Skyline Youth Minister
Job Description

Goals

1. Inspire a strong personal walk with Christ in our teens.
2. Develop a personal relationship with our teens.
3. Encourage unity in youth group across school and interest lines.
4. Work to create a personal bible study and prayer life in our teens.
5. Communicate clearly with our parents and church.
6. Grow your personal relationship with Christ through study.
7. Be professional in all you do.
8. Be Intentional in all you do in this ministry.
9. Promote evangelism among the youth group.
10. Promote service to the community.

Inspire a strong personal walk with Christ in our teens.

Our ultimate goal is to move our teens closer to Christ.  This has to be at the heart of everything we do and that our ministry is about.  It is too important to be left to chance.  We must be deliberate in achieving it.  You should develop a plan to move teens in this direction.  You evaluate from time to time where the youth group as a whole is, as well as where each individual teen is.  Every Lesson, devotional, activity and worship time should be based on this evaluation and intended to move the group in this direction.

Develop a personal relationship with our teens.

We believe that your effectiveness will be greatly hampered if you do not have a personal relationship with the teens.  Conversely we feel you will accomplish all of your goals more effectively if the teens feel a true bond with you.  True youth ministry happens one on one or in smaller groups than the whole.  This goal can be enhanced on large youth trips, but the foundation will not occur in that large of a group.  This will require you to constantly evaluate who is on the fringe, who is struggling and work to spend time and develop this bond.  Time spent with core teens will be required as well to facilitate their growth and to strengthen their walk with Christ.  Your ability to connect with our youth in your lessons, devotionals and worship time will be directly related to your relationship with them.  We want you where the teens are.  You will need time in the office (see below) but it is impossible to affect teen’s lives in an office when they are elsewhere.  This is not an excuse to be missing in action from the office, but we feel being out of the office to spend times with teens is important.

Encourage unity in youth group across school and interest lines.

As with all large metro churches we have a very diverse youth group.  We have many schools and interests represented.  It is important that one school not be focused on to the expense of another.  It is important that teens involved in one interest, like sports, develop relationships and bonds with teens that are involved in drama.  Whatever the interest groups are they all need to feel a part of the whole youth group and develop bonds with teens in other interest groups.  Your leadership in having an interest in each of these groups will be the starting point, but you will also need to look for opportunities to build on this, again being intentional in this task.  This is a good use of a large youth trip.  Teens away from home often can be more receptive to stepping outside their normal peer group.  It can also be accomplished in smaller groups here at home.  Teach our children to be accepting of all members of the youth group no matter what school they attend or what their background may be.  Create an environment so that all the teens feel welcome.   

Work to create a personal Bible study and prayer life in our teens.

We feel that our teens can only grow in Christ by being personal with him.  They need time in the word and time in prayer.  In our busy culture this is not natural for them and they will have many distractions, but we want you to work on developing this desire in them. 

Communicate clearly with our parents and church.

The success of your ministry will hinge on communicating with parents on plans.  You cannot depend on teens to get the word home on trip information and activities.  You will need to find an affective way to communicate with parents.  It is also critical that the entire church family know what is going on with our youth.  You will need to be an advocate of this ministry.  Regular communication with the elders will give us feedback on where we are going.  Regular communication with the staff will keep everyone on the same page and provide vital input from people who have walked the same road thus helping you avoid pitfalls that they have encountered.  You need to have an established office schedule so parents and other interested individuals know when they can contact you to discuss issues or concerns. 

Grow your personal relationship with Christ through study.

You can’t get water from a dry well.  Your personal walk with Christ will be critical to our teen’s spiritual development.  Lesson content suffers when you are not in the word.  You need to have time in the office each week to spend in study.  Skyline has many resources to help you develop spiritually as well.  We encourage you to take advantage of all of these.  Our pulpit ministers are students of the bible and the rest of our staff are Godly men and women.  Spend time with them.  Be intentional in pressing for a study time for all staff members.  Spend time with our Shepherds.  We also would encourage you to use resources outside of our congregation to accomplish this. 

Be professional in all you do.

Your use of time and church resources will be critical to your success.  A poor steward of either of these will hamper your ability to be affective in this ministry.  A poor work ethic is a poor example of Christ.  Be above suspicion in all areas involving time and money.  Your relationship with Co-workers will reflect to our church and our teens how true your walk with Christ really is.  You need to be organized in planning and preparing for all youth functions.  While teens are not as interested in this, it is of vital importance to parents.  While we are all human and sin, being in a ministry position places you in an environment where you must realize the damage sin has on your ministry.  When Youth interns are used you need to clearly communicate their role to the teens and parents and you need to manage the relationship between them and the host families.

Be intentional in all you do in this ministry.

Often youth ministry suffers from good intentions and good programs with no direction.  Lessons need to be building toward a goal or need trying to be met, not just put together to fill time in class.  Needs in the youth group must be identified and a plan put in place to address.  All of the goals in your job description can happen by chance, but true success for the long-term comes only when you intentionally develop a game plan to achieve them.

Promote evangelism among the youth group.

You will be expected to encourage the members of the youth group to reach out to friends and family members that are not Christians.  Encourage the teens to teach those that don’t personally know Jesus.  Teach the teens to invite their non-Christians friends to youth functions.

Promote service to the community.

Develop plans for service projects that teach the youth group to serve others.  Show them this is not only a blessing to the community, but how much they are blessed by serving others.