Here’s a new article I wrote for Simply Youth Ministry this past month. Check them out for great youth ministry resources and enjoy the article:
“You don’t have a Bible degree?” people ask me incredulously.
No, I don’t. And I’m sort of okay with that.
Let me be clear–I’ve taken a ton of Bible classes and fully appreciate youth ministry degree programs. Some of the very best youth workers I’ve ever known have Bible degrees. And while I’m writing this, I am in graduate school to pick up a Masters in Biblical Studies.
But I don’t feel like I am at a disadvantage because I have a business degree. In fact, I’ve noticed a number of valuable uses from my degree during my 12 years of youth work that I don’t think exist in a typical youth ministry degree. Here are a few business skills I’ve utilized in student ministry:
Management: Who knew that a team of staff and volunteers would be such a significant part of youth ministry? I thought I was going to pastor students, not adults who work with students. The art of people management is critical to the long-term health of both the ministry and the minister, and it’s a skill taught over and over again in a business degree.
Budget and Finances: Budgets, fiscal year, approval from the board–you thought the business world was tough? Try getting funding for a youth ministry! Stretching every dollar and making sure an event breaks even are fundamental skills of the youth worker, and one for which a lot of us find ourselves unprepared. My business program in college made it a priority that I understood these principles from day one.
Public Speaking and Reporting: Speeches and public appearances are important to the businessperson, and they are critical to the youth worker as well. In addition to strong leadership skills, youth workers are typically the primary teachers.
Marketing and Return on Investment: Is this the right activity? What return will we see for all this effort? How will we get the word out? Are we using the right methods to connect with our target audience? Will they respond to our advertising? What is the word of mouth about our ministry? These are all questions I learned in my business program, and questions we all should ask ourselves intrinsically in student ministry.
Purpose Statements: Every business has a purpose statement. You learn about them in “Introduction to Business Management” because they are so basic. And in youth ministry, my purpose statement (based on the The Great Commandment and The Great Commission) guides everything I do.
Business Plan: Good luck getting funding for your business without a business plan, and you’ll need the same luck for your student ministry. How do you expect people to buy into your ministry without a clear direction, strategy, and purpose?
Customer Relationships: “The customer is always right.” Learning that in business school helped prepare me for senior pastors and parents. (I would hate to have had to learn that one at my first church.) What are you systems of feedback? You may not have a customer service desk in your youth room, but what about a FAQ section and Contact form on your website? Do people know where to go to give feedback beyond your mobile phone number?
And there’s plenty more, too . . . work ethic, human resources, logistics, problem solving, record keeping, and public relations just to name a few. Getting a business management degree isn’t everyone’s path into full-time youth ministry, and having professional training in youth ministry and the Bible is extremely helpful. But I also value what I’ve learned from the business world and how it has helped me to faithfully manage and lead the ministry God has entrusted to me.
What have you learned outside of the typical world of student ministry that you found helpful in student ministry?
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Josh Griffin has been in youth ministry for 15+ years and serves as the High School Pastor at Saddleback Church. [
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Geoff Stewart serves the Jr / Sr High School Pastor at Peace Portal Alliance Church in Surrey B.C.
Wow, actually using real world skills you have learned to improve on the youth program, are you allowed to do that?
I don’t really work with the youth other than doing the photography of their events, but even that has me seriously working on my people skills. You have a great list, customer relationships is a good one. I don’t have a real effective feedback system for what I do but I sure wish I did, it would help greatly.
Son, you do have to remind folks that while you were a Business major, your alma mater required a 34-credit Bible core that would have been a Bible Major in most colleges.
And growing up in a home where every day was like a year in Bible College, with super-smart (yet amazingly humble) parents, you had advantages that the masses only could yearn for.
Don’t you love it when Dad keeps you honest?
You are so correct!
Ever since I started Youth Ministry, I’ve wished that I would have gotten a Business Degree or taken classes in that field. I really feel like the larger the church, the more you have to be in tune with the business world and the language that your “investors” speak. At the same time-being able to speak the language that Jesus spoke (Aramaic, right? no–I mean love) and the language of teens.
I did however take classes to become a school teacher and a music teacher. Those have helped me immensely.
