Moving Ministries Makes for Interesting Introspection
Tonight will mark a significant change in my personal ministry and the ministry of my church, Lutheran Church of Hope. Tonight will be the last night of Immersion, our young adult ministry that has been going in some form since early 2001.
Why the change?
We started noticing some time ago that our particular “brand” of young adult ministry was no longer cutting it. Weekly attendance was down, momentum seemed next to impossible to grab and we got the sense that God was doing something new. Something was shifting and we had a responsibility to find out what.
We consulted our leadership team. We prayed as a staff. We asked hard questions and we finally made the decision to make June 10, 2010 our last night of ministry. It has “felt right” ever since we landed and our belief is that God is truly behind this significant change.
During this process I’ve been forced to look at what God has crafted me to do. So many wise people were able to speak into my life during this discernment process with Immersion. The gist of their collective message was, “You need to be doing what God has called you to do. Not just collecting a paycheck.” The temptation in ministry is to become so wrapped in weekly programming, relationship-building and preaching/teaching that you never actually look at the ministry as a whole. To use a Dave Ramsey phrase, “You’re too busy working in your business to work on your business.
Maybe you find yourself up against a similar situation. You have a nudge, a feeling, a gut check that there may be more going on than meets the eye. You feel like there’s a chance God may be calling you to make a change, a shift–either big or small–and you’re not quite sure what to do with it.
Is this you?
If it is, I want to share a passion matrix that you can look at to help discern where God may be calling you in this season of your life.
- Gifts: What do you feel are your strongest gifts? What comes naturally to you? Have people ever said to you, “How do you do that?” Chances are that’s a gifting area.
- Passion: What gets you excited? What makes you get out of bed in the morning? What fuels you and makes you feel the most fulfilled? What would you do even if you did it for free?
- Experience: Where have your life experiences taken you? God uses experiences to shape who we are as people. For instance, I stumbled into my high school’s radio station at the age of 14 looking for something to do instead of studying. Little did I know that God would use those years in radio to develop my communication skills and passion for understanding human communication.
- Talents: Talents are where your giftings go to work. If you’re gifted in music, your talents could be playing the oboe or writing music theory. Talents are specific expressions of a gifting.
- Competencies: What are you good at that you may not necessarily enjoy doing? You don’t need to dislike it, but it’s something that you could take or leave. I’m competent at sales, although I’d rather not spend a whole lot of time doing it. I can sell when I need to (have you considered sponsoring BeDeviant.com?
) but would rather leave it to someone else. God will use our competencies to shape where he leads us. Trust me.
What are the next steps?
I used this to help discern where I would move to next after Immersion. That move? I’ll be heading up the online campus at Lutheran Church of Hope and I could not be more excited about it. We have some amazing leaders here at Hope and I can’t wait for you all to meet them. You’ll be impressed. I promise.
Answering these questions is worth it. Otherwise, we became stale, old, crusty pieces of bread that aren’t even fit for the crouton pile. We become shells of our “could-be” selves, devoid of the abundant life that Jesus promises to all who follow him.
I want to say thank you to my amazing Immersion leadership team, Sarah Lubach and Matt McNeece. Heaven holds no saints more faithful than these two.
I want to thank Richard Webb, Michael Meggison and Mike Housholder for their leadership, challenge, friendship and support.
I want to thank the community of Immersion. You have brought me joy, challenges, encouragement and love. I have prayed with you, married dozens of you and blessed your babies. Thank you for letting me be a part of your life!
Lastly, I want to thank my wife for listening to me when no one else would. I love you.
Here’s to new journeys. May the Spirit of the Risen Christ illumine the path that awaits ahead. He is faithful and true. Amen!
so so so exciting!
Justin, this is a great post about shifting seasons. I've been through one myself and I know it's as much about one step forward (God is so awesome! this is so right) and then a couple of drags back (what am I doing?? What is God doing??). I wish you well during this transition…you run a great site so I know your church must be psyched to have you as an online communicator. Best!
Cool – would love to debrief sometime JVD
Love changes especially when it's driven by God himself.
So funny! I was just contacted by an online minister in KC and thought…”Justin should do this for Hope!!!!” But where will all the Immersion folks go on Thursday night?????
: (
And Sarah…and…and…is there something new going on? I meant to watch tonight but missed it….Kim. Z.
Love that, Mikes. Great insight!
Immersion, as we know it, is over.
HOWEVER, Hope will continue doing Thursday night ministry come Fall. Jeremy Johnson will be leading the new efforts and I couldn't be happier!
Sarah, Matt – they'll both be at Hope for as long as they want to be! They'll be around…. Fear not!
Thanks, Cynth! Blessed to count you as a friend along the journey…….
Nicole … Thanks so much for your words! They mean a lot. Glad to have you aboard!
Count on it.
Ditto on Nicole's comment…Immersion changed my life too! Loved it. Will miss it! But look forward to all you are soon to do!
I'm also a leader of Young Professionals Ministry here in the Philippines. That's why I got Interested and visited the site
Justin, congratulations on the new calling and ministry! I recently had one of those aha moments when God placed a calling on my heart to start nonprofit to do outreach to teens. Its been both harrowing and humbling but I'm grateful I paid attention to that gut check! I look forward to following what comes from your online ministry! Chris
I remember when God called me to leave the fundamentalist Christian church. Many of us are waking up to the fact that so much of what we thought was truth is just not working. Time to move on.
Congrats my friend. I know this has long been on your heart. So happy that your vision and the vision of Hope are on the same page. God's best to you.
Bro-dizzle.
Thanks pal. It's been a long, hard road … But we made it. Totally worth it!
Congrats my friend. I know this has long been on your heart. So happy that your vision and the vision of Hope are on the same page. God's best to you.
Bro-dizzle.
Thanks pal. It's been a long, hard road … But we made it. Totally worth it!