Youth ministry seems to be synonymous with stress. Ask a youth pastor how he or she is doing and the most likely answer will be ‘busy’ or ‘very/extremely/absurdly busy’. Or maybe when they feeling like sharing, they’ll even say ‘stressed’. I have met very youth pastors or youth workers lately who weren’t overworked, busy, and/or stressed to the point where it really wasn’t funny anymore.
See if any of the following sounds familiar to you:
You’re working (far) more hours than you should or have to
You’re experiencing constant stress
You often feel tired, exhausted even
You often feel overwhelmed to the point of either panic or the inability to act at all
You’re experiencing spiritual drought
When you don’t work, you still think of your work and everything you should do
You have a hard time taking rest because there’s still so much to do
Your to do list only grows, no matter how many hours you put in
You can see that your family and/or your friends suffer from your absence
There are actions on your to do list that have been there forever
There are things that you really want to do, should do, but just can’t seem to find the time for
You feel guilty for not being able to get your work done
You feel guilty for not spending as much time as you want to with your family
You feel guilty because you’re not spending as much time as you want to with God
You feel guilty because you can’t put the time into certain actions (like sermon prep) that you actually should
You’re having doubts whether you’re actually suited for youth ministry at all
A lot of youth pastors are under (extreme) stress…do you recognize this problem of the stress that is youth ministry?
Tomorrow I will be leaving to attend the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Indianapolis for the very first time. It’s quite a trip from Germany, but I’m very excited about attending the conference and meeting many people face to face that I only know online so far. I’m also very excited about the sightseeing trip to Chicago that I’ve planned after the conference 
