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Thursday, November 09, 2006

The Youth Pastor Syndrome

So recently, I've made an observation that somewhat piggybacks on the Science Girl's question as to 'where the Christian men are?' It's this trend I see on church Web sites everywhere. Anytime there is a Meet The Staff page, it sticks out to me like a sore thumb. Approximately 99% (okay, maybe a slight exaggeration) of the males in their 20s working at churches are already married, and probably did so before graduating college. Why is this? It's not very encouraging that the only attractive men my age I encounter on Sundays are with their wife and six 'beautiful' children. Basically, I feel like I don't even have the option at dating a Christian guy simply because I missed the boat. On the upside, with the recent allegations on mega-church pastor Ted Haggard, maybe I'm one of the lucky ones.
Is there a certain movie-star-like allure for Christian women to pursue men of the cloth? To live that seemingly perfect life of a pastor's wife. Because I attended a private Protestant college, there were many classmates with ambitions of becoming a theologian or a youth pastor.
Not that I have anything against youth pastors. It’s just... many of them seem totally generic. In college, they were the guys roaming around campus accidentally-on-purpose not wearing a shirt, playing one of a dozen worship songs they could strum on a guitar, attracting droves of husband-crazy desperate girls. Just because you sing songs about Jesus with your eyes closed doesn’t make you some kind of super hero. Personally, I’ve never been roped in by anyone like that. There seems something shell-like about them. Are they the new Stepford Wives? The ladies’ man?
In my personal experience interacting with youth pastors, I don’t know if it’s just me, but more than a few have been insincere... even rude to me. I’ve known of several who have ‘resigned’ from their churches due to moral issues. To me, that’s sad. Although, I will give them this credit. The youth pastor (as well as the entire church staff) at the church I currently attend is awesome. It gives me a glimmer of hope. But the rest? I just don’t know. And no, I would never marry a youth pastor.

4 Comments:

  • At 2:31 PM, November 09, 2006, Blogger The Prufroquette said…

    I had a long-standing crush on the son of the pastor of the church I grew up in...who aspired to the cloth himself. The crush ended when he married a girl eight years his junior.

    But throughout the duration of the crush, I always felt torn about being a pastor's wife. I didn't want to be one. I don't have the gift of hospitality; I would never want to host all the Mother-Daughter or Senior Citizens' Luncheons at my home. I hate cleaning up after parties. I like quiet. But as a pastor's wife people would be making demands on me all the time, and I would want to help, but it would wear me out.

    And then there's the issue of movies, books, etc., that seems to cause many rifts in evangelical morality. I watch R-rated movies. I enjoy TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I don't apologize for them. But I would hate to have to turn the television off because I saw Mrs. Simmons turning up the driveway and if I didn't I'd endure the poo-pooing of the congregation.

    I see nothing wrong with the consumption of alcohol. I don't like Christian music. I have been heard to curse once or twice.

    And that's not saying that if I met some great, amazing pastoral guy I would refuse to give all of that up. I could moderate my language, for example. But give up my movies, my music, the occasional glass of wine, the Yuengling, the peace and quiet of an uninterrupted home life? No. Not if the typical pastor's wife's existence is to live some cut-out model life of sugary perfection and cheerful duty.

    The bottom line is that constant exposure to many different people frazzles me. I'm an introvert. I don't think a pastor's wife is in my cards. And that's perfectly okay.

    "Singing songs about Jesus with your eyes closed doesn't make you a super hero."

    Priceless.

    I agree that most of the GCC worship leaders were insipid, vain, or mean. Hot, though, if you didn't know them.

     
  • At 1:15 PM, November 10, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hi. I was told by a friend to submit some of my writing here. How can I do that? I have posted the work to http://greekphysique.blogspot.com/2006/11/13-million-mia-christian-men.html for now; check it out and let me know if you'd be interested.

     
  • At 5:27 PM, November 11, 2006, Blogger Babba-Gi said…

    Marrying a youth pastor is like marrying Mr. Collins instead of waiting for Mr. Darcy!

     
  • At 4:01 PM, November 12, 2006, Blogger The Prufroquette said…

    AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Perfect, Babba. Perfect.

    P.S. Your female relations haven't been dragging you into P&P, have they?

     

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