Andrew: I think it's been successful. That success has been a good and bad thing. The good thing is these organizations have drawn attention to the fact that there's something particular about youth that demands they be attended to in their uniqueness. The downside is youth ministry often is being separated from the larger understanding of the church.

YWJ: What's contributed to the development of youth ministry as a profession? What's keeping it from developing?

Danny Kwon: One of the things keeping it from developing is that we have stereotypes of youth workers as immature people who are great with kids. We need to be more intentional about working with parents, senior pastors and church leadership so we can gain credibility with those who are older than we are.

Andrew: The state of the church. In a conservative context, there's a fear of what culture will do to young people that leads churches to invest in youth ministry to help kids navigate through this difficult cultural reality. In more mainline communities, it's had to do with the decline of church memberships. Our job becomes convincing youth to stay in church. I wonder if the better question is, "How can we be faithful to the humanity of young people and to God?"

Dan: Many youth leaders today are readers, learners and thinkers. This is increasing their professionalism because they don't stay focused on youth activities and youth messages but are growing themselves. This leads to a better perspective of life, Scripture and their view of church. Many senior pastors also now realize youth leaders are vital in the life of churches. What keeps youth ministry from further developing is youth leaders not taking care of themselves personally, churches not taking care of their youth leaders, and senior pastors and parents putting too much pressure on the youth leader for things that may not be attainable, leading to an unhealthy youth leader under stress.

YWJ: Youth ministry has a patchwork approach to certification that differs widely among various churches. Do you think there's anything that should be done about this?

Mark: I've been involved with a youth ministry thinktank hosted by the Center for Youth Ministry Training that's been asking, "What does an appropriately trained professional in youth ministry look like?" Youth workers from a wide variety of theological perspectives must be able to articulate a common vocabulary for effective youth ministry in much the same way doctors from different medical schools share a common understanding of a core of knowledge in their field of discipline.

Andrew: In some sense, we should expect a certain standard—a seminary education. Sometimes I worry that would fall into technical rationality. We imagine that if we can get people the right knowledge they'll become well-functioning, but ministry really isn't about functioning correctly. It's about being human with and for others.