A youth pastor plays a critical role in the life of a church. They are tasked with discipling the next generation by building a strong foundation for their faith. Many adults who are strong in the faith can look back to a youth pastor and youth ministry that shaped their lives. The continued life and growth of any church is heavily dependent on how they assimilate the next generation into their community. With that being said, hiring a youth pastor is a very important task for the team that is assembled to make the decision and they’ll want to feel confident in the best way to go about finding the right person for the role.
The first step when a church is hiring a youth pastor is to decide where this candidate will come from. This can be compared to “fishing ponds.” There are three ponds to fish in when trying to find the right “fish.” The ponds will be dependent on the budget as well. A church will need to determine if they are going to need a volunteer or can pay something to this prospective hire.
Look Inside
The first pond would be to look inside the church. Is there anyone in the congregation who has the skillset and desire? This is usually the volunteer role. Some of the best hires someone can make are from within their church. The benefits are that this person will probably have the DNA of the church, healthy existing relationships, and feel invested in the community. The drawback is that this person may not have the skill set or their leadership ceiling could be too low. The very fact that a church is looking for a youth pastor may mean that the person within the church is an interim as a temporary fix. If a church is going to hire from within they may need to plan some ongoing training to further develop the skill set of the youth pastor.
Look Around
The second pond is the “look around” pond. If a church is connected to a denomination or network of churches, then they can look laterally within their own tribe. This can help with a healthy DNA match or close match to theological essentials. A pastor would send an email or letter to their denominational direct report or the network director. Another option in the “look around” pool is to ask other pastors if they have any candidates or suggestions.
Look Outside
The last pond is where a hiring team looks outside their church and their lateral connections. They may post on a staffing site or go through a staffing company that does the interviews for them. The benefit is that they may be able to find someone with the skill set they are looking for, but the drawback is the church doesn’t know if the person has the right DNA, matching theology or any “skeletons in the closet.”
Once a church finds a person that they think may be a good hire then this is where the hard work begins. There needs to be multiple interviews and a dedicated team that helps dig deep into this hiring practice. The key will be to have a checklist of criteria that they have to meet. This checklist will be accompanied by interview questions and needs to be on the application or seen through their resume.
The easiest way is to consolidate this checklist into four C’s that will help a church “foresee” before they hire.
1. Competency
Competency is their skill set and correlating experience to the youth pastor position. There are some seminary students who have a degree but no real experience working with youth. This is very important the bigger a church gets. A leader without competency can shrink a church or youth group to their level of competence. Many churches look for someone who is young and wants to work with youth. However, they must lay out the core competencies they need and goals they want to achieve with this new hire.
2. Character
Character can be determined in a few ways. One way is by asking the question, “Who are you when no one is looking?” Character can also be defined when asking the question, “Can you meet deadlines and do a thorough job while meeting these deadlines?”
Character is huge. Many leaders have charisma but their character doesn’t match the level of their charisma. They have gaping holes between who they are and who they project to be. The only way to really know character during an interview process is to thoroughly check references and ask the tough questions to those they’re calling. A good hiring team will look at key points of a resume that show how long they have stayed at a position and the reason they left that position. A degree of any sort does show that they have some character. One pastor put it this way, “If they can turn assignments in on time and stick it through any program then it shows me that they have character.”
3. Chemistry
Chemistry is the ability to relate, solve problems and manage conflict resolution. They may be very competent and skilled. They may also have outstanding character but without chemistry with the senior pastor, staff and board then they can cause a rift in the team. There have been many high-performing staff who lacked the ability to get along with other staff or with a church board. When a church is looking to hire a youth pastor they must discover the chemistry dynamic by asking this question, “How well do they fit in with our current staff and board?” There must also be chemistry with the youth as well as the youth leadership team composed of parents and students. Having a final candidate take a personality profile assessment will also help determine if their personality will complement or compete with other staff. A personality profile assessment will also aid in understanding how to relate to the new hire, thus improving long-term chemistry.
4. Calling
This final quality seems like it should be “understood” that the person has a calling to serve The Church, a calling to youth ministry, and more specifically, to the local church who is considering hiring them. Many leaders see ministry as a vocational career with opportunities, pay packages, and benefits, instead of seeing ministry as a calling. A church hiring team or committee will want to find out how the person was called into the ministry and why exactly they feel called to this particular church. Some staff may be trying to escape a situation or have run out of “pocket change” at their current church due to a string of bad decisions, which in turn made the congregation lose trust in them. Finding out that God has called a leader to a particular youth ministry will help greatly in the bad times. If a leader is taking a job because of the opportunity but is not called to it, then they will abandon their position during difficult and trying seasons. One final thing to note about calling; The spouse needs to be interviewed as well. If a spouse doesn’t feel called to leave their current situation or doesn’t feel called to support their partner in ministry then this could lead to a “bridge out” situation in the future.
