Ever feel like you want to quit youth ministry?
It’s a normal feeling! Every veteran youth worker has dealt with the debilitating desire to throw in the towel and walk away. It feels like a death grip on your heart and it’s very difficult to press toward the finish line.
Life as a leader isn’t always smooth sailing and it seems like the most difficult battles are the ones we fight from within. Here are a few ideas to help you process through wanting to quit on youth ministry:
SLOW DOWN
It’s okay to allow some things to fall through the cracks while you try to figure out the pain. Wanting to quit youth ministry is a BIG DEAL, and you need to intentionally create some margin in your life so you can work this through to the end. Staying busy will only prolong a solution. Are you moving too fast to deal with this inner crisis in a healthy way?
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Teach your students the power of perseverance with this great downloadable
resource form Leader Treks.
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RECONNECT WITH GOD (if you need to)
We aren’t assuming that you’re disconnected from God simply because you feel like quitting youth ministry…not at all. However, we recognize that our perspective on life and ministry gets twisted and turned upside down when we’re not walking with Jesus. God wants us to cast our anxieties on him–even the anxiety of stepping out of youth ministry. We can’t trust God with all of this if we are disconnected from him. How’s your current walk with Jesus?
IDENTIFY THE PAIN POINTS
Use the time you’ve gained by making intentional decisions to slow down to think about the source(s) of your frustration. Write out the sources of your pain in your journal. This exercise works to take a generalized anxiety and make it more specific. When it’s specific you can deal with it. Until you identify the pain points, you’ll be navigating the maze in the dark. What specifically is driving you out of youth ministry?
GET OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVE
God created us for community, we need one another to share joys and burdens and gain insight and support. Talk to someone who is a safe outsider to the crisis. It can be refreshing to hear from someone who doesn’t really “care” about the success/failure of your youth ministry. Instead, this person cares about you. Difficult issues often require another set of eyes to pursue a solution. Who is someone safe that you could talk to?
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Teach your students the power of perseverance with this great downloadable
resource form Leader Treks.
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DECIDE YOUR NEXT STEP
Here’s where our short daily email can’t be much help: there are simply too many possibilities for your future for us to assume we could help you with “the right answer.” God may be leading you to stay, but in order to stay you need to make a change in your heart or situation. Or, God may be calling you to leave (at least for a season). We know God is doing something in your life, so look for it! What is a potential next step that you could take?
Your responsibility is to discern if you are in a temporary season or stuck in a rut. A season calls for patient endurance, a rut requires significant change. Either way, there IS a next step.
One last thought:
Don’t allow guilt to keep you in youth ministry. Leading students because you think, “They need me! If I leave they will have no one!” will morph you into a lousy leader. This kind of motivation will short change your students and short circuit your faith.