I talked with a senior pastor from Kentucky today for about a 1/2 hour. I confess that I really feel for the guy. His church — a medium size, “but growing” church in a thriving suburb of Cincinnati, has been looking for a a youth pastor for nearly two years. He seemed a bit desperate and at a loss. His question to me was, “Where have all the top-notch youth pastors gone? We are looking for the guy that can come in here and lead a world class youth ministry. We’re poised for growth and major impact. It seems like they are all moving towards the emerging church movement.”

Interesting, huh? I am not sure if I can recall exactly how I responded to him but it was something like, “Well, I am not sure exactly what you mean by ‘top-notch’ and ‘world class’ but I think you are right, many youth pastors are interested in living their theology out in a way in which many of today’s churches are not.”

It is an interesting phenomenon. It seems as though the youth pastors that I bump into really are ready to find new ways to live out the theology that they are discovering or trying to practice. It also seems that in order to do that the youth pastor feels like she needs to move on to church planting, or working at a coffee shop or finding a job in the “real world” to live out their faith in an authentic way — or they will get fired anyway.

What is the cause of this and what do we do to reverse this trend? Should we reverse the trend? Do you feel like you can explore and experiment in your youth ministry? What are the trends you are noticing? I would love to hear your input. I get calls like the one I go today on a near regular basis. I would love to help out the callers with more informed data.