Investing in long-term, full-time, well-formed youth ministers to see Australian youth won for Jesus.

Systemic Immaturity

There’s a challenge facing youth ministry in Australia.

Over 80% of youth ministry roles are part-time, often filled by young adults juggling another job or by trainees in ministry programs. But when students finish their training, or young adults need full-time work, they move on, leaving youth ministry behind.

When youth ministry is reduced to a stepping stone to "proper" ministry, churches are discouraged from investing in full-time, long-term youth ministry roles, perpetuating the cycle.

And when youth ministry isn't seen as a viable long-term vocation, fewer emerging leaders are willing to pursue it. But without youth ministry students, there aren’t youth ministry graduates, so when full-time roles open up, there’s no one to fill them.

Australian youth ministry is stuck in systemic immaturity.

Part-time, short-term, and often untrained leaders leaves young people underrepresented in Australian churches, where over 70% of young people raised in the church leave by age 20, where Youth ministry roles remain vacant, and seasoned leaders are scarce.

Re-imagining the Future

What if we could transform this system?

What if we could shift from short-term to long-term, giving leaders the freedom to experiment and the time to create sustainable structures?

What if we could go from untrained to fully trained, equipping leaders with a deep theological imagination for faithful innovation?

What if we could move from part-time to full-time, allowing leaders to fully invest their time and energy into building ministries and missions among young people?

We need sustainable ministries with consistent leadership and long-term vision. We need deep personal, theological, and ministerial formation to meet the unique challenges of growing ministries to, with, and by young people. This is the vision of the Youth Ministry Futures Project.

Changing the System

The heart of our vision is the Youth Ministry Fellowship—a new mission agency, to do for local church youth ministry what organisations like CMS and Pioneers do for cross-cultural missions. What if we could recapture the spirit of the 19th-century mission movement... where like-minded Christians pooled their resources so that some of them could go, to do what all of them prayed and hoped for. Our vision is for a community committed to praying, promoting, and providing for a better future for youth ministry in Australia.

Together we could grow a Youth Ministry Futures Fund—venture capital for local church youth ministry. Together we could lead investment in extending short-term roles into long-term vocations, expanding part-time roles into full-time positions, and supporting trainees in full-time ministry formation.

Join us

We long to see a reinvigorated system of healthy youth ministry in churches across Australia. By investing in long-term, full-time roles, and supporting leaders through their training, we can turn youth ministry from a part-time side hustle into a viable, long-term vocational pathway.

This isn’t just about better employment conditions for youth ministers; it’s about strengthening ministry and mission among young people. We want young people across Australia to hear the good news of Jesus, to respond in faith and repentance, and to take their part in the ministry of the church and the mission of God in the world.

Join us in building a better future for youth ministry.