A True Pastor

Churches who don't greatly emphasize their student ministries and spend just as or more than what they spend on any other ministry are not doing their communities justice. It's a statistical fact that unless one is reached for Christ prior to the age of 15 the likelihood they will make a committment to Christ as an adult GREATLY diminishes. I was once a member of a church family that felt the youth should be seen and not heard and only hired lay people to lead and minister to the students and only devoted a nominal budgeted amount to the student ministry. The majority of budgeted money went to the Senior Adult programs and salaries, and this was a fairly large church (1,000+ in attendace). We now are a part of a church family that recently spent a long, exhaustive search process for a student ministries pastor to lead our youth group of over 250 regular student attenders, and that number is growing. If your church views student pastors as anything but "true pastors" then I would strongly suggest you really evaluate what your mission. If your students are not worth getting the best, then maybe even having a student ministry is not something your church is called to do.