We got into youth work to spend time with young people, perhaps training along the way to become better equipped for that interface. That’s what we hoped for and what, at heart, we are about. So why are so many of us spending such a small percentage of our time with young people, and is this a problem?
WELL, YES…
There is a problem if, as the straw poll research suggests, full-time youth workers are only spending eight hours or less with young people. It suggests that around three-quarters of the working week is spent preparing to meet young people for these hours. What could be behind this?
Firstly, administration. This is becoming a regular part of youth ministry, especially as it becomes more professionalised and echoes wider community models of working. This admin can soak up a great deal of time, with youth workers not having any training or experience in this area. Is this the best use of a youth workers’ time and talents?
Secondly, planning. Our programmes need to be planned, often using an educational ‘lesson plan’ model. This is deemed best practice, but can use up a great deal of time as resources are sourced, collated and terms planned. It is so easy to lose oneself in exotic and time-consuming planning. Is this time used as efficiently as it could be?
Thirdly, expectation. Many youth workers are subject to job descriptions that Jesus himself would have found a struggle. It’s exhausting, and many of the listed responsibilities actually remove the worker from interfacing with young people. Is this all possible, and is it the responsibility of a youth worker?
Lastly, and perhaps most contentiously, laziness. OK, I have to say this, as looking at some youth ministry jobs we find workers not being efficient, avoiding the necessary slog and using up huge amounts of time having ‘networking’ coffee meetings with colleagues. I love my coffee and I enjoy meeting people, but it is worrying to hear stories of full-time workers justifying so much of this as ‘necessary work’. Try telling that to the volunteer at your Friday night youth team who has already spent a full week at another type of job! Is this time being used in an honourable working way?
There is also the issue of access to the young people. With greater pressure on young people, taking into account academic activities and external interests, when are the young people available? This is an everchanging dynamic and entirely depends on your context. This has led some of those in youth ministry to move across (some might say ‘retreat’) into an online social media world with their young people to maintain regular contact. But is this really relational enough? Does it give young people the time they deserve?
WELL, NO…
Maybe it’s not really a problem, especially if the quality of the face-to-face work is high, relational and meaningful. Youth work is about making contact, maintaining that contact and making that contact meaningful. Maybe this can be done in fewer hours and we shouldn’t beat ourselves up about it.
Steve Emery-Wright, my postgraduate colleague here at Cliff College, makes a good point when he says: ‘What if actually the worker is only called to be with young people for 20 per cent of the week, but is also called to be with the resourcing team of volunteers for another 20 per cent and be advocating for young people to the church leadership and the wider community for another 20 per cent? Isn’t that vicarious 40 per cent as important for the young people as the 20 per cent face-to-face, and isn’t the role of the full-time youth worker not to do all the work, but to develop it within the community of the church?’
As an illustration, Vincent Donovan’s seminal work, Christianity Rediscovered, explores the issue of ‘choke law’. He describes the choke law of missionary work, ‘According to which the pastoral need for new and many Christians begins to choke out the possibility of further evangelisation’. He talks about the ‘personal temptation’ to settle down in safe, established work. There is a similar temptation for some youth workers to stick to the safety of their established routines and to the face-to-face work that keeps them in a job, which actually prevents others joining in and takes over the contact.
So maybe my eight hours is appropriate as it keeps me in enough contact with young people to know their needs but gives me time to step back and see the bigger development picture.
TIME WELL SPENT
I guess for each youth worker this is a personal judgement, and one that it is partly related to the ministry role that has been offered and determined. Key to me in this discussion would be the regular, honest reflection of youth workers in terms of their contact with young people. Is it appropriate, and is it time well spent?
