Wake Up Call

It had been a while since I had done anything ministry related, yet alone youth ministry related. My third summer at camp was my last, a year had passed and my life was in a more stable yet unsure state. At this point I was confident in the call God had put on my life, to work in full time youth ministry, but I hadn’t done anything to put that into motion. I was naïve enough to think that 3 summers at camp and an associate’s degree would be all I need to open the doors to becoming a youth director…I found out quickly how mistaken I was. I eventually reached out to a youth director I knew from my hometown for advice. We met and he advised me to look for a youth internship at a church. He didn’t have any available himself, but he gave me the names of a couple that did.

One stood out more than the other. I recognized the name of the youth director. She had been at camp during my last summer as the speaker for high school camp one week with her former church. She had been one of many adult leaders that sat in on the workshop I led that summer, and was very encouraging. I thought she had been a great speaker, I enjoyed the conversations we had while she was there, and I thought she’d be a great leader to learn from. I applied for one of the two summer internships offered for the youth ministry. Lorie remembered me as I did her. My interview went well, and after a couple more conversations…her and her assistant youth director offered me one of the internships! I happily accepted. I was excited to be making another step towards this thing that I believed whole heartedly God had called me to.

When I started the internship I learned I would be working most directly with the assistant youth director Jim. I would also be working with another intern, the youth ministry administration assistant, and Lorie herself. I also learned that the internship would basically consist of myself and the other intern running the week to week happenings of the youth ministry. We’d plan the weekly meetings, the weekly local service trips, and several special events. It was at that moment it hit me….someone has to plan all of that stuff? If I’m going to be a youth director that person will be….me? I feel stupid now that I hadn’t thought of that yet. I think I genuinely thought I’d just be having fun with kids and going along for the ride that someone else had planned! It was a wake up call to say the least...and quite the eye opening experience to find out otherwise.

That summer was fantastic! I am forever thankful for the people I met and worked with that summer. I learned so much from Lorie and Jim. Lorie was VERY organized. I was NOT. She ran her ministry like a well-oiled machine. Her youth ministry was fantastic and it was because she had vision, she had a plan, she communicated her plan, then executed it to eat perfection. Above all she loved her students and loved sharing about a God that loved them. I learned that summer that if I wanted to be what God had called me to be…I needed to be more like her than I currently was.

That summer was exactly what I needed it to be. It showed me what was possible. I was led to succeed and given room to fail (and fail I DID). I was shown how much heart and passion had to go into the planning of a ministry. This was something that never came naturally to me…but something I put a lot of hard work into becoming better at.

I was shown that it’s possible. It’s possible to show the love of Christ to youth in a real way inside the walls of a church. It’s possible to love those youth yourself. It’s possible to love your job and the people you work with. I loved everyone I worked with that summer. Jim became a successful youth director himself and is now a pastor. He remains a trusted friend to this day. Lorie served that church for almost a decade and is now the youth director of my hometown church. They were the standard. They were the example of what it looks like when the church invests in passionate, called people. I wish their story was more common. I’m so proud and blessed to have been a part of it.