Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,
I sure do hope everyone is doing very well as you are reading this. You guys have been an excellent crowd so far, and I thank you for you listenings and readings. I've been having a few troublesome ideas circulating around my mind with my previous performances throughout my latest journeys prior to attending Verge as an adult youth leader. For the first morning session, if I do recall, We had a phenomenal guest speaker, Pastor Mark Benson of The Rock Family Worship Center http://www.therockfwc.org/, who spoke on Youth Leadership and honoring thy Youth Pastor. A lot of things he spoke on were expectations, plenty of which I feel as if I felt short of. I know I'm not the only one who thought that, can I get an Amen! But I digress, Pastor Mark threw out some astronomical statistics about Youth Ministry and its Youth Pastors, for example the average span that someone is in pastoral ministry for the youth is ONLY 6 MONTHS. I want to take a second and thank my pastor, Pastor Porter, for being so committed and loving to myself and to everyone who he has had a chance to encounter. So are started to dig up some more statistics, now take in consideration, these statistics are from one source, they are about pastor's in general, and its from 2007... BUT the numbers are still incredibly insane.
*100% of all pastors have had an associate and or seminary buddy who has left ministry because of burnout, conflict in their church, or from a moral failure
*89% of the pastors we surveyed also considered leaving the ministry at one time. 57% said they would leave if they had a better place to go—including secular work
*77% of the pastors we surveyed felt they did not have a good marriage
*71% of pastors stated they were burned out, and they battle depression beyond fatigue on a weekly and even a daily basis.
These are only a few numbers that I had found, if you wish to read more on them, please take time to go to Pastoral Statistics Here... Like I said this is only one source and its from 2007, I know numbers have fluctuated but its still relevant.
Which brings me to the final problem... Why are a lot of us, speaking to youth leaders, student leaders, anyone who has anything to deal with youth ministry, not relieving our pastors and continuously showing out gratitude for everything that they're doing. I mean, they're "only" raising up out next generation in the world to become our next doctors, lawyers, presidents, teachers, minister's, counselors, and what not. They deserve so much more, I know mine does. I've known my pastor for about 5-6 years now. He was the only youth pastor to connect with me on a personal level. He's invested so much more time into, that he feels somewhat responsible for the outcome of my life. Now that's being a youth pastor.
So leaders, lets take time to show appreciation to our youth pastors here in America. Lets make their lives as less stressful as we can. Whatever that means to you, whatever you can do. I'm pretty positive that they will appreciate it.
So Father, I ask that you bless the Youth Pastors as they steward Your children, Your chosen generation. God I thank You that the ministry that You have blessed and called Your own, is being operated and brought together by my pastor. Thank You for appointing his authority in my life and giving me the opportunity to have him speak into my life and give me guidance.
In Jesus Name,
Amen!
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