Last week I took a call from a youth pastor in the greater Portland area who, for lack of a better word, was very frustrated with his church’s decision to cut one of his fellow youth pastors from a full-time position to a quarter-time position. Although frustrated this particular youth worker accepted the reason for the staff cut – economic challenges.
A second youth worker emailed me and told me that her youth budget was cut in half for her summer ministry and said that in the 14 years she as been a full-time youth worker she’s never had a more paired back summer programming schedule. A youth worker here in the greater Kansas City area emailed me to see if I knew of any good fundraisers that didn’t require a ton of time. Not because this youth worker didn’t want to make and take the time – he just can’t take the time… he’s recently had to get a second job in order to offset the fact that his wife lost her job.
Still, another youth worker here in Kansas City said that they have about 18 students who wanted to go to camp this summer. The church usually subsidizes the cost of camp for any student that wants to go but this year cannot afford to do so. For the first time in over a decade this church has had to tell students ‘we can’t send you to camp this year.’
Are the economic challenges that so many are facing in our country hitting your church and community? If so, how is it changing the way that you are doing youth ministry?
Some of the youth workers I speak with see this time of economic uncertainty as an opportunity – a time to purge and get lean in favor of a more simple and streamlined approach to youth ministry. Is this you? Do you see this time as an opportunity to purge our youth ministries, cutting away the fat? Are you having to get back to “what really matters?”
One of the youth workers I know in New York State was let go by his church for financial reasons and was fortunate enough to get a job working for the state highway department. The amazing thing (even more than finding a job in his towns skyrocketing unemployment rate) is that this youth worker decided to volunteer all of his free time and has kept leading the very same youth ministry! If youth ministry were an unpaid profession, would you do it?
Only the can lead any nations in to prosperity.so gave them educations.
Thanks for the post Chris. Yes, the economy has certainly taken its toll here with our ministry. I think that more than anything, it has effected the level at which our students are signing up for the events we offer. Families are making tough choices about how to spend their money.
Because of this, we’ve taken the hit financially. You know how it goes. You commit a certain number of participants for that weekend retreat or summer mission trip. Then when you don’t fill the spots, you’re out big bucks.
But you know it has made us take a good long look at what we do and why. We’ve had to ask some tough questions of ourselves. Is what we do only possible with an adequate budget? Are we too reliant on the big, the extra, the flashy, the “impressive”? Have we lost touch with the Kingdom of God, which advances no matter what the economic climate?
This summer we’ve put more emphasis on the small moments…time spent with our students which is not dependent on a big event. We hope this turn away from an event-driven program mode will allow our students to feel pursued, regardless of their ability to pay for or show up to something.
hey dude…just got an email for the youthfront getaway for youth pastors. i can’t go but i just wanted to say that’s very cool of you guys to do something like that for free. nobody does that.
The economy is definitely having an impact on ministry. I know for our church our budgets were cut about 40%. The great thing with this is that it forces us to refocus on what is really important. I know we would all like the latest and greatest “stuff” to help us reach students, but if we really think about it and we think about the basics ministry is relationships and relationships don’t have to cost a lot of money. I think as we get back to the basics and remember why get started to do ministry in the first place we will hope that Subway keeps the $5.00 footlongs for a while!
Great thoughts and challenging questions
check out http://emergingyouth.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/money-less-youth-ministry/ for a related topic about the affects of the economy on our present (and future) states of youth ministry