Drawing on five decades of wisdom, Tim Hawkins says genuine leadership, not age, is the key to Christian ministry

by Liz Hogarth

Youth ministry is generally considered the preserve of the young. But Tim Hawkins, Student Ministries Pastor at St Paul’s, Castle Hill, breaks all the stereotypes. He turned 50 last month, but is still working with youth and is still as passionate about it as he was at 19.
He is smallish and bearded, and, unlike some youth workers, makes little effort to ‘relate’ to his flock by imitating their style of speech or the way they dress. He cheerfully admits that he lost touch with youth culture years ago. “But they don’t expect me to know about their culture and they don’t expect me to show up dressed like them,” he says. “But they do respect people who respect their culture and they value someone who has time for them.”
He suggests that by their mid-20s most youth workers have effectively lost touch with youth culture and need to recognise, if they carry on, that they will be ministering cross-culturally. He is concerned that too many youth ministers lose heart when they reach this stage, and urges them to stick with it.
He does not see age as a barrier to youth work, and would even encourage grandparents to get involved. “It might be a bit of a myth to say that the best people to lead young people are in their late teens and early 20s,” he says. “A lot of our students are looking for parental-style figures to talk with.”
Mr Hawkins is arguably one of the most experienced youth ministers in Sydney Diocese. He started working with young people shortly after he became a Christian at 19 via the ministry of St Alban’s, Frenchs Forest. In 1976 he was one of the first to take the Anglican Youth Workers’ Course. After a short spell as a Youth Pastor in Adelaide he returned to work at St Mark’s, Yagoona and then transferred to St Paul’s, Castle Hill in 1988.
He is now something of a figurehead to many of the young, and not so young, people at the church who have been under his tutelage since they were toddlers.
At St Paul’s the average Sunday attendance across the parish’s six congregations might number around 1200, and consequently the youth ministry operates on a large scale. Currently around 350 young people, an increase of about 100 on last year, turn up to the regular youth outreach event, Crossfire, on a Friday night.
However, Mr Hawkins doesn’t base the effectiveness of his ministry on attendance figures or even on the 50 to 100 students who come to Crossfire and then opt to take a five-week Bible study course, entitled ‘Discovering Jesus’, each year.
“The ‘Discovering Jesus’ numbers are a better indicator than raw Crossfire numbers, but they aren’t our mark of success,” he says. “What we value are the students whose lives are changed by Jesus and who are then active in ministry to their unsaved friends at school.”
One of his priorities is to get as many young people as possible into small groups that have a focus on mission. Currently there are around 250 young people in D (discipleship) Teams. He estimates that around two thirds of those are actively sharing their faith. “Our job is not done if we are [only] seeing them grow as Christians in a Bible study group. We want them to have a passion for Christ and a desire to win others for him.”
He suggests that any church, however small, could imitate the youthwork model at Castle Hill. “You could do it with 20 kids in a lounge room,” he says. “There is nothing special about what we do.” What is different though, perhaps, is that he sees his work as mission-focused and worldwide in its scope and impact. “Central to what we do is to make disciples who will reach all nations,” he says.
Finally I ask him, as a seasoned campaigner, what piece of advice he would give to someone contemplating getting involved in youth work for the first time. “I would ask that person to look at themselves and tell me how they are growing as a disciple,” he says. “Because you teach what you know, but reproduce what you are. If a person is not really passionate about God or the work then the young people will pick up on that. The key to good ministry is authentic leadership.”