Where Are All the Student Pastors?
I received the all-too familiar phone call again. A friend at another church let me know they were searching for a student pastor and wanted to find out if I could recommend someone. I mentioned that if I had that list, I would be working through it myself.
Calling the right person to serve as a director, minister, or pastor to junior high and high school students is a challenge for local churches. It should be. Many are the lamentations from churches who placed the wrong person in the position and ultimately harmed the personal ministry of the individual and in some cases harmed the church’s ministry to students for years.
There was a time when finding a potential candidate to serve in the local church as a youth or student pastor seemed easier. A phone call to the local Baptist association or to the state convention or seminaries provided a stack of resumés. Years ago, churches would even combine youth ministry responsibilities with other staff needs and thus positions such as Music & Youth Pastor or Youth & Children’s Pastor were born. In many cases, the combination position developed due to the financial capacity of the local church. The need for full-time ministry in an area such as music as well as the need for full-time ministry to teenagers was recognized, but budgeting and financial realities meant only one person could be hired. Thus, the combo-minister who often was instructed to spend a certain percentage of time in one area and the remaining in the other became common. What sounded reasonable to a personnel committee was ultimately untenable.
Eventually, many churches grew beyond the combo-minister desire and hired student pastors to focus fully on the ministry and with teenagers and their parents. The title may have been youth director, youth minister, student director, or something else, but the position was born.
During the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, seminaries were focusing on the training and equipping of student ministers and pastors. Resources were being developed by numerous publishing houses. Camps and short-term mission trips were created for students and with the advent of contemporary Christian music, festivals and concerts filled youth group calendars.
Many surrendered to God’s call to serve and shepherd teenagers. In the Southern Baptist world, men like Phil Briggs, Wesley Black, Allen Jackson, Richard Ross, Johnny Derouen, and others equipped many to carry on the truly legitimate ministry for and with teenagers for generations.
For years our SBC seminaries were graduating those called to serve the Lord and minister to and with teenagers. There were many who never saw student ministry as a “stepping-stone” to being a lead pastor (that was me, but eventually…God moved me). I had the great joy serve in student ministry in the local church and some of my lifelong ministry friends are those I met while at youth camps, Super Summer, mission trips, and more.
Now, as the lead pastor of our church and one who has been in the same location for decades, I often receive phone calls or emails asking if I know of any who would be interested or open to serving in student ministry at their local church.
Suddenly, the realization that the so-called pipeline for student ministry has basically dried up is evident. What has happened?
The Question Few Want to Ask
For the past decade and a half, I have mentioned that those who would previously been considered as a student pastor are more likely seeking to be church planters. My conviction is that we need church planters and I am truly for the need to plant more churches. Now that we are several years down this pathway of strongly emphasizing church planting, I wonder if perhaps we may have affirmed and placed some in a church planting role who would have benefitted by serving in student ministry?
It is a hard question to ask, primarily because no one wants to be seen as anti-church planting. Since I work with church planters in our city and through our mission board, I should not ever be considered as an anti-planting pastor. However, I do believe that perhaps some who planted (and subsequently have suffered, closed their respective churches, and in some cases harmed their marriage and family) should have served on a church staff for a while first. Perhaps? Perhaps not?
A simple search online reveals many articles and podcasts delving into the same issue regarding the dearth of student pastors. One podcaster stated, “It seems that nearly everyone is looking to hire a Youth Pastor and the cupboard is bare.”[1]
Numerous articles hit on similar reasons for the last of student pastors. Most add the word “qualified” to the question. So, it’s more than “Why are there so few applicants to so many student ministry positions?” The more accurate question is “Why are there so few qualified applicants to so many vacant student ministry positions?”[2]
Common responses as to why the pool is so shallow for potential student pastors revolve around low pay, unrealistic expectations, and a lack of understanding of what student ministry should be. Those certainly are reasons, but they have always existed. Even in the heyday of student ministry growth in the 1940s and the resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s, those were issues related to the position. Truly, student ministry is a strange anomaly and still very new when compared to the history of the church.
