This particular subject has been on my mind prominently for about 3 or 4 weeks here. I'm slightly hesitant on posting about this too, because I think a lot of it will carry a negative tone, but I really don't mean for it to be that way. The state of being "young." When you talk about me being young, it can imply two things: young in age or young in experience. The two often go hand in hand, but don't necessarily have a directly tethered relationship with each other. For me, they both apply.
Since I recently moved to Vancouver, I'm obviously meeting more people than I normally would compared to if I was just at a church back home. I'm carving out my niche, and trying to develop a new sense of familiarity and new sense of routine. One sight that frightens me a little bit is that I have the rest of my life to do this. I have the entirety of my future to carve that new "normal" that will be my fallback. There are days where I'm super driven to do this, and others where I just hide in my house and staying away from the world (the life of an introvert, you know).
One thing that I'm not too sure if it impedes or helps my progress in developing this niche is when I encounter the "young pastor" comment being dropped in my conversations. Here's a couple examples of what I've heard over the last 6 months:
"Oh, I'm so glad that such a young person is devoting his life to serving God!"
"Wow, you're so young! Good for you to still be so strong in your faith."
"Hey pastor, just like Timothy, don't let people discourage you because you're young!"
"Oh wow, I wouldn't think that you'd have already finished seminary at a young age."The list goes on, but you get the point. I could comment on each of those remarks, but I withhold saying anything at the risk of offending the people who give them. However, I included the seminary comment here because it's a little amusing to me that I actually haven't graduated from seminary. People like to use seminary as synonymous to bible college, so I'll give that to them - it's alright.
As a pastor who is single and in his mid-twenties, yes, there is no way I'll be able to relate to some of our older folks who have been through 10 times what I have, and have other issues that they face that I have no idea how to approach. But at the same time, I don't think it's fair to dismiss my position as a pastor to be able to support you. There tends to be a bit of a reluctance to open up to the fact that it's entirely possible that someone younger and less experienced is able to speak into your life. I'll be the first to admit that I have this sense of entitlement at times too. I know that it isn't the intention, but calling someone young almost automatically gives them a feeling of a "less than." I just said it, but I'll say it again: I know that isn't the intention, but that's the message that will be subliminally passed on. Wait until you see what they can do, and then you can speak about whether or not age and experience played a factor into it.
People will also default to calling me a youth pastor because I am not so far from the literal sense that I am a youth and a pastor. My calling was never specified as to what type of pastor I was to become, so I can live with this one. I don't think serving youth is my strong point because I'm actually not very good at knowing what it takes to connect to and reach out to the youth in our churches. So it takes extra effort for me to sort out what I need to implement in a youth ministry. To offer a small comparison, when it comes to the worship ministries, it's much easier and way more natural to me. I can get a much quicker grasp on how to mould and form a worship setting and structure so that it's more organized and open for growth. But when there are the closed minded people who strictly see me as a youth pastor because of my age, well...
What sparked me to write on this topic today was because I met someone earlier for a brief moment, but he never gave the slightest hint at ever attaching that "young pastor" label on me. We talked for a few minutes about me being new in Vancouver and all the other stuff, but I never, not even once, got a sense that what he said or how he interacted with me had a demeaning tone that sprouts from the thought of "this guy is really young to be a pastor!" You could say that I was treated like an adult. I appreciated that. Maybe he saw me as a pastor rather than a young pastor because his son began full-time ministry around my age too. Haha!
I also understand that if I want people to treat me like an adult, I need to behave like one. I mean, I guess I agree mostly with that statement, but people are also prone to becoming what others say of them. It takes a lot of strength to overcome all these stipulations that are laid on top of you and be able to basically shut the mouths of those who just continue to say the same things about you over and over. I've said many times that I'm still very childish and immature in many ways, so I know that there are areas in my life where I need to grow up. We need to understand that people grow and develop.
It's been rare to meet people and not have to hear the "young pastor" comment or tone of voice since beginning my journey through school and work. So when I do come across people who see me as any other person who's been called to ministry, I gain some relief. This is because I feel like I can act like a normal person around them and not have the tension of needing to involuntarily "look up" to them just because of my age and experience. So, thank you to those of you who treat me like any other person who's been called to ministry without needing to assert to the fact that I'm young.
I'll be the first person to admit that there are more days than not where I have no idea what I'm doing. But can anyone at any point in their lives truly say with full confidence that they know what they're doing? I'm always going to be asking people for advice and for help, it doesn't matter how old or how experienced I am - this I have confidence in.
It doesn't really matter how old or how young I am, my role as a pastor is to bring the Word of God and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is never going to change.
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