Hardest Thing?
So, I thought I should start moving on the series of questions I brought up last week. Click here to see the first post and read the disclaimer on this particular series of posts.
This is the first of Ben’s questions:
1.) What has been the hardest thing about your ministry in the first year?
My first year of ministry was a whirlwind and though I have many fond memories, much of it was really difficult. Therefore, it’s not easy to pick one thing. So, here are a couple:
Unsure Priorities. One of the hardest things was figuring out what was most important. I had just graduated from Moody and I was constantly hearing the do’s and don’ts my professors had taught during the previous four years (volunteers, parents, discipleship, worship, missions, community service, well produced programs, relevant promotional materials, calendaring, biblical preaching, maintaining solid character, student leadership, etc. etc. etc) I wanted to do it all at once. Everyday seemed to fly by, but I never knew if I was focusing on the right things. Which played into a major weakness–time management.
I’m still young and am still unsure if I’m always focusing on the right things. However, I’m learning to listen to the wise counsel around me, make sure I have a close walk with Jesus and a growing heart for my students and volunteers, continue learning time-management skills, read good books, rely on God’s Spirit to guide and change our ministry, and take care of myself as well as my closest relationships. This may not be a comprehensive list, but these are some of the things that I have been trying to implement over the course of my second year.Team. Working on a team and building a team brought a lot of joy but posed several difficulties in my first year. For some reason, I assumed that everyone on Church teams just got along. Believe it or not, even though we work at a church, we are still imperfect people that get angry, have bad days, and have incredibly different personalities. I have worked on several teams before I came here and I thought I was pretty good at pleasing everyone, working hard, and meeting expectations. So, I came into this job thinking that’s all I had to do. But I ended up realizing I couldn’t please everyone, I couldn’t work hard ENOUGH, and I would never meet everyone’s expectations, (including my own). Some of the difficulty simply came from a leadership transition that lasted most of my first year. The new student ministries director has been really amazing at bringing the team together, clarifying expectations, and trying to protect us from any sort of burn out. I really have loved working with this team and am incredibly grateful for them. Furthermore, I am learning more about each ofthem and what it means to trust, clarify expectations, have difficult conversation, and communicate clearly and honestly with them
On top of this was my inability to build or rely on volunteer teams. Our campus’ student ministry was growing, but it was all about me. I had a handful of faithful volunteers, but I was poor at equipping and empowering them while also recruiting more volunteers to make up for the influx of students. I was running four weekly programs (two middle school and two high school) along with trying to maintain other expectations of connecting with student on school campuses and event-planning for the ministry as a whole. It was foolish.
Much has changed since then. Our campus has three amazing teams of volunteers and a group of Middle School Moms who encourage each other and support our ministry (that group is led by a wonderful volunteer as well!) We have also created a great system to train and follow up with all of the volunteers at each campus. It’s a beautiful thing.
