How Volunteering in Youth Ministry Will Change Your Life

To be honest, I didn’t even plan to go into youth ministry. When I was a senior in high school, I

started volunteering with the middle school group just because my friends were doing it. I soon found

myself hosting sixth grade sleepovers, making comments like, “Consider me as your big sister

then!”, and even stepping down from Speech and Debate, one of my favorite activities, because it

conflicted with youth group. I was hooked. For the next five years, I did everything I possibly could to

prepare myself to be an excellent youth minister. As I step into the next season of my life as the

Assistant Youth and Preteen Director at Community of Hope Church (say that ten times fast!), I

thought I would share with you all how serving in youth ministry could rock your world like it rocked

mine.

1) You’ll eat far more pizza than you ever wanted to.Yes -- cheap, easy, and delicious. This is the

manna of youth ministry. But don’t worry, you’ll burn off the calories in a good game of football, gaga

ball, or ninja.

2) You won’t be content with superficial answers, but will seek out the deep things of God. On

a more serious note, today’s teens are not content with cliches about faith; they are desperate for

depth. They are constantly bombarded with different viewpoints, and they long for truth. How could

the world be so broken if God is so good? Is Jesus the only way to heaven? What’s up with science

and Genesis? As you talk with them, you will no longer be content with the quick answer you’ve

always repeated. You will be pressed and challenged in your faith as you wrestle to uncover truth --

for their sake and yours.

3) Your heart will break for what breaks God’s heart. You’ll hear stories you wish you could

unhear. Stories of girls starving themselves to be beautiful, of boys bullied to the point of suicidal

thoughts, of teenagers going home to parents addicted to alcohol and screaming at each other. The

little anxieties of your day will melt as you are swept into the reality beyond your four walls. And as

you hear those stories, your heart will beat and bleed and break in sync with the heart of the Holy

God who cares even more than you do.

4) You’ll become a prayer warrior. If you know what’s best for you, you won’t stay in continual

heartbreak. You will take those burdens that break your heart and lift them straight back up to the Father.
You’ll recognize that prayer gives you the opportunity to partner with God to accomplish His

purposes, and you’ll pray. When you feel most powerless, you’ll tap into your only source of power.

5) You’ll become a role model. Teenagers copy everything. They copy their friends, their favorite

musicians, their favorite Youtubers. They copy what they see in movies, magazines, and T.V. shows.

You know what I think? I think they deserve a model WORTH copying. I think they deserve to be

connected to a caring, flesh-and-blood adult whose beauty stems from inside, whose cares go

beyond their waist-size, and whose eyes are set on Jesus. I think they deserve to be connected to a

person who is not perfect, but who authentically lives out their faith. And I think you could be that

person. You might not think you are worth copying, but God isn’t looking for perfection -- He is

looking for a soft and willing heart.  

6) You’ll become a part of someone’s faith story. This past month, I had a student write out her testimony
to be baptized. At the bottom she wrote these words, “Dedicated to Miss Danie Frandsen for helping me
become closer to her and God.” I’m not typically an emotional person, but sentences like that make me tear up.
What greater honor is there than knowing your life impacted another’s? That if you died today, your life would
leave a legacy beyond you?  

I can’t imagine a life without youth ministry anymore. I wouldn’t want to. And though youth ministry

may upset your stomach (you know, with all that pizza) and break your heart with the brokenness

you see, it will also give you a profound hope for the future. It will connect you to teenagers who are

passionate and talented and thirsty for truth. It will give you a chance to see them bringing hope into

situations that everyone wrote off as hopeless. It will give you the chance to restore hope to a

hopeless situation yourself. It will give you the chance to change a life, and in my eyes, that is worth

the risk.