What Changed?

Image courtesy of dan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A few weeks ago I accepted a new position.  I am not leaving youth ministry.  I am not leaving Cloverdale Church of God.  I am officially venturing into the world of national level youth ministry (I’m not sure if that is actually a real thing…oh well).

Church of God has a few different teams of youth workers that work with all of the churches in our movement that have youth ministries.  The youth ministry team (YMT) and the youth network team (YNT). I am now a member of the YNT.

I was offered a position on this team about three years ago and I didn’t take it.  As I sought God about the opportunity and talked with those closest to me, I felt it was not something I needed to do, so I said no.

As I did exactly the same thing this time around I felt a different answer from God.  And I had to answer this question from three different people, three people that know me REALLY well.  They all asked me “what changed?”

Before I said yes I had to really think about this simple two word question, a lot.  The answer is not nearly as simple as the question.

My circumstances have changed

My family life looks a lot different now.  My wife is at a school a lot closer to our house and our boys are far more independent so it is easier when I travel. My church looks a lot different now.  The past three years we have gone through a lot of change and transition; staffing, vision changes, and much more.  Now the dust has settled a bit and we are moving forward again.  Still a lot of work and effort left with both of these areas of my life, but very different than it was then.

My perspective has changed

After writing my book, working on more books, writing on this blog and other sites, and lots of conversations with several amazing youth workers my perspective of youth ministry and church ministry is different now than it was then.  I feel like I have a lot more to contribute and offer now than I did then.

My heart has changed

God has done a lot of shaping and molding on me in the past three years.  Being humbled is never fun, and no matter how I finish this sentence it will prove that He is not done.  I know God is not done molding and changing my heart, but I am glad to be a few years further down this journey before doing this.  My motivation for wanting to say yes is completely different this time.

I am thankful for all of these changes.  But most of all I keep going back to how thankful I am for people in my life that will actually ask me questions like “what changed?”  I truly am a very very blessed man.

Do you have people in your life that will ask you hard questions, and expect truthful answers?  If you don’t you need them.