An Oasis in the Desert: My First Year in Small Church Youth Ministry

Let me start with an introduction.  My name is Michael Peirson, and I'm a youth pastor.  I want to give you an historical snapshot that will help with the context of this article.

I attended Western Michigan University, obtaining a degree in secondary education.  Upon completing my "formal" education, I realized my life had much more to teach me.  I returned home and began working in a youth ministry near my home.  At the same time I began to feel God tugging my heart in a new direction.  The time I was spending with the Jr. Higher's of this church was beginning to speak to my heart,  and I began to ask a new set of questions.  Was this moving me to another calling in my life?  Is this something that was even a possibility?

I began to search out a way to explore this new passion in my life.  Was this God, or just the pizza I had eaten last night?  God led me to Olivet Nazarene University, where I not only saw this as a possibility, but began to realize that this was a calling on my life.  The theological base and grounding I obtained there has been, and is, essential in my ministry.

Beyond that, however, the ‘personal' touch by the professors and instructors at Olivet has been indispensable.  The insights that have been passed on to me through those who have walked in my shoes, who have experienced what I experience, and have lived to tell about their joys, their failures, their struggles, their mistakes, and their successes allow me to hold on and continue to "fight the good fight of faith" as I minister to others.

It was during my first year in the MA program that an opportunity presented itself, and I began my ministry life.  My first year of ministry at Limestone Community Church of the Nazarene has been filled, as most are, with emotional highs and lows.  I have seen new students come, listen, and return to our Wednesday night program.  I have also suffered through a personal spiritual drought in my soul, balancing my life as a bi-vocational pastor.  I have been able to build my ministry around my giftedness, but as I have attempted to honor God by building this ministry from the ground up, there has been many times I have had to stand alone.

Both joys and pains are common in any ministry.  No one can enter the vast landscape of people's lives and expect to come out either unscathed or unchanged.  Above all, however, there are a few comments, suggestions, and bits of advice that I wish I had been told or held more tightly to when someone revealed them to me:

• The most important person in your ministry is you.  If you are no longer open to God, then you cannot lead others to Him.  If you are broken down, burned out or emotionally unstable, you are virtually worthless to anyone you are trying to reach with the love of God. 
• I've also struggled in finding out how to minister to others while experiencing disappointments and my own cascading feelings and emotions of pain and personal spiritual loneliness?  In this, I have learned the incredible value and need of surrounding myself with friends, although finding them in a smaller church presents its challenges.
• God is always, ALWAYS in control and He loves you no matter what.

At times, I liken ministry to be like a desert: its vast landscape makes it difficult to know which direction to travel, its dry and arid climate break down the body and the will of those who attempt to cross its rugged terrain, and it is often difficult to find the refreshment or strength to carry on with each treacherous step.

I began this journey into the field of youth ministry with a full canteen by my side and an expectation of the joy of reaching the other side of this vast desert.  On the way, I have encountered many mirages which I thought were the beginning of amazing spiritual renewals and have had to crawl to each cactus on the horizon for spiritual water and refreshment. 

With each new mirage off in the distance, I push forward and continue on, forgetting what lies behind and hopeful about what lies ahead.  After all is said and done, it may simply be just another mirage but, God willing, it may just be an oasis!  God provides.