Why Would You Want to Work With Youth???

Working with the parents (especially mothers) of children is amazing, but after taking a youth ministry course this week as an intensive I was challenged to look at my life and see where God is leading me. If you know me, you know that I absolutely LOVE working with children and God has recently opened my heart to working with teenagers (especially teenaged girls). I wasn’t challenged to see what group is more important that the other because all people need to be ministered to, but I was instead challenged to look at my major compared to where God was leading my heart. With that being said I can say that I have changed my major and no longer am I a Women’s Ministry major, but instead a Youth Ministry major.

I’m going to first answer the question that I know most of you are asking. No, I am not going to be a youth “pastor.” (What I am about to say is what I believe is biblically correct. Please read prayerfully.) I do not feel as though women are called to be pastors. Yes, women are capable of teaching but God tells us in Titus 1:5-16 the qualifications of an elder. It does not mention anything of a woman, but instead directly talks to men as He says in verses 5-6, “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I direct you, namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion.” This passage is clearly talking to a man as it mentions phrases such as “any man,” “the husband,” to name a few. We can also see in Genesis that God created woman as a helper as He says in Genesis 2:17-19,

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a HELPER suitable for him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.

 Women were created as the HELPER. Like I said, I believe that women are capable of teaching, but we were called as women to help, not lead as men were called to do. It does say in Titus 2:3-5 however, “Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage he young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husband, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.” The older women in the church are to teach young women. (If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me and I am willing to answer more questions or better explain myself).

You may now be asking, “So why do you want to go into youth ministry if you’re not going to be a pastor? And what are you going to do?” Well, God has laid young people on my heart for A LONG time. I have always loved working in children’s ministry and honestly a lot of my friends are in elementary school between K-5. The majority of my friends are in 8th or 9th grade, bringing me to the fact that God has recently laid youth (teens) on my heart as well, specifically teen girls. I have always felt called to lead women, but God has narrowed that down to the women that are at a critical time in their life, young women.

And I don’t just want to be comfortable, I want to work with young women in an urban community. There are many situations in my life that God has used to call me to urban ministry, so it’s not my own choice (although I love the innercity and CANNOT wait until I get to move there). Yes, I know that I am going to have a lot of situations that I am going to face working with young women in the city and that is ok. We, as Christians, are called to “GO and make disciples of ALL nations…” (Matthew28:19-20). It’s not going to be comfortable, but God hasn’t called us to live a comfortable life.

One thing that I am slowly learning after teaching Paige, the young girl that I disciple, is that we are not teaching girls that they are beautiful, daughters of God, and fearfully and wonderfully made with a purpose in life until it’s too late. We are teaching them when the girls are in middle/high school, but by that time they have already been influenced and told that they aren’t worth much unless they follow the crowd and devote themselves to relationships. Paige and I studied Psalms 139:13-14 the other day which states, “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” I explained how God created her just the way she was and gave her the talents that she has so she can minister to specific people. There are people that she is able to minister to that I’m not able too, and SHE GOT IT!!!! So I started to realize that if a 9-year-old girl is able to “get it” and have excitement to serve God and see herself as a daughter of the King, then why are we waiting until middle school and high school to teach them that they are worth so much?

We tone down our lessons for children (and that is needed in some cases), but in others we don’t realize how much they can learn and comprehend. So that is what I feel called to do, work with young girls and teach them who they are in Christ, how beautiful they are, and most importantly how much they are worth in the eyes of Christ.

To answer the question that is in the title, “Why Would You Want to Work With Youth???” As many people do not like working with children and teens and my answer is simply, I want to work with youth because THEY GET IT!!!!
So yes, God has changed my plans within a matter of weeks/days, but that’s okay because they truthfully aren’t my plans, but they are fully God’s plans. And I am SO EXCITED to say that I am a Youth Ministry major at Liberty University with a Women’s Ministry minor (so I can learn how to be a woman in ministry). I will eventually be getting my Master’s in Clinical Counseling so that I will not only be able to spiritually help these girls (which is the most important), but I will also be able to help them and give them advice legally.

Again, I am so excited for what God has given me a better direction of the path He is leading me on this week as I have taken the Youth Ministry course at Liberty University (that I mentioned earlier) focusing on Urban Ministry. I am so blessed to have had this opportunity and I could literally go on for hours about this, but it is 1:30 am and I’m pretty tired and you’ve already read a lot. I know I mentioned a lot of things that are conservative, but I am a conservative person. So as I said, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

I love you guys and wanted to share this exciting news of my major change with you!

God Bless!