Brad Griffin is the Associate Director of the Fuller Youth Institute, where he gets to develop research-based training for youth workers. A native Kentuckian, Brad now lives in Pasadena with his wife Missy and their three children and volunteers in student and worship ministries at NewSong Church.
Brad Griffin what is the one thing you want the youth pastor population to know?
Don’t substitute ministry for your own life with God.
At the same time, don’t assume that ministry and your spiritual life are two different things.
We’ve created unhealthy fragmentation in both directions on this one, and youth pastors tend to fall into one bucket or the other. Yet when we’re living as whole persons, our work flows both out of and back into who we are. Plus faith is much more something we live out in community than something we simply believe in our hearts.
So the “one” thing sounds like two, but it’s really this: caring for your soul and your flock are not the same thing, but they’re certainly intertwined. This takes a lifetime to work out, but as we do we experience the love and grace of God in surprising ways on both fronts.
This is hard to do but so vital. You must take time to be with the Lord a part from your ministry.