In the article “A Global Youth Pastor Salary Survey: Sociological and Ecclesiological Perspectives”, from Journal of Youth Ministry, the author Kageler Len addresses the issue youth pastor salaries in two respects. The extent the local culture, church, and denomination perceive the financial support to the youth pastor. The second respect is people’s expectations to see many individuals sensing the call of God into full-time youth ministry, following the proliferation of the youth ministry education (Kageler, 2004).
This paper will consider the survey of youth pastor salaries across the globe, as well as the impact of ecclesiology and sociology on youth pastor salaries. The author shows that many youth attended church naturally in the previous days across the globe. The youth participated in a number of church activities together with their parents. This scenario is extremely different from the scenario in the present day when most of the youth do not attend church.
For instance, the Cathedrals in the Continental Europe or the United Kingdom consist of senior citizens (Kageler, 2004). Some denominations in North America are facing extinction. Globalization, urbanization, and export of the American youth culture through MTV are some of the factors, which have altered the previous church scenario when the youth attended church (Kageler, 2004). With the presence of these factors, many churches and denominations are putting more emphasis on the outh ministry in the present day than it was the case in the past. The youth ministry has a high likelihood of winning the youth in the society by bringing them to church.
This has forced many churches in the contemporary world to employ youth pastors to help in the salvage effort. The interactions of youth pastor and other citizens have become a significant economic activity in which church pay the youth pastors an attractive remuneration (Kageler, 2004).Many sociologists, including Karl Marx, Emil Durkheim, Max Weber, George Homans, Rodney Stark, Laurence Ianaccone, among other sociologists provide the basis of explaining the situation of youth pastor salaries, which is the case in the contemporary world (Kageler, 2004). Karl Marx would advise the youth pastor to take control of the resources that the church contains.
Weber would show interest in the salaries of the youth pastor because money determines socioeconomic status. Youth pastors in the United State earn more attractive salaries than the youth in teaching positions do. Emile Durkheim would consider youth pastor’s position in the church as specialization of roles. The other sociologists have developed their own approaches upon the foundations that Weber, Marx, and Durkheim had built. For instance, George Homans tried to re-conceptualize the ideas of Karl Marx and used them in today’s world. According to Homans, human beings interact among themselves with the main purpose of exchanging money for services.
Churches pay yyouth pastor attractive remunerations in exchange for the service of retaining and bringing youth to church (Kageler, 2004). It is evident that, this article relates to social structure and power as the youth pastors belongs to a high socioeconomic status because they earn attractive salaries. Some of the youth workers control the church resources as a motivation to bring their fellow youth to church. The youth pastors ensure that their fellow youth do not engage in evil activities, but participate in various church activities. Therefore, the saved youth will occupy a desirable position within the society (Kageler, 2004).In conclusion, the article “A Global Youth Pastor Salary Survey: Sociological and Ecclesiological Perspectives”, provides a clear picture on how globalization, urbanization, and export of the American youth culture have altered the composition of church.
In the contemporary society, senior are the most church attendants and the youth are the least church attendants. Therefore, churches have decided to recruit youth pastors to bring youths back to church. Churches across the world pay the youth pastors attractive remunerations in exchange for the service of bringing other youth to church. Sociologists, including Karl Marx, Emil Durkheim, Max Weber, George Homans, Rodney Stark, and Laurence Ianaccone have provided the basis to explain youth pastor salaries, which is a phenomenon in the contemporary society (Kageler, 2004).
