Youth Pastor Interview Questions

What is your testimony?

We at JustChurchJobs stand by the fact that this interview question is the first and foremost question that you should ask. A candidate who is not willing to share their testimony and how they came to know Jesus should not be in a pastoral leadership position. Any pastoral leadership position requires vulnerability and a desire to share how the gospel has transformed them. A youth pastor will be directly involved with the youth of the church and their testimony may be a great tool to open ways to share the gospel to the youth.

Do you have a desire to work with students?

This is of course an important question to ask any of your candidates. If they do not have a desire to work with students, then their heart is in the wrong place. Any candidate that is applying for the youth pastor role and doesn’t have the desire to work with students is just an oxymoron.

How would you engage with a shy student who doesn’t interact with the rest of the youth?

Think back to anu youth group that you have been in before, there is always one student who is shy and doesn’t talk or try to interact with the other students. It can always be hard to coax these students out of their shell and the candidate should know a good strategy to get these students involved with the rest of the youth.

What is your view on mentorship? Can you describe some of the mentors you’ve had, if any, in your life?

Mentorship is a crucial part of any pastoral position as any pastoral position needs someone who can lead them through the things they will face. However, mentorship is even more important for the role of the youth pastor as in a lot of cases, the youth pastor is the mentor to several students, and they need to be able to properly lead and disciple them.

How would you handle a discrepancy with the parent of a child?

The role of the youth pastor works not only with the students, but they also work very closely with the students of the parents. As such the candidate would need to know how to deescalate tense situations that will arise with the parents of the students.

What are some ways that you would reach the youth in the surrounding community?

The candidate should have the drive to not only disciple and lead the current students of the church but should always be looking for opportunities to reach out to the surrounding community of the church to be pulling more of the youth in to teach them about Jesus and spread the gospel.

Can you give some ideas of some events that you would hold for the youth?

This is an important question to ask because this more situational question helps to gauge a candidates creativity in how they plan events and their drive to get the students involved with each other in Biblical and spiritual community. This question also helps to determine their leadership style and how they approach leading youth.

What are your three biggest strengths and weaknesses?

Now this may sound like a stereotypical interview question, but it truly is an important one to ask a potential candidate. This question gets them thinking about the things they do well and the things that they do poorly and then they relay to you. It’s good to keep these strengths and weaknesses in mind because not only does it allow for you to see if they would be a good fit leadership wise, but it also gives you a sort of benchmark to work with them to improve upon their strengths and work on their weaknesses.