I’ve also always wanted to take classes in writing and design. I think those fields are essential to youth ministry-if you can’t afford someone to do them for you.
dangit, your dad made the exact comment i was thinking. a “non-Bible” degree at a Christian college or U is always a little bit different.
but i agree with your general thoughts. i’ve met plenty of people in ministry who would have benefitted from a true general education and a true liberal arts education. they also would have been better people if they had worked at jobs outside of a church environment before moving into full-time ministry.
my own degree was a blend of biblical studies, journalism, and sociology, but i find myself using skills i learned through customer service jobs, volunteer tutoring opportunities, and project planning at a newspaper. so i think it’s beneficial to not rely on “bible college skills” as the only basis for ministry, although they definitely can be part of the puzzle for creating a healthy, balanced minister in the 21st century.
Josh –
Good points. I have a Masters in Biblical Studies (partially paid for by an aerospace company) and have owned my own company for over 20 years. The skills I learned in business have been very valuable in ministry. I think seminaries should teach a little business along the way.
Mike …
I had an accounting degree with a few years of banking under my belt before starting my youth ministry job. Its been 10 years and I think that some of the disciplines of the business world have helped a ton. I didn’t go to a christian college.
I have often felt that I was a disadvantage doing youth ministry with only a Bible college degree. Four years of Bible, not one math or financial course. Seemed odd to me even then.
Check this video CIY did a few years back:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zeR4Wuoqy_M&feature=related
Thanks,
Did you use your degree? Classes are great, but a class in management and actually managing people in a business environment are completely different. Same thing with finance, a homework assignment is helpful, running a budget which determines whether people will have food on their table is a quite different.
All that said, I agree, though I feel like God prepares each of us how we are needed for the body of Christ. The bigger question is how we are growing in our skill set now and training others who may or may not have business or ministry training or whatever training.
I have a degree in Engineering, an M.Div and years of experience in business and management, I wouldn’t go back and change anything. Both provided just what I needed and my (few) friends with formal youth training help me and I help them. We make a good team.
This is such a wonderful encouragement and valuable insight. As a management grad myself (and lay youth worker), it is good to know that there are many other there like myself (and many on my team) who has not been through Bible school but have been serving relentless nonetheless.
I’ve cross-posted your points on my blog to encourage those who read. Hope you don’t mind.
Great article! I too have a business degree and am now serving as a Youth Pastor. The business degree has helped me tremendously! Who knew there was a lot more to youth ministry than just teaching teenagers a Bible lesson?
I agree with everything Josh wrote… but it seems like a lot of these comments are kinda bashing the value of a Bible or Youth Min. degree. I majored in Youth Minsitry and have an M.Div. and confess that I do struggle with the “business” side of ministry, but I’m very thankful for my training in Youth Ministry and Biblical Studies and wouldn’t trade those in for anything. I just don’t think we need to knock Bible colleges/degrees for the sake of valuing training and education from other fields.
Josh thanks again for your insightful comments, now i shall steal this post idea about my Psychology background.
I too majored in Psychology when I attended a Bible College while interning in a church and that was my best learning experience. I have many friends in ministry that majored in another field like I did and used it to help them in ministry later in life. I see that not all colleges that have youth ministry programs have good ones…meaning the teachers in the classrooms that are actual practitioners in the real world of youth ministry, so finding a major that fits your gift mix and then involving yourself in ministry seems like a great way to go…and if not ministry in a church…there is ministry in a workplace!
I have a BSBA in marketing and an MBA in marketing. I worked in the business world managing 2.5 million dollar budgets, teams, vendors, customers, etc. I loved it and I hated it. We had the mission but not the love, not the caring, not the same goals.
Now, as a full time youth pastor, I am blessed with my knowledge of business but also the spiritual gifts to “do” youth ministry.
Unfortunately, not all churches/senior pastors have a business mind. That is frustrating! Marketing must be part of a church and many don’t look at strategic plans, marketing plans, promotional plans, etc. If I bring that up, I have to do it. In my spare time…
Great post Josh! I’m a little rate in reading it, but I totally agree. I have a business degree with a minor in marketing, and I knew before attending college that I was going into the ministry.