At the end of last year (2018), I made a major life change when I chose to step away from being a Student Ministry Pastor. There a few different factors that led me away from the current position I held, but the decision I made was bigger than just resigning from my current church at that time. I was also making a decision to walk away from being a Student Ministry Pastor full-time for the foreseeable future.

This decision was not an easy one. I had been in full-time Student Ministry for nearly 15 years. It was what I went to school for, and it is honestly my heart’s passion. So it was a big step of faith for me. But I knew I was making this decision for the right reason.

As a result of my difficult life story, I only get to see my kids on the weekends. Being a full-time Pastor means you have responsibilities at church every weekend. And unfortunately, the schedule with my kids (especially with their activities) and my schedule at church often clashed. So since I only have limited time with my kids, I wanted to make sure I could focus on my time with them. Which meant stepping away from being a full-time Student Ministry Pastor for the time being.

For the past 8 months, I’ve worked full-time doing tree work, and have also been looking for a different job as I tried to figure out my new career path. But it’s proven to be quite a challenge…way more than I anticipated. I’ve never received so many rejection emails/responses from jobs I’ve applied to before. It’s been quite frustrating and discouraging to be honest.

During this time, my children and I began visiting different churches in order to find where we would like to attend as a family. After a couple months, we landed on a church called Bridgeway. We all liked it, and all felt comfortable and welcome, so we as a family chose to make Bridgeway our church home.

Over the next several months, I was able to get to know the Pastor. We met several times, and I began to really connect with him. We shared pieces of our story with each other, talked about life and sports and movies, and even discussed ministry some.

As I said before, I was not pursuing a job as a Student Ministry Pastor at a church during this time. And he knew that…I had shared that with him as well. So I was a little surprised when he brought up an idea he had been considering for a little while. An idea he had of me coming on staff part-time as the Student Ministry Pastor, with the understanding that there would be flexibility on weekends in order to fit my schedule with my kids.

When he shared the idea with me, I was reminded of something Heather had shared with me a while back. She had said to me that the right church would be willing to be flexible and make it work. Once again, she was right!

After some time praying and continuing to discuss the idea, as well as talk through the logistics and details of the job, I was offered a position and gladly accepted. As of today, August 19th of 2019, I am officially on staff at Bridgeway Christian Church as their part-time Student Ministry Pastor.

This job, this direction, was not something I was looking for or pursuing. It was not expected at all. I had resigned myself to the fact that being a Student Ministry Pastor was not something I’d be doing during this time in my life.

But God opened a door…an unexpected one. In a way that worked with how I needed it to for my unique situation with my children. How amazing is our God!

There’s still many pieces of my journey that I’m trying to figure out…different full-time job, more permanent place to live, what my future looks like, timing of things, etc…it’s definitely quite the adventure. And while it can be frustrating at times, it’s also very cool to watch God guide and direct me along this journey in a very unexpected way.

To God be ALL OF THE GLORY for this opportunity that he has given to me.

https://www.bridgewaychristianchurch.org/staff.html