When you think of helpful advice when starting in ministry you more than likely think that it would be given from a close friend, maybe a mentor, or maybe a pastor. On my journey to serve in ministry I did receive great nuggets of advice from all of these people and if we’re being honest from a few people who felt it was their mission to make sure I knew their opinion good or bad.

When you think of helpful advice when starting in ministry you more than likely think that it would be given from a close friend, maybe a mentor, or maybe a pastor. On my journey to serve in ministry I did receive great nuggets of advice from all of these people and if we’re being honest from a few people who felt it was their mission to make sure I knew their opinion good or bad.

Advice is like trying out a new food. There is going to be some advice that you’re going to love because you know you know, like, and trust that food already. Meaning if I go to a Mexican resasturant I know I’m going to like the street tacos, and yes some are better than others, but I trust the street taco is going to be good, this is what it’s like getting advice from a mentor, a friend that you trust. Other times someone offers something new form the menu, and you’re a little bit hesitant to try it. This is getting advice blindly form someone you don’t know…can you trust their recommendation? It’s like reading a Yelp review from a complete stranger how much are you going to trust their advice?

That being said this is where I found my best advice, it wasn’t from a trusted friend, it wasn’t from my ministry mentor, it wasn’t even someone I knew. See, my best advice came from a complete stranger while sitting on an airplane reading the book, “Sustainable Youth Ministry” by Mark DeVries…by they way if you’re in student ministry I would still highly recommend this book.

As I sat on the plan for a business trip (this was a year or two before my call to full time vocational ministry) reading my book I was sitting next to a guy who I didn’t know. We made the normal small talk, and to be honest I can’t remember much about the guy. However, to my surprise as we were coming off of the plan this complete stranger handed me a handwritten letter, and this letter has forever changed the way I view ministry.

The letter written at 30,000 feet started, “My Brother, Consider these thoughts if you want, really want a ‘Sustainable” youth ministry?” Then he proceeded to layout words of wisdom, things such as:

• Be genuine w/them.

• Be vulnerable in front of them.

• Make Jesus real - What is his mission?

• Let them talk. And Listen.

• Give them a safe space

• Be real.

• Be honest.

• Be there

As I was on that flight reading that book I am convinced that God directed a chance meeting between me and this complete stranger. And God did so at just the right time, this was wright when I was in the middle of the emotional battle, do I leave my job of sixteen years as an engineer, do I ask my wife to leave her job and career, and am I truly called to serve the church at more than a volunteer level. And if so how does one do that?

I am a task driven type of person an enneagram 5. I need to know the plan, hence why I was reading the book “Sustainable Youth Ministry” see this book focus more on the process, and what I would call the nuts and bolts of ministry. In my mind if I could figure out the “process” then maybe I could convince myself that “I cold do this”. I needed a reality check to remind me that ministry is not about me, but God’s plan for me, and it’s bigger than a process it’s about ministering to people. Ministry is about reflecting Jesus to people, it’s about stepping out in faith, about doing work, and most of all it’s about BEING JESUS to a hurting world.

This strange guy on a plan reminded me that the most important advice when stepping into ministry is that we are called to serve God and to love people just a Jesus loved us, and that we are all made uniquely in God’s image to serve the people that God has placed in our path. Never let the process out weigh the people, never let the process become so important that you lose sight of the hurting people around you.

That letter sits in a frame in my office as a constant reminder that I should be real, I should be honest, and I should be there, and most of all I should BE JESUS!