1. They are twitchy (just like the early disciples!) 2. Teens are looking for a cause to live for (and this is the ultimate one!)
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1. They are twitchy (just like the early disciples!) 
In the crazy "what if" world of impossible scenarios I am convinced that Jesus would be fired within his first few months of becoming a youth leader at the typical church. Here are five reasons why...
When is a youth worker too old to be effective?
I've noticed something that happens to us youth workers around our mid-30′s, or so. We find ourselves unable to naturally relate to teenagers. Most of us have reached a point where we don't automatically pick up on their references like we did in our 20′s. They mention a fad or a movie and we realize we have no idea what they're talking about. This happens enough, and it begins to bother us.
"You must be really good at your job," my father-in-law said the other day. I was confused. My current job is as an assistant manager at a fast food restaurant. "Not the food stuff," he followed up, "the youth ministry stuff." My last youth ministry job ended nearly a year ago, so my confusion continued and I asked him to clarify. His response floored me... "Because the devil is working really hard to keep you out of church work."
When I graduated from Bible college in 2007, I went back to my home church to be the student pastor. I had mixed emotions about going back to my home church, but over time it became evident that this was exactly the plan that God had for me. The student ministry was very small. We had not had a full time youth pastor in years, and the youth group had diminished.
Students are not creative. They are obsessed with getting everything right and that drives them to mimic. Mimics don't create, they repeat. They don't explore, think, wander or risk. When I was a kid my dad sent me to a day camp called The Island. The Island was actually an island at a local park in the middle of a lagoon.
If trust is a key component to healthy relationships, then it begs the question, "How do we build trust between our youth ministries and the parents of our students?" The list could get long...and obviously we won't all be good at all of the stuff on the list, but I tend to think the area of trust is an area that fits into the classic "chips in your pocket" analogy.
