Wisdom from Three Centuries* of Youth Ministry

Jim Burns is senior director of the HomeWord Center for Youth and Family at Azusa Pacific University and the president of HomeWord and host of the “HomeWord with Jim Burns” radio program. His passion is communicating to adults and young people practical truths to help them live out their Christian lives. Jim is the author of several resources, including Closer: Devotions to Draw Couples Together, the Pure Foundations Series of books on purity for kids of all ages, Confident Parenting and Creating an Intimate Marriage, as well as columns for the Simply Youth Ministry Website HomeWord.com and newsletter. 25+ years in Youth Ministry

YWJ: What do young leaders most need to succeed as they start out?
Jim Burns: Today younger leaders have access to more training and resources than ever. I’d encourage them to spend some of their most precious time on “soul care.” Through the years, the people who have the greatest impact in ministry are those who build legacy are those who built margin into their lives where they made time to keep their own spiritual lives fresh. One of the biggest problems with youth workers and families in America is this breathless pace of life. I find that well-meaning young leaders are over-committed and under-connected. They are busy doing great things, but if they don’t take care of their souls they become under connected with God and with others.

Besides soul care, I hope they have mentors and peer-support systems to help them build foundations of strength. In Luke 12, even Jesus took time to pray (soul care), spend time with His disciples (community and mutual support), then He did ministry. Young leaders too often find themselves in trouble and burning out because they are giving everything they have to their work and one day look up and find themselves empty. Students from my ministry days rarely talk about my youth talks or Bible studies. They focus on how I treated my wife Cathy and the relational aspects of the ministry. Frankly, I wish someone had challenged me more in the soul care areas and building a strong support system in my younger years.

YWJ: What makes for long-term service and success?
Jim: Perseverance. There are many other answers I’m sure, but for me the people who seem to have the successful ministry experiences long-term are those who run their race with perseverance. Life and ministry have some pain in them. It’s either going to be the pain of discipline and perseverance or the pain of regret. Another word that comes to mind is focus. One day I had the opportunity to speak with one of the great Christian leaders, Jack Hayford. I asked him this question. His answer surprised me. He said, “Jim, it’s not so much what I have chosen to do, but rather what I have chosen not to do.” Jack had a rocket focus on what he felt God was calling him to do. Doug Fields was a kid in my youth group years ago, but today I respect and admire him as much as anyone in the field of youth ministry. He is one of the most focused people I know. He has to say “no” daily to good things in order to say “yes” to the most important. He does it with his ministry and with his family. I am aware of God’s anointing on certain individuals but so many of the key leaders in our field of youth ministry have brought a great deal of perseverance and focus to their service and success. It was that great theologian Billy Crystal who was asked what made him a worldwide instant success with his comedy and movies and he answered, “Instant success! Well all it took was 20 years of doing one-night stands in cities I can’t remember or pronounce to make this ‘instant success.'”
 
YWJ: What’s one perennial problem that all youth workers face, and how can they address it?
Jim: I’ve spent my entire adult life listening to youth workers walk through their issues, and I could name 20 problems that seem to be life changers; but let me focus on one of them that goes along with the theme I’ve been discussing with you: lack of boundaries. Youth ministry is difficult partly because our work is never done. There is always something else to do and always kids who need us. Early in our marriage, my wife, Cathy, would say, “Jim, we have a Messiah and He is doing just fine; you don’t need to replace Him.” It was great advice; and in my earlier years, I didn’t always accept it from her. Someone once told me, “If the devil can’t make you bad, he will make you busy.” Questions I ask myself are: 1. “Is the work of God I am doing destroying the work of God in me?” Without boundaries our hearts begin to shrink for God and our ministry. 2. “Am I only giving my family my emotional scraps?” Too often the ministry takes it all and we don’t have the energy to give to our family and personal life. 3. “Do I take a regular day off to rest, restore and renew? I find too many youth workers don’t have healthy boundaries when it comes to taking a Sabbath. The word Sabbath simply means rest; without the boundary of renewal, we’ll burn out and be much more vulnerable to sin in our own lives.
 
YWJ: What developments have encouraged/concerned you?
Jim: I love this generation of youth ministry, and I love this new generation of youth workers. I think we are in the best place we have ever been in the history of youth work. Today’s youth ministries have several elements that are stronger and healthier than ever before. Let me name a few…

Worship: The Bible says the Lord inhabits the praise of His people. I love the emphasis on healthy worship among young people.

Family Focused: Today youth ministry understands the most effective Christian education takes place in the home. We still struggle with exactly how to come alongside kids and their parents; but as the church partners with parents, families will thrive spiritually.

Mission-based: I gave the first workshop at a Youth Specialties National Youth Workers Convention in the 80s called “Getting Your Students Involved with Mission and Service.” I had to spend half of the workshop trying to convince youth workers that mission trips were a good idea. Today, every good youth ministry has a strong mission component. Give me two mission trips a year with kids, and I think more can happen for some than 52 weeks of traditional Sunday School.

Multicultural: We still have a ways to go but this generation of youth ministry is much more multicultural, and today many of our finest youth workers in leadership are women. The role models are so much more diverse and not just a bunch of bald-headed old guys such as myself.
 
YWJ: How have you adapted your content through the years?
Jim: Mike Yaconnelli and I wrote a book together in the 1980s called High School Ministry. Today that book would fit better with middle school. Kids experience so much so young. One of my most recent writing projects has been a lifelong goal to write a series of books for youth, parents and children on sexual purity. When I went to my notes of what I used to say to teens, I had to change it because even adolescent development has changed. As youth workers, we have to be students of the culture. This means adapting our message to the needs of today. I spend more time talking to parents about creating a media-safe home than I ever did before because it seems to be the need of the day for parents. One of the other things I’ve had to adapt is a really healthy place for kids because they want honest, blunt and unashamedly Christian answers. They want us to bring up the issues and not skirt their questions as did the church in previous generations.

See Related Stories:
Roundtable with Chap Clark