12 Things Only Youth Pastors Will Understand

1. Even though it came out 200 years ago “Big House” by Audio Adrenaline somehow finds a way to get played on every trip or youth conference you attend.

2. You’ve become the official driver of the church van.

3. You know the one kid in your youth group that, without fail, will spend all of his food money on something at the mall and now you have to buy his meals for the rest of the trip because you can’t let him starve.

4. Kids hear the term lock-in and get excited. For you, it’s the most terrifying phrase in the English language.

5. You have one of the only jobs in the world where, if a kid gets in trouble with his parents, his punishment is to come hear you speak. That’s always a confidence booster.

6. No one understands that watching YouTube videos and downloading music is sometimes part of your job. It’s a fair trade-off considering how many Friday nights and Saturday mornings you go to teen sporting events.

7. You have your doctrine of theology, and yet here you are, drinking McDonald’s chicken nuggets out of a blender during youth service.

8. Your worst fear is going to the movies and finding out some of your youth group members are in the same movie. You know every time there’s anything remotely inappropriate they’re going to turn around and look at you, then wonder why you’re there.

9. You may not like ping-pong, but you’ve become an absolute master out of necessity. You can’t let a youth kid beat you. Not in your house.

10. You’ve had to shave your head AT LEAST once.

11. You’ve also had to dye your hair a ridiculous color. Maybe you didn’t HAVE to do it, but for your sake we’ll pretend you had no other choice.

12. You always think game night will be easy because you don’t have to come up with a message, but either someone will get injured or someone will break up and cause drama. It happens every. Single. Time.