Page 30 - Youth Discipleship Student Textbook

Section 6: Qualifications of Being a Youth Leader

6.1 Connect

Did you know that not just anyone can become a Youth Pastor? It takes a special kind of
person who possesses certain skills and traits to become one. In fact, the Bible clearly
states who may become a youth pastor and who may not. It’s all based on what comes out
of your life and what qualities that the Spirit of God has imbued you with.

As a youth pastor, you will be in spiritual leadership over a group of people, probably between the age
of 13-20. You will, in a sense, be their pastor. So we believe the qualifications for becoming a youth
pastor are exactly the same that the Bible demands for a pastor leading adults.

Today we are going to look at those qualifications and explain them. Make a check list to see if you
measure up.

6.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to site which books in the Bible where the qualifications for a
youth pastor can be found in the Bible.

2. If the student is a youth pastor, he should evaluate his qualifications based on the 20
qualifications listed in the Bible.

6.3 Are you Qualified?

A youth minister is a pastor called to minister to youth. His qualifications would be
similar to those of the senior pastor of the church. He is a shepherd of the youth that
God has placed under his guidance.

There are several passages in Scripture which innumerate the qualifications of a person who
would desire to become a shepherd or youth pastor, namely I Timothy 2 and Titus 1. Let’s look at the
qualifications listed in these passages.

The Qualifications to become a Youth Pastor

1. Above Reproach (1 Tim. 3;2, Titus 1:6-7)

The person who will succeed is one who has no hidden agenda, no skeletons in his closet that eventually
will out and haunt him.

2. The Husband of One Wife (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:6)

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