Youthworks College is unique in Australia, and around the world, as a college exclusively focused on training for youth ministry. At the start of May, Reverend Graham Stanton announced his resignation as principal of the college. He has been the principal since the college’s beginning in 2000. He talked with Eternity about the last thirteen years, and his decision to step down.

Founding principal of Youthworks College, Graham Stanton announced he was stepping down earlier this year.

I imagine with your decision to retire, you’ve had some time to reflect on the last thirteen years. Any particular reflections—joys and challenges—you’d like to share about what this time as principal has been like?

Firstly, what an immense privilege it has been to be the founding principal of a ministry college! I have clear memories of a day back in 1999 when I received a phone call out of the blue from Tim Foster (now at Ridley Melbourne) asking if I’d be interested in talking with him about starting a college for youth ministry training. I remember being totally daunted by the prospect and fairly confident that after I’d had a chat about my ideas, they’d find someone far more suitably qualified for the job. So as I look back on that time, it’s clear that God was at work engineering this role and ministry for me to be involved in.

In your announcement about stepping down, you mentioned that it’s been ‘a difficult, often traumatising decision’. Could you tell us a bit more about what it’s been like for you to end such a major chapter of your life?  

I’ve had such a mix of feelings. I’ve been wrestling with this decision for a number of years. There is so much about this role that I love doing – I’ve often thought that if I could just devote all my time to teaching and spending time with students, reading, thinking and writing in youth ministry and theology, I could do this forever. But there is so much more that has gone along with leading the College working in the executive of a large organisation like Youthworks that has taken its toll. So at one level I feel an enormous sense of relief – a lot like hobbling away from the finish line of a marathon, spent, sore and so pleased to have made it to the end.

On the other hand, I’m really sad at what I’m leaving behind; and those feelings of sadness and grief have particularly been growing as I spend time with students and graduates and supporters remembering the good times of the past and praying over the uncertainties of the future. But of course, all those conversations are reminders of the amazing things God has done and that he’s allowed me to be involved in. So I’m full of thankfulness as well.

In the last thirteen years, how has youth ministry changed from your perspective? You’ve previously mentioned ‘developmental needs and cultural challenges’—are their particular contemporary challenges facing youth groups and youth ministers?  

The major cultural change has been the near universal acceptance of safe ministry. It has truly been a revolution in the way we do ministry with children and young people. Enormously important.

The great material change has been the increase in the number of people who are committed to pursuing medium- to long-term ministry to young people. When the College opened there were a handful of ‘youth ministry veterans’ who were considered to be ‘unusual’. (That is, ‘exceptional’ and ‘unique’ if you thought they were doing a good job, or ‘odd’ if you didn’t!) These days, there’s a strong network of people who have been serving in youth ministry for more than ten years, and who have continued to pursue further theological education and ministry training for their roles. There are others who are pursuing congregational leadership but with a clear sense of the importance of ministry to children, youth and families in the life of the church.

Regarding contemporary challenges, the ever-growing impact of the internet and the rapid changes in social media are re-shaping human culture in ways that we have only seen the beginning of. Children and teenagers will continue to face the developmental challenges of identity, but they have to do it in a world that is redefining privacy, changing its understanding of knowledge and learning, and reshaping conceptions of authority, all against a backdrop of shifting political, military and economic powers. We must not leave young people to deal with these challenges on their own – we need to take hold of the privilege of the family of God that is present in the church and the opportunities for cross-generational ministry in the community as well as in the church.

There has been a renewed interest in the ministry of the family over the past few years which has been overdue. I’m anxious that this is getting pressed too far to the point where there is no need for specialist ministers to children and teenagers. There is a lot of wisdom available from the study of childhood and adolescence, and from theological reflection on this particular life-stage. The best approach is a clear partnership between children’s and youth ministry specialists, serving parents, and working alongside senior ministers and adult members of the church as we take on the shared responsibility of sharing Jesus with children and young people.

You’ve written that next is PhD study, and in particular, study that will enable you to serve youth ministry – can you tell us what area you’re hoping to study? Are there areas that you think there should be more thinking about, in the area of youth ministry?

My particular ideas are fairly unformed at the moment – the plan for the second half of this year is to take some time to rest and then to have lots of conversations with potential supervisors to narrow down an area of study. In general, I’m interested in listening to the voices of young people and reflecting theologically on their experience. That might mean engaging with developmental psychology to consider how teenagers approach Scripture, or thinking about theories of education in how teenagers engage with transformational learning.

In more general terms, I think there is a great opportunity for the adult church to learn from children and young people. We often treat childhood and adolescence as ‘problems’ that need to be solved; but there’s also great opportunity to learn from the Christian experience of these people. Jesus spoke of the value of learning from children in Mark 9:36-37, and Ecclesiastes 12:1 affirms particular opportunities of youth (though we need to be careful that we don’t read into this some particular theological privilege of children, or justify a cultural idolatry of children and teenagers). Unfortunately we often talk about children and young people far more than we talk to them– I think there’s a challenge for the church to listen more to young people and to learn from the way they engage with God, and for youth ministers to help promote this.

Lastly, what words of encouragement would you give to readers who might be reading this, who are youth group leaders?

Mostly, I would say thank you for your work. I know we’re all working for the Lord and are waiting on his commendation. But for what it’s worth, I’d want to thank them, and thank God for them and their service. I want to encourage them to press on—even if, particularly if, they’re not receiving visible support from others in the church. Youth Ministry can be full of contrasts—great energy and enthusiasm on one hand, and bitter disappointment and lack of visible fruit on the other. In both circumstances we need to keep a firm eye on God and his promises. He will keep his promises and accomplish the purpose of his word (Isaiah 55:10-13). And he has given us the enormous privilege of being involved in that work with young people – whether we’re planting, watering or sowing as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 3:5-9. It reminds us to not get too full of ourselves, while also reminding us of the dignity and significance of being fellow workers with God himself.