someone.

Friends in Youth Ministry,

As you may have seen already, I have been reappointed to the conference CONNECT Team (formerly connectional ministries) as Associate Director for Leadership Development.  In this new role I’ll be working in collaboration with many teams and all local churches throughout the conference in prayerfully and strategically fostering the next generation of leadership for our local churches and the Indiana Annual Conference.  I’m excited and blessed by this new role and eagerly anticipating continued work with many of you as we seek together to identify, support, mentor, lead and equip youth, college students, and young adults in leadership both in our local churches and in our communities.

I’m also excited that as this new role has been created, Indiana conference leadership has maintained the commitment to youth and campus ministry, and we’re moving quickly to refill the position of Associate Director of Student Ministries.  This position will be responsible for resourcing and equipping youth ministry in the local church, providing connectional and training opportunities for youth workers, fostering collaboration and encouraging support for our affiliated campus ministries and institutions of higher education, and working with the Youth Ministry and Campus Discipleship Teams.  If you know anyone who may be interested in this position, please encourage her or him to apply right away, as first consideration will be given to resumes submitted this week and next.  The posting and position description are on the inumc.org website.

Our Scriptural witness contains many stories of faithful followers mentoring and encouraging young people in serving God.  I remain passionate about young people’s ministry and I’m excited to work as part of a team that seeks to continue the witness of encouraging following generations to live out their God-given call and passion.  Please pray for our efforts and let us know how we can continue to serve your irreplaceable ministry with youth in your local church and community.

Peace and blessings,

Brian