So... What Do You, Like, Do All Day?

While still only a few months into my current youth ministry job, I was at a Christmas party when a well-intentioned guy offered some not-so-well-thought-out comments regarding my choice in profession: "So, is that, like, a real job, or did you just sign up for it?" He then followed-up with, "I always wondered what my youth minister did all day... probably played dodge ball, I guess."

Yep. I simply walked over to the youth ministry table after Mass one day, signed up for a full-time job, and now play dodge ball all day while the kids are in school. That sounds legit (except, according to my freshmen, the correct term these days is "legiteral").

Lots of good-hearted parishioners, youth ministry parents, and friends unknowingly join in the chorus of well-intentioned put-downs:

"So, do you get the summers off?"

"It must be nice to have such a relaxing job."

"This is nice, but what's your real job?"

"That's so nice that the church pays you to do this!"

Um, sure. It's nice of your employer to pay you, too.

What can I do, other than smile and nod? They mean well and have no idea they've equated the long hours and hair-pulling days to a simple cake-walk to the tune of "Amazing Grace." For all they know, maybe I do just sit in my cubicle all day and strum "Kumbaya" on my guitar, just waiting for some kid to come walking through the doors and start sharing all of life's bigger problems (like, the time her best friend said her new haircut looked funny so now she doesn't know who to trust ever again and her little brother is being so annoying and mom won't let her drive so life's just totally unfair).

"You know who else hit a rough patch? Jesus; He was dead."
Thanks a lot, Reverend Tim Tom.

Therein lies the temptation to take ourselves too seriously and forget that part of working in youth ministry is essentially being a kid again (like the time I spent an entire afternoon filling up two hundred water balloons; I'm pretty sure no one on Wall Street has that responsibility). What other job allows you to stay up all night binging on candy, wear a sloppy t-shirt and get paint in your hair, and keep a bottomless stash of Gummi Worms?

Of course, that's not how the day-to-day office hours are spent. Those aren't quite revisited childhood: planning for youth group meetings and Confirmation class; organizing retreats, mission trips, and lock-ins; balancing canon law; calming frustrated parents; and many other mundane tasks. But, without these long, tiresome, and sometimes even miserable office hours, the water balloons, paint, and Gummi Bear moments wouldn't happen.

But, youth ministry can't stop at water balloons, house paint, and Gummi Bears. That'd be pretty fruitless. If it doesn't point the teens to Christ Himself, then it's all for nothing and I'd might as well just sit around playing dodge ball all day, every day. The childish antics are meant to hopefully inspire a child-like faith and a heroic virtue that turns today's young teenagers into our newest and brightest young saints spreading the Good News with the gift of their lives. 

"Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be,
and then becoming that person."
-St. Therese of Lisieux