Oh, and if the kids feel like they are being condemned, et cetera, go straight to the horse's mouth. You don't even have to tell a soul that you had the conversation with the preacher. And though I'm not saying kids always lie, you have to keep in mind that their idea of what is is not always actually what is, for example: You ground your child...to some you are simply being mean, lol.

I'm a big believer that "God doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called." It strikes me as a bit pretentious to tell someone that they are not fit for the vocation they've been called to, unless they've done something morally horrendous.

If the pastor is that bad, has anyone considered talking to him? He might not have realized the consequences of his actions.

Maybe the congregation and the pastor could have a talk together to discuss the issue? Gossiping and not talking directly with all the people involve not only destroy that family like atmosphere, but it also drives members away or alienate them. At the church I attend, we've have had gossips which was not only false, but they destroys someone else's reputation and character. Those spreading the false rumors finally confessed and asked for forgiveness, but the scars from that wound is still there especially for those affected by it the most.

Yeah, this is a tough call.  Has anyone sat down with him and his wife?  What about the pastor?  This guy is the youth pastor, not the head-shepherd of the church.  Why hasn't the pastor gone to him yet and explained some of the concerns the church has.  And then if he doesn't listen to that, they take a few of the church elders/deacons to talk with him.  He probably know that the ministry is going sour for him, but he might not know what to do about it or how to fix it.  His pride might be keeping him from admitting anything is wrong.

However, now, I myself am from a pastor's family.  My father was a pastor even when I was very young, and when I was about 3 years old, it was discovered that he was having an affair.  He was removed from his position, but my mom and my sisters and I (although I was too young to understand or realize this) were shunned from that church.  My mother and I have never abandoned the faith, but we still have wounds from that action of the church body (our supposed family at the time), and my sisters have all but denied that they are Christians anymore.  I think that some pastors in leadership do terrible things and need to be removed from the ministry, no matter how "called" they feel they are to a certain post.  Until they have a repentant heart and an attitude of service and humility, they should not be allowed back into an official position like that.  YET, if a family goes through something like that...no matter how ugly it might be, the church body HAS to be there to support the wife and children.  If, like my mother, they are living far from their hometown and immediate family, then the church has to step up and be the family to support them like we are called to do.  It's so important...and such a shame when churches think it's too difficult a thing to get near a family stained with something like that. 

But in this guy's case...there are steps that you must take before you could legitimately remove him from his ministry.  He has to be approached, first by the pastor (the one he is in subordination to), then by two or three others, and then by the congregation as a whole.  If he refuses to accept a problem, or a solution is not found, then I think the church can legitimately remove him from their payroll and reponsibility.  BUT, he should not be cast out of the church.  He and his family would probably want to leave, but it should not be because the church is not willing to grow and restore them to the grace of God.

1. How do you define a growing ministry? Is it by the # of kids in attendance or how well the few that do show up are growing in the Spirit? There's always a high attendance for the "fun" night on wed/thurs but you're lucky if you get half the number at sunday school.
2. Youth Workers are usually the first to get their budget slashed, the second-fastest to be criticized after the worship leader, and more often than not the least paid pastor at the church because those in charge of church resources don't always see "playing with kids" for what it is: investing in the church's future.
#2  actually came from an experience with a young-adult (20-something) ministry leader, but it still applies I think. I also used to work as a youth sponsor and I know youth ministry can often be a thankless job especially for its leader.

I am going to presume that there is no family problem that the youth pastor is willing to discuss with anyone, but that someone has asked and tried to work with him.

If all of this fails...then

You need to talk to the elders.  They hire and fire the Pastors.  The head elder is supposed to be able to talk to the Pastor once everyone's concerns are discussed with the elder board and they determine if they are genuine or spurious.

The pastor isn't suppose to make more people join the church. G-d adds people to the church. If you hire or fire based off the numbers game then you don't know what the church truly is. people will know G-d by our love. Besides, numbers aren't important. Obedience is. I would want my congregation to go from 500 to 5 if it meant we were living obediently as the church.

It's easy to blame everything on the pastor. But what about the leadership? Sounds like the student leaders are quitting instead of persisting. That's not real admirable. "Be the change you wish to see in the world"

Are people discussing these issue with him? Are elders and the staff addressing the problems? Is he acting unbiblically? Is he sinning and not setting the example? Who has confronted him? There are proper ways to deal with these things in the New Testament. Don't up and fire a guy if it hasn't even been discussed.

Going behind people's backs isn't brotherly or sisterly. Go to the course. Say "i see and here this, give me some clarity."

I'd probably first try to talk to the pastor and help him realize where his faults are. If nothing changes, give him one more chance. If nothing changes, kindly tell him he's not helping the church in the best way they think he's fit for or something. I'm not really sure about how you might go about letting a pastor go, but he definitely would need to go. Kids don't need to be condemned just for sharing a problem. They'll never share again---and that's not good! They need a good role model. Y'know?

like some ppl have said, i think other solutions needs to be attempted first - specifically identifying the problem, talking to the pastor (if he is definitely a big/the only source), getting elders/other leaders on board, etc.

however, if no improvement comes about, then after MUCH prayer and deliberation, and receiving PEACE from God about it, i think it's totally fine to fire a pastor. maybe a church is not exactly a business, but there are some similarities. groups need wise, strong, and visionary leaders - any group, christian, secular, profit, non-profit. if the leader's methods aren't helping the group achieve their goals, then he/she is not the right leader.

i experienced a similar situation in my old church. the college/young adult pastor was just NOT a good fit for our members.  he had a good heart and sincere intentions, but he was awkward, misspoke very frequently, and we didn't get along with him at all.  he left in less than a year, and the next pastor who came along was everything we needed at that time.

the irony is that the first pastor ended up at a church that was attended by a friend of a friend. i heard through the grapevine that he was very well accepted there and people LOVED him. go figure!

