These statistics are alarming: while 72 per cent of volunteers said they found it moderately to very easy to worship in their own church, a significantly lower proportion of paid workers felt the same. This is a problem. If Christian youth workers find it difficult to worship in their church, how do they grow spiritually? What do they do to nurture their faith? Is the local church failing in their duty to youth workers?
It’s not difficult to pinpoint reasons why youth workers might find this a challenge. To worship God requires us to be truly ourselves, to admit that we are weak and frail human beings in need of the Holy Spirit. The church is a youth worker’s workplace and no one wants to look vulnerable at work, especially when they are being watched by the parents of the young people they are serving. Being paid for a ministry you are passionate about is challenging. You want to be real and authentic, but human nature means that you want to show the best of yourself to your employer. You don’t want them to know the things you struggle with in private, the doubts you have about your faith or the difficulty you are having with your marriage. You want to show your employer the best of you, fiercely hiding your worst. Your job depends on it.
Volunteer youth workers, on the other hand, have a different scenario. They are often church members first, so have a long-term allegiance and relationship with the church. They volunteer simply because they want to or feel called to, and don’t have the added complication of money. Everything they do is a bonus for the church and they usually have less responsibility and external expectations. It’s no wonder they find it easier to worship at church. They chose the church first, and volunteering came later; most employed youth workers move to the church to carry out a job – they are only known in that position of authority.
It seems as if the professionalisation of youth work has created a significant problem. If employed youth workers struggle to maintain their own spiritual health, maybe we are doing more harm than good by employing them. Perhaps if youth work was still carried out by volunteers, the example of them authentically worshiping in the church community would be healthier for our young people.
But de-professionalising youth work can’t be the way to facilitate spiritually healthy youth workers. Our young people deserve the best. They deserve skilled and trained youth workers who are committed to them as people, willing to learn how to best serve them and have the time to invest in their development. Training and professionalisation has offered a huge amount to young people in the UK. So how do we help our youth workers grow their own spiritual health? Are youth work employers doing enough to help and support employed youth workers, or are they failing us? Church leaders need to be deeply concerned with the spiritual health of their youth workers. The knock-on effect to young people of a spiritually healthy or unhealthy worker is huge.
The irony is that church leaders (usually a youth worker’s manager), are experts in spiritual health. Their whole reason for being is to support their congregation’s spiritual development. So what is going wrong for youth workers? I wonder if youth workers often become seen as just an employee. In every line of work, too many line managers see their role as simply making sure the tasks of a job are achieved. A good line manager does more: they enable their employee to feel empowered to grow the role and themselves, to develop holistically as well as completing the tasks. Part of a manager’s job is to encourage good health in their employee in whatever way is appropriate. This includes the employee’s spiritual health.
Within a church setting, it’s even more important for the manager to be concerned with their employee’s health. A job in the church is not just a job: it’s a calling, a vocation, a ministry. As such, great management needs to combine a mix of firm task supervision and pastoral care and vulnerability. If the manager is also the church leader, the relationship dynamics are complicated. Perhaps if church leaders thought of the youth worker primarily as a member of the congregation, it would be easier to support the youth worker’s spiritual growth.
However much your employer supports your spiritual health, it’s critical to remember that the only person who can really change their own health is you. Yes, your church leader has their part to play, but you are the only one who can make any necessary changes, and in order to do that you need to be courageous. If you want support from your employer to grow in your own spiritual development, you need to first be prepared to risk being vulnerable. That’s the scary part. But you are the only one who can share your own frailties; you are the only one who can lead the way in asking for support, time or space to grow.
Your role is to be human, your employer’s role is to allow you to be so. Are you brave enough to admit when things are tough? This will not only make you a better employee and grow your own spiritual health, but it will make you a better youth worker too. Young people don’t need perfect role models, they need real people: youth workers, volunteers and others who have the guts to be real, to admit their mistakes and to walk alongside them in their own frailties. You don’t just owe it to yourself to get spiritually healthy, you owe it to your young people too.
