For the past year I have been out of the Youth Pastor role and one of my new roles is that I am the Director of a discipleship training program called Catalyst College of Ministry. Part of that job is to travel and promote our ministry to potential students.
So last year I began to try and contact youth pastors about coming and ministering at their youth ministries or even just letting us come in and have 5 minutes to tell their students about our program. I have contacted over 50 youth pastors. Either by phone, or email. And most of them I have or had a friendship/relationship with.
And here is the crazy part. For the most part (about 80% of the time), I GET NO RESPONSE! I can email them back and forth about life but the minute I ask about hooking up for a service…I NEVER HERE FROM THEM AGAIN. Why can’t they just say “I appreciate your offer but no thanks.” Instead they just avoid the whole thing. Then I run into them somewhere and they act all weird.
To be honest, it is hard calling and asking youth pastors to let us come in and minister. Because I know that I am usually going to get a run around and/or not get any response at all. And the truth is I would just much rather someone be like “NO” then like “Let me check into it” and then you never hear back from them.
Here is the worst part, when I was a youth pastor I was a wimp. I ignored people that asked to come to our services. I didn’t want to hurt peoples feelings, or be a jerk, or take the time to actually make it happen. I am sure that my students may have missed an opportunity to be ministered to by someone other than me.
So youth pastors (and pastors too), return your calls and emails in a timely fashion. Don’t be afraid to tell people no when they call to want to come to your youth group or church. Or if you say “I will get back with you”, get back with them. I wish that I would have honored people more when I was in that position because I now know how they felt when I didn’t return their calls.
If you are a youth pastor or pastor that would like for us to come and serve you or just promote our program please leave a comment or email me at JFrench@capefirst.org. We will even cover most of the costs. Hope to chat with you soon.
