Feature: Youth Leaders: How Old is Too Old?
Cal LeMon
by Cal LeMon, pastor, Evangel Temple, Springfield, Missouri
Our society has sold us a message that unless you're able to look 24 all your life, wind-surf in a 30-knot breeze, and drink four cans of Dr. Pepper a day—you'll never relate to teenagers successfully. The church has bought this message, and at a high price. The frequent result: two-year ministry commitments (or shorter) to the most impressionable segment of the congregation, nonverbally telling them that God's kingdom is mostly a matter of hype and wow. I didn't fully understand this until I found myself in a painful scene: after four short years as senior pastor, I was sitting with my second Youth Pastor Search Committee. Some of the members were moaning about the fact we had been in this same ecclesiastical boat only 12 months earlier, and we were all seasick. As we talked around the room, people voiced an obvious disillusionment with the contemporary understanding of youth ministry. Resumes spilled from our files of those who were using the field as a rite of passage to greater things: an associate or senior pastor position. We found very few applicants who viewed young people as a special group deserving a life commitment So we decided to look for a leader who, regardless of age, had the following characteristics: • Personal appeal to our young people • Spiritual and personal maturity, so parents and I didn't have to cross our fingers behind our backs as the church bus left on the annual ski retreat • An ability to recruit and train others in the congregation who had spiritual gifts in working with youth • Skill and maturity to offer counseling not only to the kids but also their parents • An ability to complement the ministries of the others on our staff • A life commitment ...
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