Nick Clegg: Youth Ministers Aren't Surrogate Parents

Well, he didn't exactly say "youth ministers" -- he was talking about teachers in the UK. I don't know UK politics so I don't know much about Mr. Clegg. But I can tell you that the message he sends to parents with respect to teachers and education could just as easily be said with regard to youth ministers and youth ministry. I've altered the original quote which I found here. 

“If you don’t take an interest in your child’s faith formation, youth pastors cannot make up the shortfall. We already expect our youth pastors to be social workers; child psychologists; nutritionists; child protection officers. We expect them to police the schools, take care of our children’s health; counsel our sons and daughters; guide them, worry about them, and, on top of that, provide faith formation for them too.  When you consider that list, it is phenomenal that so many rise to the challenge. But it is too much to ask. Youth pastors are not surrogate mothers and fathers; they cannot do it all."

This is as much true of youth pastors as it is of pastors. If we Christians expect pastors and youth workers to do all the work of faith formation for us we will be missing the mark in so many ways. Even worse, we will be shirking our duties to nurture the faith of our children by handing them off to "the professionals" to do our jobs for us. Pastors of all sorts have legitimate roles and functions to carry out in most fellowships but far too often we are asking them to do what they have not been called to do and we are all less faithful for it.