What exactly is needed to be great Youth Worker?  There are many things as a Youth Pastor I look for and expect from a great Youth Worker.  There are however, many things that I believe are unfairly assumed.

These are myths of what a great Youth Worker looks and acts like.  These myths may be preventing many “real” potential Youth Workers from serving in Youth Ministry.  If you are a Youth Pastor you must do all you can to debunk these myths and recruit truly great Youth Workers.

Here are 20 myths about great Youth Workers:

1. You must be young

2. You must dress cool

3. You must be an amazing teacher

4. You must be on Twitter/Tumbler/Snapchat

5. You must drive a 15 passenger van

6. You must be a hipster

7. You must be up on today’s culture

8. You must be tech savvy

9. You must love pizza

10. You must prefer texting as a means of communication

11. You must act cool

12. You must be a friend to your youth

13. You must own a smart phone

14. You must be an extrovert

15. You must have a tattoo

16. You must own a Mac

17. You must be on Instagram

18. You must use #hashtags…on everything

19. You must own and play video games

20. You must love Starbucks

The truth is, that none of these things make you a great Youth Worker.  Youth Workers may or may not fit some of these descriptions.  The best Youth Workers I have miss on almost all of these.  They do however hit where it counts.  As a result they are having a huge influence on the lives of their students.

In our next post we will look at what really makes a great Youth Worker.  Stay tuned!

What do you think are other myths about great Youth Workers?  Do you find yourself falling for any of these?  Do you think these myths prevent potentially great Youth Workers from serving in your Youth Ministry?  Let me know if the comments below!

Photo credit: Skakerman / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)