Case study
The first partnership.
Most churches that want a full-time youth minister cannot carry the cost alone, so the work goes to somebody part-time, or to nobody. In July 2026 a church on Melbourne’s northern edge and Youth Ministry Futures agreed to co-fund youth ministry toward creating a role that’s full time, and sustainable.
Plentylife Anglican Church is in Mernda, a fast-growing residential suburb in the northern growth corridor of Melbourne, 26 km north of the CBD.
The young people at Plentylife were not without somebody before July 2026. Katie was already in the role, part-time, which is the arrangement most Australian churches with a youth ministry have. What changed in July was not who was doing the work but how much of the week the church could ask of her, and how long she could reasonably stay.
Katie is nearing the end of her theological study at Ridley College and moves into the role full-time as that finishes.
The agreement was worked at rather than leapt into. Plentylife had to test honestly what it could commit to and grow into over a sustained period, and then to understand what a partnership with YMF actually asks of a church — not the money alone, but the supporting programs and the assessments that come with it. The church welcomed both.
How a partnership works
The partnership is designed to continue over nine years. For the first three years YMF commits to carry most of the cost while the role establishes itself. Through years four to six Plentylife carries more of the share. From year seven the goal is for Plentylife to fund the role in full.
Fully funded, full-time youth ministry is not yet the final goal. Over years seven to nine Plentylife hopes to begin to return a small amount to YMF. The returns help seed future partnerships. This model of replicating partnerships is what YMF calls The Project. An initiative to build the capacity of youth ministry through churches who share in the mission to reach young people alongside external funding support.
The money is just one part of it. This is not a grant paid out against a submission and acquitted later; it is an ongoing partnership, built to keep all the ministry relationships healthy and ensure the right things are measured in a planned and methodical way.
YMF works with Plentylife on a Youth Ministry Health Indicators assessment tool at regular intervals. Katie participates in a Leaders’ Cohort for group-based professional supervision, and attends Residential, a four-day live-in professional development gathering of youth ministers from across the country. YMF also meets regularly with Kirk McKenzie, senior pastor of Plentylife, to review, plan, and pray.
What the first partnership settles, and what it does not
Until July 2026 The Project was just an idea: a way of describing how a church and YMF might share a role until the church carries it alone. With the first partnership in place, it is now a job somebody holds, in a church with young people in it.
The partnership is also only months old. There is nothing yet to report about what this will produce, and YMF would rather say so than borrow a result we have not earned. What can be said is that more youth ministry is occurring in Mernda that it did before, and that the role is designed to be one a youth minister could stay in.
What the partnership produces will go back into the work. YMF will use the findings to sharpen the partnership itself, to contribute to research on youth ministry in Australia, and to keep assessing and developing The Project as a model for recovering well-trained, full-time and long-term youth ministry in this country.
The cost of a part-time role
Australian youth ministry is not short of willing churches. It is short of roles somebody can stay in. Most of what exists is part-time, so a youth minister has to choose between the work they are called to and a wage they can live on. Many leave. That is not a failure of commitment from the youth minister. Rather, it is what the arrangement asks of them.
Youth ministers in part-time roles have usually already asked themselves the question: is staying faithfulness or foolishness? When staying is not viable, churches watch the door revolve and grow ever slower in their willingness to invest again. So, fewer roles ever become full-time, and the work gets