Well, let's take this apart, because a youth pastor has perhaps the most tenuous job in the church. We have a huge responsibility in the area of youth in the church. We have a responsibility to teach them, encourage them in their faith, but also to address issues arising with them. However, if they come to you in confidence with an issue they already feel terrible over, telling them they're doomed doesn't help anything. A pastor is a shepherd. He is there to herd them towards Christ. If He is not doing that, and perhaps even worse, doing the opposite, then yes, he needs discipline. This needs to happen in the form of addressing the senior pastor. It's his job to mentor the youth pastor. As for the kids, I agree that the parents need to step in at some point and teach and love their own kids. A lot of parents, my parents in law in particular, expect the youth pastor to deal with every problem they feel too awkward talking to their own kids about. The youth pastor is not the parent of your child, you are. So, this is about much more than the youth pastor. If the church is the body of Christ, then your church is seemingly having a heart attack. One member of the body is checking out and nobody's stepping in to either help it or stop it. Just a thought. Either way, your senior pastor and the elders of your church should be paying enough attention to have already known the issue. If they don't already see it, then you've got much larger problems than a seemingly harsh and perhaps inattentive youth pastor.

I went through something like that at one point of my ministry with youth.  Please read my response in a letter it was too long to post here. I will post a portion of the ideas though.

I had to leave the ministry position I was in before even a year was up because the "church kids" had formed a group that was basically social. The problem is when a youth group is a socialite club, then it alienates ministry to outsiders. They claimed they wanted outreach when I came but when we started implimenting an outreach program they got upset saying we spent too much time with the street kids and not enough with the youth.

They claimed that we weren't even talking to them as well even though we went to games and had lock ins, sports events like volleyball nights,  the gym was open all the time, we had youth groups open just for those who wanted to come when the roads were not good enough to have regular youth group, I was discipleing kids, asking kids to hang out with us, asking kids to join drama events, join volunteer events for the church etc. We would even try to go join converstations of the kids. 

They wouldn't even talk to us less than about 2 months in. We were given dirty looks, obviously fake smiles saying go away, they would even blatenely ignore us. The old youth leaders were spreading gossip and their friend were doing the same. They were even holding secret youth group events for "outside churches" and encouraging the kids to attend other churches yet still being "active" on the youth board and in the leadership of our church!

We were judged for not "going to church functions" (ie bible studies and sunday school)  when the truth was youth functions often overlapped with those church functions. We had no choice but to miss the only bible studies, Sunday schools, and even dinners because they overlapped events we were expected to go to for the youth.

They claimed that we weren't growing even though the growth was occuring but in street kids who were getting saved and coming and regularly being discipled. The truth is the previous youth pastor claimed that he wasn't supprised with the outcome because when he came had less than 7 kids out of the previous pastors 50, for almost a year. The only reason he got more kids to come was because he became the coach of 2 teams at the school. If you aren't able to do such things it is difficult to get the growth immediately.

It is documented that it takes 1 year to get the youth to start accepting the new youth pastor and 2 yrs if ever if the previous youth pastor was basically worshiped. 

There are usually underlying issues with the church that are causing part of the problem. The three problems we experienced are very common to the church today.
#1 a terrible gossip problem #2 a huge "class problem" (no real care for outreach) and #3 lack of true and effective discipleship.

Becareful of the message you are sending to the church and the people of the community. The church I was in had sent a horrible message that I really don't believe, in their hearts, they ment to send. If they did, they need to talk to God and ask for forgiveness. 

In just firing the youth pastor you face telling the people who may be causing a huge part of the problem that they can get whatever they want by just gossiping and complaining too much and destroying the reputation of someone. Moses went through something very similar and God swollowed up the offenders in the ground in His anger! We are very accountable for those we ministry to or those we turn away so be careful what choices you make.

Regardless, not all churches are in this situation, but make sure to investigate before you just assume the gossip is true. Make sure to ask how they know what they are saying. Did they get treated this way? Did they first hand go through something offensive? or are they functioning on gossip?  Make the youth pastor start documenting outreach attempts to these kids who feel alienated. Talk to the Youth pastor about it. Why hasn't someone gone to the youth pastor to confront them about the offense personally. That is what the Bible tells us to do!

We as a church have walked away from doing what the Bible tells us. It's time we start being smart and not hasty!

is removing a church leader because of numbers biblical? what happened to building up one another? maybe churches need to be more prayerful when hiring a pastor, much like a marriage. we should be encouraging our church leaders and communicating issues, not just replacing them as worn tires. goodness!! obviously in cases such as immorality leaders need to be removed, but our churches are made up on mortals, not robots. let's have more prayer and encouragement for our churches instead of quick "fixes"!!