Youth ministry given a place to do its thing
In order to address the problem of youth worker burnout, and to foster pooling of resources, Sydney North and Ku-ring-gai Presbyteries are working together on a common youth project.
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One of the people on the SNaK Youth Project management committee, Rod Pattenden, is the Uniting Church chaplain at Macquarie University.
“In the past we have had a lot of burnout,” Mr Pattenden said. Youth workers were often responsible for advocating on behalf of young people in the church, which sometimes made them “the meat in the sandwich” between the youth and older congregation members.
That, he said, added pressure to an already stressful role.
Mr Pattenden told Insights that Sydney North and Ku-ring-gai Presbyteries had opted to hire someone to ensure youth workers had the support they needed in their own unique ministries, rather than organising “big regional events” such as youth rallies.
“It’s about people. It’s about preventing burnout,” Mr Pattenden said. “In the old days we always had big rallies and events. You’d be dragged away from your own group.”
Jo Drayton is Youth Work Coordinator for the project. She described her work as “empowering others to do good ministry”.
“I aim to create a support structure for people involved in youth leadership in the region with a view to helping them do an even better job than they already are doing.”
Networking youth workers with similar ministries is one of the ways that Ms Drayton looks to sustain youth ministry.
“The main thing that I have found that we all need is connection with each other,” she said. “Ministry is like no other ‘job’ on the planet, so getting together to talk about that is pretty important.”
Semi-regular meetings of youth workers in the two presbyteries serve as opportunities for Ms Drayton to facilitate such networking. “We meet once a month at Pymble Pub for lunch and an informal time to catch up, meet each other and swap ideas,” she said.
Another of the meetings was the Aliens in Exile Resource Day, held on May 10.
According to Ms Drayton, “The speakers and leaders were all working within the SNaK region and had diverse things to contribute to a day of encouragement, catching up and fun.
“There was an inspiring keynote, four different electives on prayer, storytelling, a retrospective on ministry and some pop culture theology and we had three choices for lunchtime discussions on some of the curly topics of the Bible.
“We had great food thanks to Nicole and Rob from the Youth Unit who served lunch for us. Thirty people came in total and all contributed to a good day.”
In order to further networks among youth workers, the SNaK Youth Project is also creating “hubs” — local centres for churches to combine resources, creating opportunities for combined prayer meetings and church youth events.
Establishing the hubs will also involve setting up peer supervision groups. That is an opportunity for four or five youth workers to meet on a regular basis with a trained facilitator for group “supervision”, thus helping each other to sustain their ministry.
“I believe it is essential to have a place to go where you can unpack some of what is going on in your work,” Ms Drayton said. “A safe place where you can reflect, learn and grow.”
Mr Pattenden said youth workers seemed “energised” by the SNaK Youth Project. In particular, he singled out the ability of youth workers with similar ministries to “bounce ideas off each other” as being helpful toward achieving the goal of “no more burnout”.
Ms Drayton told Insights she had found it “an honour” to be involved in youth ministry, “giving it a place to do its thing and enjoying the energy that is all around me”.
“I hope I can give it a voice in the Uniting Church today and into the future.”
Jonathan Foye