Caring For Your Own Soul While Ministering to Others

Mike Yaconelli was the co-founder of Youth Specialties, spent 43 years of his life in ministry to youth and was considered by many in the field to be the "grandfather of youth ministry." His untimely death in 2003 left family, friends, and the youth ministry world with a great void. But during his lifetime, he touched countless lives and helped make youth ministry the respected calling it is today.

While some of the language he uses referencing church structure may be foreign to us because he was not Catholic, his core message hits home for those of us in the field of youth ministry. As we near the end of the "program year" and the coming intensity of summer mission trips, pilgrimages and activities, I hope that you will find his words both affirming and challenging!

Please click on the link below to read the entire article of the excerpt below.

Blessings,

Tauno

"What I Wish I Knew When I Started Youth Ministry,
Part 2: Caring For Your Own Soul While Ministering to Others"
by Mike Yaconelli

Everyone was saying that I was doing really well, but something inside was telling me that my success was putting my own soul in danger.
—Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus (Crossroad, 1989)

The call of God is difficult to explain but impossible to ignore. It is the nagging, conscious awareness asking you to do something. The asking comes not from words, but from deep within, as though a voice had been planted inside and, now, is beginning to speak. This voice, the calling voice, has many ways of speaking—your passion for young people, the unique parts of you that seem to attract young people, the sense of joy and fulfillment that overflows into your soul when you're with young people. It is the great YES of your life that fills you with a sense of belonging, the warmth of being home. Heady wine, this call to youth ministry.

The call of youth ministry is unmistakable, relentless, captivating.

And dangerous.

Because in reality it is a job. And once ministry becomes a job, the rules all change, and Youth Ministry The Job conflicts with Youth Ministry The Call.

Youth Ministry The Job has a job description, performance objectives, mission statements, evaluation forms. It's about measuring—how many, how much…growth, success, results.

Youth Ministry The Call, on the other hand, is a mystery—and (trust me) the mystery of youth ministry is very frustrating for church boards and executive pastors.

Youth Ministry The Call has a rhythm all its own—slow...