I recently read of a youth pastor talking about their pastor, boss, describing to them how long they thought they should preach. They thought they should only preach 10 minutes versus the 20 min they were preaching. In fact, the Lead Pastor went so far to say that the youth pastor was ruining the youth ministry because students wouldn’t tolerate them speaking that long.
Allow me to respond,
Dear Mr. Pastor,
How long do you preach? Is it possible you’re ruining your congregation with your short messages or maybe you’re being hypocritical and you bloviate for 45 minutes about nothingness while people check their watches?
Either way, you’re failing which mean you have no idea what the perfect length of a message should be.
In fact, there is no perfect length to a message/sermon. The perfect length of a message is when all that God has asked you to say has been said.
Finally, it sounds like you’re expecting perfection from your youth pastor and therefore the youth ministry. I have bad news for you. Your youth pastor will never be perfect and neither will your youth ministry and neither will you.
So, let’s take a breath, stop majoring on the minors and work together for the sake of the kingdom.
Yours Truly,
Paul Turner
P.S. This is Pastor Appreciation Month, stop being a jerk.
Youth Pastors, excellence and perfection are not the same so focus on excellence since perfection is unattainable. Done is always better than perfect.
I believe imperfection is already built in to every youth program and you don’t have to do anything to mess it up. It’s messed up before it even starts. You should just add IMPERFECTION to your service planner in whatever digital program you use or write it in bold letters at the bottom of the napkin you’re writing your service on 30 minutes before service, this way when imperfection shows up, you planned for it.
I’m amazed to hear how many pastors and youth pastors who think they know
- the perfect amount of students they should have
- the perfect worship set
- the perfect amount of time you should speak
If we were honest, we’d just admit we don’t know what the perfect anything is.
The perfect youth meeting, in my opinion, is one
- where love is present
- grace is highlighted
- God is worshipped
all imperfectly
You can be excellent and imperfect at the same time.
You will be excellent and imperfect at the same time, so embrace both.
Quit beating yourself up, imperfection is not just inevitable, it’s a state of being.