Does your youth minister cook?

The Center for Youth Ministry Training recruits partner churches where our graduate residents serve as youth ministers while in our program.  At a recent recruitment meeting at a prospective church, I was asked something that I’m asked at more than half of these meetings:

Will he or she (our youth minister) be musically gifted?  Because our kids here love music, you know.

I shared my typical response, which is that some of our applicants play guitar and some can’t sing a note. but their musical abilities (or lack thereof) are not what determines if they are good youth ministers. If your youth minister is not musically gifted, then it is an opportunity to empower one of the youth or someone else in the church with those gifts.
Then, I took a bite of homemade chocolate chip cookie and was divinely inspired to say,

“You know…kids love to eat, but we don’t ask youth ministers if they can cook before we hire them.”

Brilliant!
Ask yourself:

1. What are you asking your youth minister to do that someone else in the church could be doing?
2. What are you doing because you are expected to that you need to let go?