You're allowed to be in crisis and in ministry at the same time.

You're allowed to be in crisis and in ministry at the same time. 

Recently, a lot of people have been coming to me thinking about stepping down from their ministry roles because of crazy things happening in their life. And I feel very passionately that I need to blog about this, because it's important. We need to clarify a few things:

1) A lot of these people who are expressing their concerns about being in ministry are in the 18-21 age range. Let's be honest here, a LOT of crap goes down in this time period. A lot of people are in college, or decide to not be in college anymore. And then if you stick with college, you have to choose classes that you could like or not like, which eventually change the trajectory of your college career, and then your life (or so it seems at the time). Life in this time period is stressful. Juggling a job, school, relationships, family and THEN throw ministry on top of that. I get it! It's tough. I feel like to NOT have at least a mini life crisis during this time period would be absolutely too easy. These times of crisis, although stressful and overwhelming at the time, they shape us and change us and force us to make decisions that we wouldn't otherwise have made if everything was just smooth sailing. 

2) Who ever said that someone in ministry had to be perfect? I TOTALLY understand the fact that Paul says in his letters to the early churches that leaders are called to a higher standard of life than everyone else. I understand that weeding the sin out of our lives is very important. I'm not making light of sin. But anyone who has read the Bible at ALL must know that perfect people simply don't exist. Moses didn't WANT to be used by God, and actually opposed him and asked not to be the man for the job. David was a hero, until he was a sleeze-bag and threw away his honor for a pretty woman! And he is STILL called a "man after God's heart". Peter denied Jesus three times, and Jesus told him that he would STILL build the church upon his shoulders. 

I have always been full of crap. But there was a particular time in my life that was completely sin-ridden. I decided to come clean to my Young Life area director about all of this, and just lay everything out on the table and tell him all my crap, and then I still told him that I felt called to lead high school ministry. He looked at me, and he LOVED ME. He told me that obviously the behaviors I was engaging in were inappropriate and if I wanted to continue to be a young life leader, I had to stop drinking and start being involved in community. But he gave me a chance. He gave me continued opportunity to keep loving kids, like God had called me to do. 

3) You usually are doing ministry with other people. So there are definitely certain settings where you are on your own. The workplace is one. The grocery store, another. But in a LOT of settings, you are not doing ministry by yourself. In Young Life, we call this our "team". Whatever you call it, you're WITH people loving other people, the way God designed it. There's a reason Jesus sent the disciples out two by two. Whoever you are doing ministry with fills your gaps, shares your struggles, and helps you not only with ministry, but with your own walk as well. We weren't made to walk alone! It's all OVER scripture.  If I had not been on a team in my dark time (even though it only consisted of two others at the time), I probably would have stopped leading young life LONG before my dark time hit. You are perfectly crafted by Jesus to fit with your team like a puzzle to be a complete unit for ministry, but ALSO to love one another as a complete unit. 

4) Ministry changes us. I can't remember who told me this, but I think it was Julie Davis. (If you don't know her, you should. She's amazing). During my hard time, when I wanted to wallow in self pity, and didn't have the strength to love people at all, she told me to do just that. LOVE people. To take the first step. THIS, regardless of whether or not it's in your official organized ministry, is itself ministry. After this hard time, I lost a lot of friends. It was the perfect opportunity to love on younger women in my young life community. They didn't know anything about me, so they couldn't judge me. I started loving on two women in particular who were freshmen at the time. My times with them their freshmen year are among my favorite memories of my senior year. SO MUCH fruit came out of that time, not only for them but also for me! I was pouring outwardly and it was totally transforming me. I was happier, healthier, and I wanted to love MORE. Jesus bubbled all the way out of me. And usually this came out of my eyeballs (those of you who know me well, know what I'm talking about). And aside from the example that I just used, the amount of joy I have experienced from loving high school kids is unparalleled. I can't even count how many "bad days" I was having, and all it took was riding to Fed Hock for dismissal to completely make my day. Ministry changes us. It is what we were made for, after all. We were created to fall in love with Jesus, and then tell others about Him. He made this enjoyable for a reason. 

4) Jesus can ALWAYS use us. At church last sunday, there was a lady who was interviewed who said "He turned my mess into His Message". I thought that was absolutely incredible, and also absolutely true. The time period that most radically changed by life was the same time that I was an absolute train wreck. I HAD to go through that to understand the actual Gospel of God. Life IS a mess. A lot of the time. But it's a miracle we can even make it at all here, because we weren't created to be here after all. We were created to be with God, in the flesh. Like the Garden. We have a lot of stress, and the world can be a really messed up place sometimes. Tragedy happens. Death happens. People hurt us. Life HURTS. It's not fun a lot of the time. But we have to remember, that God can transform any mess into something absolutely beautiful. It doesn't make sense how it works like that. But He is SO incredibly good to do that for His kids that he loves so much. So yes, Jesus can use us despite our mess, inside our mess, and most importantly, after our mess has had it's full effect. James 1:4 says let perseverance finish its work so that you may mature and complete not lacking in anything. The previous verses talk about when trouble comes! It's not a fluke. We grow in maturity during these times. We are becoming more like Jesus in these times, and in a sense, we are being perfected. We won't be actually perfect until we get to be with Jesus again. 

So that's all I have to say. Stay encouraged people. Jesus in working in you more than you know. Especially in the messes.