Getting the Job

As I came into my second year interning at my home church…I had made the decision to start applying for full time ministry jobs. I wasn’t finished with my degree, but I had taken all the youth ministry courses offered at my school. I was married by this point and I felt I was ready to make the next step. That next step proved to be harder and longer than I anticipated.

The process was frustrating. I found out that many churches aren’t entirely sure what they want in a youth director…and are not always as organized or well versed in how to conduct a search. At the time I didn’t know what was normal…now I know a lot of what I experienced was NOT normal. One church interviewed me and said they were interested in possibly moving forward and would get back to me….only to not contact me for over a month and eventually tell me they went in a different direction. One church asked me to come for an interview in person which I accepted. Then when I looked up their youth group’s Facebook page I saw they had welcomed the “finalists” for the position to meet the youth the previous weekend. I still went to the interview. I did not get the job.

Finally after some additional coaching…I interviewed for an assistant youth director position a couple hours south of where we were currently living. It was a video conference call interview. At the interview was the youth director Clay, a couple youth who were on the leadership team, the church worship leader, and the children’s director who was also director of programming. I remember when I saw Clay for the first time I swore I knew him or had seen him before. Today I think I had that thought because we gelled almost instantly.

We had a lot in common. We both loved Spider-Man, we both went to the same college, and our personalities just…meshed. I felt similarly with everyone in the interview. I was relaxed and tried to put myself in the most authentic light possible. I have a hard time remembering the questions they asked…because I remember just really enjoying the conversation. Some of the youth who were at my interview would later tell me that when we signed off they turned to Clay and said….THAT’S the one. He clearly felt similarly because within the week I received an invitation to come down and spend a full Sunday with them in person.

I didn’t know it at the time…but this was essentially them offering me the job. Unless I went down there and was a completely different person I had it. I went down and just fell in love with what I saw. Clay showed me around and was SUPER honest. It’s a quality I came to love about him. He was friendly, brash, and 100% himself. I got to see him interact with his family…his pregnant wife and their toddler son. He clearly loved and valued his family which was important to me. I wanted to make sure wherever I ended up was a place where I didn’t have to compromise those values myself. Clay told me all the things he loved about the youth ministry and the church. He told me about all the problems he saw within the youth ministry and the church. He had been there for 5 years at that point so he was more than well informed. We spent a lot of that day talking about general philosophy of ministry…and really just about life in general. At church he introduced me to the senior pastor John. I had looked him up before I came down….he turned out to be somebody my dad had worked with in the past. He was excited to find that out when I told him. He was very well dressed…it was definitely an upscale church in an upscale town…and he seemed to have a good sense of humor. He at least tried to be funny anyway. He told me in the middle of their Sanctuary, “Matt I’ve been doing ministry for 35, 40 years. I’ve worked with a lot of youth directors…but I’ve never had one as talented as Clay.” I was beyond sold at this point. This guy seemed like someone I would love to work with and the church seemed behind him.

Clay and the children’s director took my wife and me to lunch after church at a local BBQ place. We had more great conversations…and my wife asked a bold question. “How seriously are you guys considering Matt for this position?” Clay looked at the children’s director then back at us…”Matt is THE candidate for this position. We’re not interested in anyone else at this point.”

I was beyond thrilled. I was about to see a dream come to fruition. I couldn’t have been happier or more excited. About a week or so later they officially offered me the position and I accepted.

I couldn’t have asked for a better person to work with in my first full time job. Clay was incredibly skilled. He was relational, he was intelligent, passionate, honest, and forthcoming. He loved the kids at that church and more so he loved striving to do ministry the right way. He was more than a great boss…he became one of the best friends I ever had. I learned so much about how to do everything in ministry from him. I think most of all…I learned how to be my authentic self from him. He showed me how to insert my authentic self into my ministry. I loved him. I loved working for and with him. I just wish we would have been able to do it for longer than 8 months.