A Convergence: or How I Got Into the Ministry

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The perfect storm? Possibly.

In Columbia, my King’s Daughters’ life and my New Life life intersected.  I had received my Master’s Degree in Leadership from Trevecca University.  I was more and more involved at New Life.  I was in the worship band and leading regularly.  I was coordinating the small groups and working with leaders.  I was close to the worship pastor and was getting to know the youth pastor.  Our church was growing.  I had some specific prophesy spoken over me about being in the “full-time” ministry. And worst of all, I was weary at KDS.

Looking back, I was experiencing some significant burn-out, both emotionally and physically.  The state contract was cumbersome, so I spent a lot of time shuffling papers around, papers that did not improve the life of any child for even 1 minute.  I was tired of seeing kids go back to the same situations they were taken from in the first place.  I was tired of fighting with DMHMR and DCS and insurance companies and school districts and other agencies.  I was tired of going to the time-out room…again.  I was an empty well, and there was still a line of people as far as I could see waiting to take their turn to come get a drink.

I was approached by the New Life pastor and one of the elders if I would be willing to come on staff and coordinate the small groups and the children’s ministry.  This seemed to be the answer to the words spoken over me.  So I accepted the position.  I gave KDS a 5-month notice that I would be leaving at the end of the school year in May.

My plan was to work at New Life over the summer, get a teaching job with the local school district for the next year, then come on full-time the next summer, the summer of 2000.

I was heart-broken, but in a sense relieved to have the pressure of KDS off of my shoulders (I would gladly have that pressure back now.)

I was so excited to be a part of a ministry-team at a growing exciting church.  I was told that small-groups were going to be an integral part of the ministry moving forward and that I would have full leadership support.

The leadership set me up with a lot of material and sent me to seminars and conferences.  I studied and read and crunched numbers and made spreadsheets and recruited and lunched and talked and visited…It all seemed to be going so well.

Then, as usual, the other shoe dropped.