Children grow up, ministry roles shift, and life does not always unfold as expected. Through every season, God remains faithful — and He calls us to remain faithful.
Some milestones come with a date circled on the calendar. Others quietly reveal that one season has ended and another has already begun. This past Sunday brought one of those moments for Kristin and me.
With Promotion Sunday at Antioch Baptist Church, Austin moved into the college ministry. For the first time in 27 years, we are serving in children’s or student ministry without one of our own children among the students. That is a strange sentence to write.
I surrendered to God’s call to ministry on Nov. 7, 1993, while I was a student at Central Baptist College. Kristin and I were married on June 28, 1996, and the following year I began serving on a church staff. From the earliest days of our marriage, ministry has been woven into our life together and has remained one of our greatest privileges.
Then Abigail was born in 1999, and from that point forward, there was always at least one of our children in the ministry where we served — first Abigail, then Autumn, then Austin.
For most of those years, I served on church staffs with responsibilities that included children or students. Today, Kristin and I serve as volunteer leaders in the high school ministry at Antioch. Through every setting and season, our family has grown up in children’s and student ministry. In many ways, ministry has also helped shape our family.
Some of our sweetest memories have come from Sunday mornings, Wednesday nights, camps, retreats, and mission trips — especially the conversations in classrooms, church hallways, vans, around tables, and on the way home from church. Along the way, we have had the privilege of watching not only our own children but also many others come to know Christ and grow in their faith.
That is what makes this milestone feel significant. Austin moving into the college ministry does not mark the end of our ministry. It simply marks the beginning of a different season.
Psalm 127:3-4 (ESV) says, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.”
The Lord graciously entrusted us with three incredible arrows — Abigail, Autumn and Austin. Raising them while serving other children and students has been one of the greatest blessings of our lives.
For many years, those responsibilities were intertwined. We taught and led other students while also teaching and leading our own. At camps and retreats, we served as ministry leaders, but we were also there as parents. We celebrated spiritual victories throughout the group while watching closely for what God was doing in the hearts of our children.
Now we are watching them move into adulthood and follow the paths God has placed before them. Even in this new season, our family’s ministry paths continue to overlap. Abigail and Matthew serve at Antioch, where they teach the college class Austin will attend when he is home from college. Autumn and Kane are growing together in marriage, seeking to keep Christ at the center of the life they are building while serving in a growing church plant in Texas. Austin is stepping into college ministry as he prepares to begin college and pursue the opportunities God places before him.
They are no longer sitting in the classes we lead or accompanying us on every ministry trip. Our role as parents has changed, and we are learning to step back, encourage them, pray for them, and trust the Lord to direct their paths.
That transition can be difficult. Parents spend years protecting, teaching, correcting, and guiding their children. Then, almost without warning, the little girl who once sat in the nursery, the younger sister who eagerly followed behind her, and the little boy who seemed to grow up overnight are adults. Time really does pass quickly.
Yet releasing our children does not mean our investment in the next generation has ended. In many ways, it allows that investment to expand. Our children certainly gave us another reason to be present in children’s and student ministry, but they were never the only reason.
There are still students who need adults to know their names, listen to their questions, encourage their faith, and remind them that they have a place in the church. There are still young people who need examples of faithful marriages, consistent service and lifelong commitment to Christ. There are still parents who need others standing beside them as they seek to disciple their children. Our own children may have moved into another season, but the opportunity to invest in others remains.
The call has not changed. The mission has not changed. Only the season has.
This particular change is bittersweet, but it is also good. Not every changing season brings the same kind of joy. Some bring celebration — a graduation, a marriage, a new opportunity or a step toward greater independence. Others come through disappointment, uncertainty, grief, closed doors, strained relationships or circumstances we never would have chosen.
Ministry includes mountaintops and valleys alike. Plans change, people disappoint us, opportunities disappear, and prayers sometimes seem to go unanswered. There are seasons we gladly embrace and others we would rewrite if given the opportunity. Yet God remains faithful in all of them.
His faithfulness does not mean every season will be easy or that every circumstance will unfold as we hoped. It means He is present, trustworthy, and at work even when we cannot yet see what He is doing. Our responsibility is to remain faithful to Him.
Sometimes faithfulness means stepping forward into a new opportunity. Sometimes it means staying when leaving would be easier. Sometimes it means releasing a role or season we have loved. Sometimes it simply means continuing to serve when the results are slow, and few people seem to notice.
Faithfulness is not limited to one position, one ministry, or one season. The Lord may change where we serve, whom we serve, or how we serve. We celebrate what He has done, trust Him with those we have helped prepare, and remain available for whatever He places before us next.
Kristin and I are grateful for every moment God gave us with our children in ministry — the joyful moments as well as the difficult ones. Through them all, He has been faithful. We are also grateful that He continues to give us opportunities to serve students who are not our own, but whom He has nevertheless entrusted to our care.
We are excited to see what He has in store for Abigail and Matthew, Autumn and Kane, and Austin. We are equally excited to see what He will do in the lives of the students who remain in our high school ministry and those who will enter it in the years ahead.
As Paul wrote, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9 ESV). This season is different, but it is still filled with purpose.
The season may change, but God remains faithful — and the call to faithfulness remains. When a new season comes, may we faithfully walk in the good works God has already prepared for us (Eph. 2:10).
