Biblical Principles of Youth Ministry

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I am going to give you some quick fixes here in a little bit but I wanted to lay the foundation from the Scriptures! Understand that God works through people, not programs and structures. The greatest gift that you or any adult in student ministries could ever give to the ministry is to be a man or woman of God living out his or her spiritual gifting in the context of the church! Principles are what are of greatest importance, not models or structures of ministry. Remember the life of Christ! He had no office, no title, no salary, no formal job description, no regular meeting time or place, no programs but He shook the earth with eleven men! In the book of Acts, these men were given a divine structure. Therefore, it was not their administrative skills that shook the earth. What they had was the power of the risen Lord, character, sound doctrine, and spiritual gifts or skills of ministry.

The purpose of the ministry that I lead is “To be a community of fully devoted followers of Christ who win the lost, establish the foundation, and equip them to serve Jesus as Great Commission, Great Commandment Christians.” Over the past 7 years, I have had the joy of wrestling with these scriptures, distilling these biblical principles, and working out a model of ministry in order to implement them into a student ministry. The team and I are in process! The actual model of ministry will depend on your unique gifting, as well as the spiritual gift mix represented in your leadership. A great thing to remember is to enjoy and excel in the areas in which God has gifted you and to recruit others in the areas of your deficiencies. Remember, this is all about the glory of God and the souls of men and women. It is not about you. Let us take a brief look at the structure of one student ministry. I want to begin with a biblical job description.

Youth Pastor’s Job Description. All of the duties and responsibilities of the Youth Pastor can be broken down into three main functions. He is to lead, love or shepherd, and teach. Each one of these functions is clearly founded in the Bible. I believe that each of these functions are applicable for all pastors but in this area of student ministries, these functions will be placed in the context of ministering to 13 to 18 year old students.

In his function as a leader, the youth pastor will be responsible for the following:

	1.	He is to develop a clear, biblical, culturally relevant, and transferable philosophy of ministry. (i.e. win the lost, establish the believers, and equip them to serve).
	2.	He is to develop, communicate, and implement a strategic plan for ministry that is consistent with the biblically based philosophy of ministry.
	3.	He is responsible to cast vision, recruit, and equip ministry team members.
	4.	He is to work closely with parents and view them as teammates, be patient with them, and serve them as a resource in bringing students to maturity in Christ.
	5.	He is responsible to lead the entire congregation in their approach to ministering to students.
	6.	He is to evaluate and make changes in the overall programming of the ministry to ensure that it continues to meet its biblical mandates.
	7.	He is responsible to ensure that each student is given the opportunity to discover his or her own unique gift-mix and to begin to develop and use those gifts within the context of this local body of believers.

In his function as lover or shepherd, the youth pastor will be responsible for the following:

	1.	He is to pray for and establish an atmosphere of love within the ministry.
	2.	He is to communicate through the context of relationships, love and acceptance for the students.
	3.	He is responsible to ensure that there are opportunities for counseling, discipleship, and mentoring for students in the ministry.
	4.	He must make sure that consistent communication is taking place within the ministry between adult ministry team members and students.
	5.	He is to ensure that biblical church discipline be carried out in a timely and sensitive manner.

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Biblical Principles of Youth Ministry