Expert: Dr. Tim Gladu - 1/20/2012

Question
First lets say i read and i guess examined some of your answers before deciding on who to ask.  I do disagree with a couple of things one is i believe the king James bible is the closes thing to Gods word and also i do not believe men who has been divorced and has three living wives should pastor since the word says qualifications is to be a man of one wife. But that is beside the point that why we all agree to disagree.
  the question i have is what exactly are the job duties of the youth director  not minister but director? we are having some issue with this in our church   our director thinks they have total control over the youth  most churches i have served in or under their duties was basically fun and activities.
thank you and may God bless you
John

Answer
John,

I believe that you have a very good view of the gray areas in the Bible. You are able to have your opinion and I respect that and thank you for sharing. I started out in the children's ministry and then found that God needed me in the Youth ministry. I stayed in the Youth ministry from 1997 until I resigned from my last Youth Minister position in 2007. I held many positions and in the youth dept and most of them were in leadership. Now without knowing your churches make-up is, it's very hard to say what the role the Youth Director is. If they are in the position and not an ordained or licensed minister then they had mostly an administrative role. They should be responsible for making the youth calendar and planning events. They should be following the leadership of the Pastor for spiritual guidance. I also want to remind you that someone who has taken on the position of teacher still has a responsibility to those he is teaching that they are receiving sound doctrine. They still have to ensure that they are not preaching or teaching against what Christ would have for any other teacher. The role of youth director is not an office established in the Bible so each church must define the role and function.  if this individual has become a problem then it might be time for those in authority to establish their roles and responsibilities. Most of the time when people come forward and take on a ministry as important as the Youth dept they think it is going to be all fun. They soon realize that they are dealing with individuals that are very complex and are dealing with real life issues and they see it's not so much fun and the turnover for most Youth workers is about a year. If you have a personnel committee then maybe they should define the role of the Youth Director and have the Pastor guide this process.