What does the Bible say about the role of youth pastor / minister?

We may add to this another suggestion that seems deeply needed today. Young brethren who have some ability to speak and who desire to serve the Lord should surely be given every proper encouragement. Yet it is unseemly that they should begin by becoming teachers of the saints. How much more solid and stable would their progress be if they do what they can in reaching out with the gospel to the lost. We would greatly advocate work with children as an excellent training ground for young men. If, together with women also in the assembly, they are able to awaken interest in boys and girls to come to children's meetings, young men may take the lead in making these gatherings spiritually attractive to the young. Women also often prove to be excellent teachers of children. Let us never think lightly of this good and valuable work, but seek to prove faithful in the smallest details of it. Concern for these dear young souls will drive teachers to study their Bibles in order to get the simplest things across to their developing minds. So that in feeding others, their own souls will be fed.

Now I would like to make a reference to an important feature of the things we are speaking about and that is that it is almost certain that many young Christians will say, “All this is perhaps all very well but it is beyond us.” Now I would like to say that there is a terrible danger here. I think that no one who knows me would accuse me of lack of sympathy with work amongst young people and seeking to instruct them in the things of God and reach them. But there is a terrible danger, not only in the meetings but everywhere, that young people are being encouraged to grow up with the idea that they can live their own fellowship and their own Christianity and that there is a special kind for them. Consequently, they churn over things at their own level and never get outside it, and they never will realise what lies ahead unless that outlook is replaced. By all means, let the young people gather together but let them never forget how the disciples continued with one accord, steadfastly, in all the functions of the assembly! You can add what you like to that but never let anyone think that the real functions of the assembly, the teaching of the apostles, as well as the breaking of bread and prayers, can be displaced. All the children of God of whatever age group should meet together like this and then bit by bit they will grow up into what really does lie ahead in growth in the Christian life, whereas if they spend all their time churning over together they will never get outside their own level. At the same time, of course, we who are older should do all that we possibly can to consider them and to help them and to speak in ways that they can all understand. Above all we should present them the humility and the meekness and the longsuffering with which we are enjoined to strive to keep the unity of the Spirit.

To these young Thessalonian believers, undergoing much persecution, the apostle wrote: "Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone; and sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellow-labourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith" (1 Thess. 3:1-2). What is it that really establishes people? The ministry of the truth. Timothy was a very remarkable young man, though perhaps a little timid, hence the apostle says, "Let no man despise thy youth" (1 Tim. 4:12). Some were inclined to snub him, and throw cold water on him — a thing not unknown in the twentieth century on the part of venerable seniors towards their younger brethren — a practice not to be commended, however. Do you know what the apostle says regarding Timothy? "I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state" (Phil. 2:20). He was a very devoted young man, though he needed possibly a little exhortation and encouragement, which Paul gave to him, in the two epistles addressed to him. The Assembly of God today would be all the better of a legion of Timothys, for the Thessalonians were much established by the visit alluded to (see 1 Thess. 3:6-8).

What boundless opportunities there are for the young believer today, whether in preaching the Gospel, in ministry to the saints, for gathering children under the sound of the Word, for visiting the needy, for tract distribution. Not only are there vast districts abroad not yet evangelised, but at our very doors there are multitudes unevangelised. We are told that hardly ten per cent of the population attend any place of worship, so what must be the spiritual condition of the remaining ninety per cent? Moreover, when we read our Bibles we cannot but be struck by how often God used a young man in His work. In the Old Testament, Joseph, David, Daniel, come at once to our mind. In the New Testament the men called to be His apostles were evidently young. In our own time too the same thing has been seen.

Work among the young is a very blessed, gracious privilege, but it demands much prayer, seriousness, and dependence, as well as brightness, tact, patience, and love.

We have been interested in noticing that young believers in the freshness of their love to the Saviour invariably turn to work amongst children as a way of serving Him, and it is our conviction that this arises entirely from the unspoiled instincts of the new nature. In their simplicity they realize that of such is the kingdom of heaven, and that the Lord's heart is yearning now as it did then to gather these lambs in His arms and bless them. Happy indeed are all those who, in spite of the indifference or hostility of those who have lost their simplicity, continue to labour in faith and love in this sphere of true Christian activity, for their labour is not in vain in the Lord.

We believe there are many young men who have passed through a furnace of testing, and have proved in the trial the power and worth of the gospel which they have believed, and who long to tell it out to others in its integrity and blessedness; we want specially to encourage and help such to preach the Word courageously in dependence upon God; to be evangelistic in spirit in season and out of season, serving the Lord.

We believe there are many young men who have passed through a furnace of testing, and have proved in the trial the power and worth of the gospel which they have believed, and who long to tell it out to others in its integrity and blessedness; we want specially to encourage and help such to preach the Word courageously in dependence upon God; to be evangelistic in spirit in season and out of season, serving the Lord.

The affection that takes charge of the babes is a thing that ought to mark the Assembly of God, and I fear is somewhat lacking now-a-days. When a babe is born a nurse is needed. Three-quarters of the babes in this city that die, are badly nursed, or not well fed. There is some folly on the part of the nurse. And many that are born into the family of God are not well cared for. Who is to care for them? They ought to find a nurse among His saints. If you are seeking to serve Christ, you should take care of them and help them. If God's saints were more occupied in this way, there would be less time for profitless conversation. If we were busy helping each other, nurturing the newborn, and nourishing souls generally, we should find the body growing and the saints being perfected, and that is the way things are presented here, in Ephesians 4. It is a body, and it grows by the mutual activity of its various members, who play into each others' hands, so to speak, and the result is there is "the edifying of itself in love" (ver. 16).

The young believer is exposed to special dangers in three directions: from the flesh within, from the world about, and from Satan, who is constantly seeking to make use of the flesh and the world to seduce the soul from the simplicity as to Christ. The very instincts of love will lead us to look after and care for the lambs of the flock. Indeed, these have been entrusted to us, and we may ask if one reason why more are not added to the companies of the saints gathered to the Lord's name may not be found in the lack of the exercise of that love which will care for them.