Student Ministry

Working in student ministry often means putting together ridiculous games at the last minute that may involve toilet paper, frozen mayonnaise or flippers!  It also means taking phone calls on Valentine’s Day to deal with the unexpected box of chocolates from a not-so-secret admirer.  Most importantly, it means sharing the Gospel with teenagers who may or may not know the Lord and may or may not care to know the Lord.  Oftentimes, encounters are more exasperating than they are encouraging, but the work of the Gospel does not always mean seeing the fruits of your labor.

If there is anything that I have been learning since August, it is that the Lord asks us to be faithful to speak His Word.  He calls us to pray and submit our relationships to Him.  He calls us to love and in that ultimately calls us to Himself, since He is in fact love. 

Student ministry holds an abundance of opportunities to practically love people.  I’m not sure if you remember much of your youth, but there is the constant battle over insecurity, for validation, and to define this mysterious identity that everyone is always telling you to figure out!  The Lord has had to humble me greatly in order to to take my focus off the tiny details and to focus on those around me.  He has to take my eyes off myself and place them on Himself, recognizing that it is only through Him that I will see the precious opportunities to obey His commandment to love others.

I struggle to love in the little things and I am constantly seeking out some grandiose way to love people rather than being a listening ear, a chauffer, a friend or sister.  The biggest blessing in ministering to the youth girls of Crosspoint has been the continued effort to love them unconditionally where they are.  It cannot be about my expectations for them, but my expectation of Christ to move in them and draw them to Himself.

A verse that has convicted me so much in its simplicity the past month has been:      “We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

As with any area of ministry, loving people requires a deep reliance on the merciful love of our Father.

Sammi Fife