There are no student pastors in the New Testament, though Jesus may have modeled such ministry as many believe his disciples were teenagers and young adults. The evangelical response to the youth explosion of the early 1900s led to the birth of parachurch groups (YMCA, YWCA, etc.) and denominational youth groups (Epworth League, Baptist Young People’s Union, etc.) and more. The Post-WW2 baby boom led many churches in the suburbs to expand their ministry reach by creating youth groups and hiring directors to provide events and activities based somewhat on what developed in the parachurch groups. Urban churches focused on youth as well, but with different programming and emphases needed in that context. In the 1980s and 1990s, at the height of the church growth movement, youth and student ministry began to flourish. However, the truth is the development of focused student ministry is still somewhat new. Perhaps student ministry is just now entering puberty?
Youth ministry is not for the faint of heart. It requires tough skin. Student pastors must remember they are working for God, not for people while continually loving as God does in some of the most difficult areas.[3]
Yet, the need for student pastors and leaders in all areas is waning, it seems.
What Does the Data Reveal?
Thom Rainer reveals some of what his research has uncovered in this current trend. Through his interviews with trusted church leaders, he discovered the following:
Many young leaders are planting churches rather than serving in student ministry
Fewer seminaries offer training in student ministry
Churches are hiring from within
Churches are eliminating age-graded ministry positions
The number of students attending church is decreasing[4]
All these are valid. In some areas, they are more noticeable than others.
I will likely continue to receive phone calls asking if I know of anyone qualified who could serve as a student pastor. In our own church, that position remains unfilled at this writing. For the past three years, I have filled that gap. I recognize the need. I also recognize the reality as the pastor of the church I am the pastor of the students as well as the senior adults and all other ages in our family.
I joke that I have gone back to my old files and plans regarding student ministry. While much has changed (students didn’t have social media twenty years ago) much remains the same (students need Jesus). I love being with the students, some of whom are children of those who were teenagers under my leadership decades prior. Ministry to students is vital for the local church, but not in a way that creates a “church within a church” that so many fell into years ago.
The healthy church ministers to and with students (and all ages) and equips families to serve the Lord in their respective homes.
I believe there remains the need for those called to serve the Lord in the local church, on a pastoral staff, and in student ministry.
May God continue to raise up the next generation of student pastors like Dave Paxton, Roger Glidewell, Keith Yarborough, Shane Stutzman, Todd Carr, and others whom I have served alongside in the past. Thankfully, there are those serving faithfully and prayerfully considering the call to serve in student ministry now. They exist.
The ones making Kingdom differences understand that student ministry is more than a “Coke and a joke” and simply filling a calendar with events. These leaders have a philosophy of ministry that is not “dumbed-down” or underdeveloped. I am thankful for the work they are doing and we are seeing a resurgence of teenagers and young adults seeking more than a church disguised as a concert and more than just moments of ministry. God is raising up leaders. Perhaps the well is not as dry as it seems? Maybe we (the church and pastors) simply need to be praying for these leaders and consistently calling them out and up to service?
I’ll continue to take those phone calls from other churches seeking student pastors and pray that many will respond to the call.
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[1] Livingston, Jody. “TLH125: Where Have All the Youth Pastors Gone?” The Longer Haul, 2 May 2022, thelongerhaul.com/where-have-all-the-youth-pastors-gone/.
[2] Gough, Tim. “Where Have All the Youth Pastors Gone?” ChurchLeaders, 4 Jan. 2019, churchleaders.com/youth/youth-leaders-articles/340511-where-have-all-the-youth-pastors-gone.html.
[3] Erickson, Chelsea. “We Need Urban Youth Ministers Now More than Ever.” Rooted Ministry, 14 Nov. 2025, rootedministry.com/we-need-urban-youth-ministers-now-more-than-ever/.
[4] Rainer, Thom. “Where Have All the Student Pastors Gone? | Church Answers.” Where Have All the Student Pastors Gone?, Church Answers, 4 Mar. 2019, churchanswers.com/blog/where-have-all-the-student-pastors-gone/comment-page-4/.
