What is the objective of the ministry? When I was a Youth Pastor or Pastor, just what was the objective? part one \
Youth Pastor Charles E. Whisnant
At first, I just did what I naturally wanted to do. I really didn’t have any professional training in ministry as a teen. I never read a book on
At first, I just did what I naturally wanted to do. I really didn’t have any professional training in ministry as a teen. I never read a book on
1. “HOW TO BECOME A TEACHING PRO-YOUTH PASTOR.,”
2. “WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME A YOUTH PASTOR AT A LOCAL CHURCH?”
3. “LEARN TO TEACH THE BIBLE…THE PROFESSION OF A LIFETIME.”
4. “LEADER IN THE FIELD OF BIBLE INSTRUCTION.”
What does it take to become a golf teaching pro at a country club?
What does it take to become a pro youth pastor?
IN 1964 THERE WERE NO GOOGLING SEARCH ENGINES
From those days when I first became interested in church ministry, I loved working with people. Well, maybe not loving people so much, but having the desire to see youth grow in their love for Jesus Christ. I would say I wanted to teach them the Bible. I wanted to teach the Word of God in a way that would bring about their salvation and their love for the Lord, and their service for Him in the ministry. In teaching them the Word, and by their learning the principles set forth by Scripture, they would have a life that would be well pleasing unto the Lord. I believed the success in life, the success of living our life, was bound up in learning and applying the principles of the Word of God.
In those early years, I am referring to the ministry of Roanoke Baptist Temple, even as a teenager, I wanted to teach the Scripture. I wanted to learn myself, and I wanted to teach the Word to the teens. In my youth, Dad would take the family almost every month to a Fellowship Meeting to hear preachers preach. In our home, having preachers in our home was normal. Getting up in the morning, Dad would have the radio on Back To The Bible and Theodore Epps, or Oliver Greene, and Lester Roloff and others. How could you hear all them and not learn and want to learn what Christ had to say. There was a balance of teaching and preaching and encouragement to learn the Word.
I couldn’t write enough. I wrote down as much as I could about what I was learning and what I wanted to say. I was always writing down what I wanted to accomplish. I always wrote down the group of teens that I was working with. A practice I have done and continue to do to this day. MINISTRY IS PEOPLE. I always wanted to learn how to do ministry. What was the best way to teach, the best way to communicate truth and how to help people know the Lord and want to serve the Lord. I was always trying to figure out what was the best way of accomplishing my objectives.
I wanted people in our neighborhood to know Christ. I wanted those who came to our church and youth department to know Christ. I wanted them to understand what was meant to be a Christian and love Christ.
One of the ways to accomplish my objectives was to learn first myself. Secondly, I wanted to show others that I was a person who loved Christ. The best way of doing that, I believed, was to be with them. Youth trips, teaching at home, youth camp, retreats.
This has been a practice throughout the ministry. Our lives were to be a part of any one who would be with us. I always was trying to find ways to be with others so that I could teach them.
