A Young Punk

I was in the hot tub tonight thinking back on my life in ministry. I began to think through what events took place in my youth that ultimately brought me to a ministry career.

I preached my first sermon at the age of fourteen. Well, actually I stumbled through that first sermon with horrible form. Over the next couple years, I spoke only a handful of times at various youth functions. Needless to say, I was by no means a “Preacher” and definitely not a preacher pastors thought of when they said, “I need a speaker for our upcoming event”. In spite of my limited resume’ at the time, I received an interesting call one day from Fred Abbott. Fred was the regional youth director for the Pacific Northwest Church of God. I had grown up over the past several years in the youth camps and winter retreats that Fred organized. He was a high energy, go getter, youth director and I really looked up to him. During this phone conversation, Fred invited me, a young eighteen year old punk, to be one of the speakers for the 1998 PNW youth camp. Youth camp was definitely much bigger than the few other speaking engagements I had done prior to this youth camp. Also, this youth camp was the one I had attended since I was nine years old. With a huge amount of nerves and a great deal of excitement, I accepted his offer. Now I ask, what would cause an influential and well known leader, to ask a no-name eighteen year old to speak at an important event with over 400 plus in attendance?

Looking back at over sixteen years of ministry since the time I spoke my first message at South Union Church of God in Olympia Washington, I can definitely see how God had been calling me into ministry. I can see many different ways throughout the last sixteen years that God extended favor to me in ways that I definitely didn’t deserve, especially when I look at it through the natural eye. I can also see how God placed certain influential people in my life, like Fred, to help bring my ministry to a launch.

One of the most amazing aspects of this whole story is the amount of power there is in our words. The day I received the phone call from Fred Abbott, was the first day I truly began to believe that God was calling me to something real. When I saw how much trust and how much influence Fred was placing in my hands, it changed my life. It changed the way I thought about myself. It changed the direction I thought I was going in life. The power of his words that told me how much he believed in me, and how much he recognized the anointing that God had placed on me was astounding.

This is a great lesson for every one of us as we get older. It is a lesson to keep our eyes open and our hearts soft toward the generations to follow us. We need to know that God has placed power in our words and he has given us influence. We must use that power & influence to help raise up the next generation. We need to let them know that we believe in them. We need to constantly remind them of how important they are to the kingdom of God. We must not be afraid to stick our neck out and put our names on the line to help mentor them and bring true discipleship to the table. This is an investment, but the return on this investment is measured in eternity.