SIX COMMENTS TO THE 20-25 year old LOOKING FOR A MINISTRY ROLE
by Dave Miller, Co-Founder
It’s almost time for the spring graduation. So here’s muy attempt at an Open Letter to the Recent Grad (or a 20-25 year old with no education) who Desires to Be in Vocational Ministry,
Congrats on all of your accomplishments of getting this far!
For all the negative vibes you may be getting about local churches right now I hope I can speak on behalf of those I’ve been around and clearly say five things:
// YOU ARE NEEDED. Church leaders at advancing churches (those where the Gospel is being advanced - they’re not just getting bigger in size) are looking for a version of you 7 years from now. Seems like every day I hear a version of, “We are looking for someone who is 29-32 with 6 or 7 years of experience having built a ministry and led some stuff…”
Which is somewhat like looking for an almost extinct tiger.
// PLEASE BE PATIENT WITH US. We don’t know what to do with you or for you yet. We still live like it’s 2017 or 1999. We want you here, but we gotta figure this out.
// YOU NEED A VISION for what your contribution might be in the Kingdom in 18 months or 4 years from now. This vision is less about size of platform and more about your personal why, and what…If I hopped in a time-traveling machine and went and found you in 5 years what is your best guess?
// HOW CAN YOU GET TO THAT POINT? Let’s work backward from five or so years from now. You’re in your late twenties with God-sized dreams and ideas. How can you get there from here?
// YOUR BEST/NEXT STEP. No matter the denomination, theological viewpoint, or area of the country, you need to be serving in and around the type of ministry that interests you. You need to be barely in over your head, but within arm's reach of a gifted leader who is willing to coach you and/or has a track record of developing leaders around a local church.
I’m all for YWAM and other gap-year programs; I’ve helped fund many, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.
I am talking about the developmental/coaching plan for who you could be two years from now. You need to be at a place that wants more for you than from you. Sort of like a teaching hospital. They are there for YOU. You are not there for them, yet. At the end of those two years you will be hirable and potentially will be employed by that same church. It’s vital to choose wisely where you’d want to do this two-year experience. More than likely, this church won’t let you walk if they can avoid it. You are one of them; they’ve already deeply invested in you.
// YOU ARE NEEDED. There are not many of you considering this, and The Kingdom needs you to do this.
You may begin this as an undergraduate, online college student, post-seminary graduate, or one with no education at all. I’m less and less confident that it matters. What does matter is that you submit to someone who can develop leaders, and who wants to see you become this for the Kingdom. And give it two years.
My experience has been that anyone who wants to do this with his or her life is going to have opportunities if he/she walks this road. There are thousands of churches looking right now for a version of you that is six years away. They are big, small, urban, rural, plants, mega-churches, progressive, stuck, reformed, charismatic, uptight—all of them that are advancing are looking.
From what we read, there are about 20,000 churches that are advancing amongst the other quarter million that are in decline. I sure hope you choose to give a decade or two to one that is advancing. That’s where we need the best leaders we can find in the Kingdom.
I’ve also seen many allow student debt, life experiences, parental pressure, zip code, and poor advice from those that don’t fully understand this scenario drive potential church leaders toward a different path. These are the ones who leak out of the pipeline on their way to becoming a church leader with 6 to 7 years of experience. They went to the wrong place and quit, or they got fired, hate the church, and think it’s useless. I have friends like this, and I’ll bet you already do, as well. Just last week a pastor told me he was the only one left from his class of 60+ in 2005. No wonder seasoned leaders are as rare as an endangered species.
So, man, that’s my most passionate pitch. I’ll do all I can to help you achieve what you believe God has for you. I just see God at work in what I described above.
Might your phone ring in the next 37 seconds with the perfect God-ordained opportunity? Yes. And might he choose to do all sorts of things to guide your path in a miraculous way? Yes. But over the last 15 years and a few thousand interviews, I see him working on average through a process like I describe above.
If this resonates with you, let’s talk - or go here and complete the application, and let’s see where it takes us together.
There’s no doubt you can find a job. Can you have a plan? That’s something different.