Crosswalk.com recently ran a news blurb about new research that seemed to indicate teens weren't getting much of value from their time at church. The gist of this analysis was that most teenagers don't gain an understanding of "biblical values"; and those who do, don't apply that understanding to their life choices. Drat. And all these years I thought I was changing the world.

Why do I sound cynical, and what's the connection between helping teens apply biblical principles and the numbers of teens we reach? First, I'm cynical almost every time I read stats about youth ministry. Call me simple (though I prefer uncomplicated), but I don't deal with numbers. I deal with people. That's not to say I don't care how many students show up to my youth ministry. I'm saying I disciple one kid at a time. I may speak to many at a time, but you and I both know there's a difference.

With or without Mideast tensions and increased persecution of Christians overseas, eternity is on the horizon when we look at our own American culture. If we're completely honest with ourselves, motivations for us to be in youth ministry may range from marking the "oh, so needed" box on our self-appeasement checklist to being the object of hero worship. Once we get past the superficial motivations, though, most of us genuinely want to help young people live for Jesus. This isn't a stepping stone to a greater position—many of us see no greater cause than God's exciting, rewarding and sitcomish call to love other peoples' teenagers.

With that in mind, when numbers are low are we still internally motivated to do our absolute best? Can we, like Paul, say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:7)? After all, the same Paul wrote, "But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God's grace" (Acts 20:24).

Are we OK with the "how, where and with whom" God has given us to do the work assigned to us? It's tempting to look at big youth ministries with more students and volunteers than ours and consciously or subconsciously think, "They must be led by leaders bigger than me." Maybe you're too big to believe such foolishness, but I find that it's difficult to resist the temptation to compare myself or my ministry to others.

If you're OK with your "how, where and with whom," then you can determine what kind of youth worker you're going to be. Nebraska Assemblies of God District Youth Director Rod Whitlock addresses the difference between the shepherd and the hired hand mentality in youth ministry. He says, "The Shepherd mentality says, 'I'm going to pastor, disciple, train up, equip, enable, encourage, strengthen—all those kinds of things—the students.' The Hired Hand mentality is, 'I come in, do my big service, I have my nice message, my polished worship, then I go off and do my other things until my next youth meeting.'" Whitlock says this is a huge key with youth workers because "you can have all the right programs, discipleship books and other stuff in place; but if you don't have a shepherd's heart or mentality, it's "just another thing" in your life. It's hard to measure how much of a shepherd's heart you or somebody might have, but you can see the fruit of it; and there's greater fruit from a shepherd's ministry than there is from a hired hand's ministry—maybe not initially, but definitely in the long run."