Who Do We Serve?

When I sit back and think about ministry, there is a lot to think about. I sit back and think wow, God chose US to be in youth ministry? It’s really a humbling concept. Dan and I will be sitting on the couch and think wow, this is our life – this is the life God has chosen for us. Ministry amazes me. In youth ministry we get the chance to see kids grow from the inside out. How rewarding that is!

One thing I have come to grasp is that no matter what we do, it’s really never “good enough.” We could be doing ministry 24/7 and it will never be good enough. I really struggle with that. I am such a people pleaser. But God calls us to do the best we can for His glory, and not for man’s glory. Who am I serving? Am I trying to please man or God? Dan and I have talked a LOT about that. That’s where the whole last post kind of came from too – finding purpose and who are we really serving? In all reality, we will never be “done” with youth ministry in a day. When we lay our heads down at night, our ministry is not “done” for the day. But there has to be a point where we have to say we have done what we can today and we will try our best tomorrow, through God’s help. Dan reminded me of that yesterday and I needed to hear that. I was going over all these things that I feel I could be doing more of and he’s like okay Kristin, who are you trying to please? I would run myself to the ground if I tried to do all the things I had said. That is why Dan is so GREAT at what he does! He sees it all in perspective. And he sees the danger too of ministry because many burn out! When Dan was in college, it was said that the average youth pastor was a youth pastor for 18 months. Why? Burnout. That is CRAZY to me! I can definitely see where that can happen! BUT, God has protected us from that. We feel God has us doing ministry for a long time yet. We LOVE working with kids. When we were at the youth ministry conference in Columbus 2 years ago, there was a guy who was a youth pastor for 35 years. He had white hair, and had just won a Wii b/c he was the longest “survivor.” We hope to be that someday :). I may have to turn up my hearing aids and hit kids with my walker, but I don’t care! We LOVE what we do, even if we can’t please man. But we are here to please God – and I tell ya, He continually shows us daily how to change, and challenges us in new ways of serving Him. How can one serve without the guidance of God? Impossible.

There are so many different ways to serve God and help further His Kingdom. I am learning daily new ways and ways to improve. God has gifted each person so uniquely and it’s amazing to see kids realize their talents and use them for God. As we all walk the path of faith and life together, may we all daily seek God and ask Him how we can best serve Him.