Commentary
Adult leaders must realize that when you accept the call to public ministry, your personal life becomes public.
Young people should see adult leaders in ministry continue their own faith development and that development should look like something that is desirable to young people, something worth imitating.
Adult leaders in youth ministry, whether paid staff or serving as a volunteer, have a professional and moral duties to the ministry to which they are called. Specifically:
- Adult leaders have a moral duty to seek and maintain competence in one’s specialized area of expertise.
- Adult leaders have a moral duty to become theologically competent, especially in the skills of theological reflection. We must always ask, “How do we connect our faith to young people?”
- Adult leaders have a moral duty to represent the church in faithful and loving ways through its various ministries. Put more directly, whether at work or at play, your represent the church because you have chosen to answer the call to serve as an adult leader in ministry.
- Adult leaders have a moral duty to internalize professional standards of practice, to abide by them, and to hold one another accountable to them.
- Adult leaders have a professional duty to subordinate self-interest in order to give greater degree of preference to serving those who seek pastoral service.