Creating and sustaining healthy adult youth leaders: PYWA
One youth leader’s summer:
- Four trips to Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari amusement park and water park. Four hours
round-trip each visit.
- A senior high mission trip.
- A middle school mission trip.
- Six days at Montreat youth conference.
- One trip to the county jail — Called to the police station in the middle of the night to retrieve a teenager. Parent out of town. Youth director first person called. This trip included playing host and guardian to the teenager (room, board and pastoral care).
- One week as vacation Bible school music leader —
co-opted to lead, because plays the guitar: seven daily music sessions for ages 3–18.
- Approximately 14–20 meetings with youth over snacks.
- Recruiting and training youth advisers for the upcoming school year.
- Teaching and overseeing large Sunday school program and special summer series for youth.
- Two days’ recruiting and chauffeuring youth volunteers to help family move into new house, paying youth (out of pocket) $40 each to help. Temperature: 90+ degrees.
- Cheerful, helpful and loving husband and father.
It’s a lot for four people — let alone one.
One. Just one.
But this is the un-exaggerated experience of just one youth worker called by God, gifted by the church and set apart to accompany young people. One extraordinary person named Michael. Patient. Creative. Loving. Committed to his work, his family, his church (local and larger). Michael is meant for youth ministry. It is not his stepping-stone to larger pulpits, greater salaries or more visible ministries. It is his calling. It is his spiritual practice. It is his passion.
And he could be heading for burnout.
What would it be like to know that every day he is sustained and affirmed by the community of faith?
What would it be like to be encouraged in his call to youth ministry? To hear words of celebration, connection and support for his work among young people in the church?
It would be like being a member of the Presbyterian Youth Workers’ Association (PYWA)!
In the summer of 2005, a small group gathered beside a mountain stream at a national conference center to discuss their call to youth ministry. Together they shared a desire for an organization that unites, sustains, trains, validates and advocates for the calling of both volunteers and paid leaders in Presbyterian youth ministry. Together they talked about an association that encourages and supports the vocation of youth ministry and strives for high standards and best practices in the denomination.
What would this look like?
A gathering
A few months later, a larger group of folks gathered for a Pentecost Summit — their first meeting. The purpose was to discern God’s vision for an organization that would provide educational, professional and spiritual support for our denomination’s youth workers. On November 3, 2005, the Presbyterian Youth Workers’ Association was born.
The mission
The mission of the Presbyterian Youth Worker’s Association is: Connecting, upholding and inspiring Presbyterian Youth Workers to serve faithfully the one triune God among young people.
An organization
Connecting: PYWA gathers youth workers locally and nationally for support and spiritual nourishment, to share stories, to learn from each other and to learn more through continuing education opportunities.
Upholding: PYWA advocates for excellence, fairness and support for youth workers. We will uphold the calling and vocation of youth ministry in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) nationally, in middle governing bodies and in congregational ministry.
Inspiring: PYWA members pray for each other and for the church! As Paul prayed for us, PYWA members will pray for each other. “May God grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through God’s Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are rooted and grounded in love.”
Four.
This is a person in need of the four practices of the PYWA.
Community — A place, rooted in God’s love, where the support is prayerful and based upon God’s call for the community to pray and heal.
Discernment — We are listening for God’s direction. Following the practices of Jesus and the community that followed Christ, we are examining our work and our purpose continually.
Investment — We are responding to God’s gift of community of youth ministry by offering our own gifts of time, talent, prayer and financial support.
Hospitality — We are inclusive of all Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) youth workers. Our association seeks to extend itself to the full range of adult youth workers — paid, volunteer, professional, new, veteran, old and young.
Michael’s life and journey are real — real for Michael, real for many thousands of Presbyterian adults who serve young people in church. While most youth workers wouldn’t think of their time in such a laundry list sort of way, that’s the reality of their work and their lives — hours filled with joy and with the privilege of accompanying young people. But these hours are rarely recognized by the very people they serve.
The Presbyterian Youth Workers’ Association is seeking to change the way in which youth workers are seen, supported and nurtured by creating and sustaining healthy adult youth leaders and by recognizing that young people are drawn to adults who are alive in their faith and in their own existence.
Become a part of this community. Join PYWA — or encourage those youth workers in your midst to join.
Celebrate those adults! Here are just a few ideas!
- Purchase a PYWA gift membership for the adult youth workers in your church. The gift membership comes with an attractive gift card, a membership card and a fun gift.
- Assign silent prayer partners or communities for each adult youth worker. Both paid (youth director, educator, pastor) and volunteer workers (teachers, adult advisers, chaperones, confirmation partners) need prayer presence in their life, spiritual support to their physical support of young people.
- Commission youth workers in worship. Recognize the call to youth ministry in the midst of the congregation or presbytery. Help the community understand the
life of a youth worker. Ask young people to share stories of how they have been supported by adult youth leaders.
- Feature a column in your church or presbytery newsletter, journal or paper that introduces a youth worker. Use the PYWA logo and a featured worker
of the month.
Epilogue
Michael is thriving and even vacationing, as this article was written. He is relaxing and resting with his family and has hidden his cell phone in his stored luggage. The youth at his church will be happy to see him when he returns. Summer will end. School will start. Football games, retreats, hunger programs and holidays will ensue. PYWA will have grown a week older and received another few members.... Michael will not be alone in his work or in his seeking to serve the one triune God faithfully among young people. |
