I just figured I would start a thread and see what happened, but I have really been looking for a place to share struggles, conflicts, praise, and prayer requests...hopefully this will help others, as well.

I personally am in my 3rd month at a new church. This is the first time the church has ever had a real student ministry; some of the members are still not even sure they want one. It is a relatvely young church (11 yrs) but the roots run deep in small town, "way we have always done things" mentality. In the past 2 months we have grown from 3 members to 15; I have recieved my first application for student leadership (I am tough on leaders...and they are about to find out what that means), and there has been obvious growth in the spirtual lives of the students. (I say this humbly, knowing that I can take no credit for what the Lord has done in the lives of HIS students here) However, the people that are causing the problems...they are not interested in talking about the blessings and the areas of praise...they want to lambast me over things like...how unheard of and inappropriate it is to bring couches into the church building.

I am not going to allow this to hinder the work that God has started here, but I am already feeling the burden of facing these issues alone. Our church is heavily committee driven, I do not have a youth "staff", I have a youth committee. What that means, in my situation, is that we meet as a group for about 40 mins 1 time a month, I give them my ideas, they shake their heads and we leave. The entire time is spent on working through calendar issues.

All that being said, here is what I ask, please partner with me in prayer in the following ways:

1. Ask God to broaden the views of the members of the church (and deacons and church council), to see that in order to reach students, we have to meet them where they are, we cannot expect students to be "good Christian kids" before God has the opportunity to change their hearts.

2. Ask God to raise up Adult leaders. Leaders who are willing to be mentors and make the sacrifices in their own lives to live a righteous example, following hard after Christ, themselves, in order to, pass that same passion on to students.

3. Ask God to continue to give me direction to work with the church members, youth committee and students, so that all we do is for His glory. My desire is to have His heart, and His passion to reach these students...it is my longing to be like Him, and I pray that would continue to burn in my heart.

--By the way, I have the full support of my senior pastor, he however does not have the full support of these same members, either...along with that, pray for unity, that we all might have a servants heart, willing to follow where ever the Father leads.--

With this I respectfully submit my request. I also have several items of praise, but I will save them for another post...(however, I will just say...we have seen our first student salvation, and we have seen several students begin to get their hearts right with God...some who don't even know it, yet. I love student ministry.

I will definitely hold you up in prayer. I have been in a new position in Tempe, AZ for about five months now and the stresses of trying to accomplish what God wants in a place that does not have unity is hard. My prayer is that God will bring unity among our church leaders, and also among our congregations in relation to our church leaders.

It is sad when the church body will not allow the pastor and youth ministers to do the LORD's work, but ultimately remember everything works for the glory of God and He won't allow someone to come in the way of what He wants to accomplish.

sbcnahuntayp:
Thank you for sharing from your heart. I think the feeling of loneliness in ministry (especially in student ministry) is something that all youth pastors face. I also know, that serving in a small community and/or a small church can make that loneliness amplified. One of the best things that I did while serving in that situation was to make the hard step of connecting with other youth pastors in town. I was only one of two full-time youth pastors in the small town where I served, so many times that would be building relationships with parents who were volunteering in their church, lay leaders, part-time & bivocational youth pastors, etc. Having these relationships really helped me knowing that there were like-minded people in my community who, like me, loved youth & were working hard at reaching them for Christ.

Continue to keep us updated and let us know how things are going.

Thank you for your prayer and encouragement. I am happy to report that things have started looking up. Well, some things, situation with the church in general is pretty much the same. However, many of the students are starting to get it. I am continuing to pray that God will burden our students with a passion for the lost and a desire to know Him...it has begun, and nothing is going to stop it. Praise God!