Recently, I had the privilege of attending the wedding of one of my former students. When I came to Calvary as their new family pastor, I met an eighth grader full of life and faith. She was the kind of girl you could build a youth group around. She could and would talk your ears off if you let her. It was easy to be her youth pastor. Time passed, and four years later, she was entering her senior year of high school without a father. Georgia’s father had been killed in a freak mountain biking accident. Georgia, her mom, and two younger brothers struggled through it, but God gave them the strength to move forward. Georgia attended Ouachita Baptist University, graduated, and then became engaged to her college sweetheart. If I had only stayed at Calvary for a couple of years, I would have missed watching God work through Georgia’s story. God allowed me to be part of her story and to love her family through the good and the bad. I count it a great honor and thank God for what long-term ministry can be.
Whether you are full-time, bivocational, or a volunteer in student ministry, we all need to understand how powerful it can be to stick around. Our ministry of presence gives us the privilege of speaking truth into a lifetime of following Christ.
How do we sustain long-term ministry? We know God directs our steps, but I am convinced we often move from ministry to ministry too quickly. God wants us to come alongside students and families for more than two years at a time. His desire for us is to give our lives to His people. So, how do we navigate that desire to stay?
• Pray for a long-term ministry. Ask God to help you make wise decisions in the early years of ministry at your church, so that the long-term can happen. We will often jump in with guns blazing and push too hard. Pray that God will give you patience and a genuine love for the people.
• Study and work on your understanding of God. Why is this important? We can learn a few good tricks in ministry and then repeat them, hoping for the same results. Then, we move on to a new congregation and repeat the process. God wants us to continually grow so that we won’t be known as just a one-trick pony. That takes an intentional mindset. We must choose to grow and look for opportunities to expand our knowledge of God, His Word, and His ministry. That means that you might have to start reading more. It might mean asking your church to send you to a conference. It might even mean going back to school. The main thing is to be intentional. Jack Courtney, former director of the Baptist Missionary Association of America Interstate Missions, told me once, “You can chop more wood with a sharp axe.” Train, study, and grow so that you can stick around longer.
• Pray for your students and families. Prayer shows how much we care about our people. If we love them, we will be lifting them before the Father. And, as you pray for them, God will grow that love.
• Wait to go to another ministry until you feel the pull and push of ministry change. Sometimes, we will have someone call us up and ask us to come in view of a call. Other times, we are just ready to leave. When those two things coincide, we should take notice and start praying. Over the years, I have received invitations to consider other churches, but most of the time, I have simply said, “No. Thank you.” You don’t have to have a conversation or make a visit. There is no unwritten rule about it. Understand that you may even want to move on, but it must be in God’s timing and as part of His plan.
• Don’t be stupid. We will make mistakes as we serve in churches. However, it is important that we make wise decisions. Choosing to do something without thinking it through is stupid. Don’t do that. Seek wise counsel. Dive into God’s Word. Make daily choices that honor God and His people. In general, don’t be stupid. Embrace God’s Wisdom.
I love hearing of youth pastors and student ministry volunteers who have given their lives in one church. I know that I am almost always the oldest student ministry worker in the room. But I don’t have to be. Let’s choose to serve God and His people for a lifetime and strive for long-term ministry.
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