Joy at work

One of the great things about the Youth & Theology program at Princeton Theological Seminary is the exposure to the top thinkers in the field at our monthly online check-ins. recently our learning cohort was joined by Jeff Dunn-Rankin, the Vice President of Consulting at Youth Ministry Architects. We talked about cultivating volunteers and building support, then the conversation turned to careers.

Youth ministry has a pretty high burnout rate. The compensation is about 25% less than the average salary for a pretty demanding job that isn’t always acknowledged by the congregation, so it’s no surprise. Jeff has seen it all, consulting with churches of many different denominations throughout the country, so our group wanted to get his perspective on longevity in ministry. He had some great things to share, applicable to our group and the wider working world too, hence this column.

He said the key characteristic he sees in people with vocational longevity is great joy. They’re joyful at their tasks in the good times and the hard times. “People that love their jobs made a decision to love their jobs,” he said. The inverse holds true with unhappy people. They’re unhappy wherever they are, at whatever they’re doing.

Everyone has positive and negative things happen in the workplace. But the unhappy and the happy approach the negative things in radically different ways. An unhappy person sees themselves as a victim of life circumstances. A happy person recognizes that they are in a bad spot (no rose-colored glasses) but is mature enough to take responsibility for making it better.

He also offered several other observances worth noting:

1. Happy people make decisions. Jeff gave us an example based on the money conversation we had earlier in the conference. You can decide to live on the money and be satisfied, or decide that you need a different job/line of work because you can’t live on the salary. The world will continue to turn whichever you decide, so go ahead and decide. Unhappy people tend to get stuck—they stay in a situation where they’re unsatisfied because they won’t make a choice.
2. Happy people tend to their own souls. They recognize that their job title is only one part of their identity. They maintain healthy boundaries between work and family time. They find ways to be refreshed and recharged so they can go back and serve other people with their best.   
3. Happy people invest lots of time in the biggest problems they’re facing. They prioritize to have the biggest impact.
4. Happy people embrace the workplace’s culture where it is. 
5. Happy people make changes slowly rather than quickly. They figure out whether something that bothers them is a “must fix” or “live with it” situation. They build support for changes rather than just go off like the Lone Ranger.

Some great advice—whether there is a steeple on your workplace or not!

Ian Eastman, M.A. promotes the spiritual, social, and emotional development of young people and their families. He is the Conference Youth Coordinator for the Southwestern New York Conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Coordinator of the Shared Lutheran Youth Ministry in Jamestown NY, and a Youth Minister in the Pastoral Care Department at Gustavus Adolphus Family Services. He is a graduate of SUNY Empire State College (B.S. Cultural Studies), Northwest Nazarene University (M.A. Spiritual Formation), and is currently a student at the Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary.