By: Brad Prather
The excitement was beginning to set in. I had just been offered my very first full-time ministry job working with high school students alongside a good friend of mine. At that time, the ministry seemed very healthy with a good number of kids coming on Sunday mornings and Tuesday nights – enough kids, anyway, that the church thought that two full-time people for the high school ministry would be a good thing.
My mind was moving into overdrive with ideas, visions, and the thought of, “I get to do what I love to do - work with high school students – and get paid for it.” Then it happened … the one thing that many church leaders and Christians wait for and often anticipate … I heard the voice of God. I don’t know how else to say it. Sometimes, you hear it so clearly and feel it so strongly within your bones that it can’t be anything else but God speaking, telling you to move in a certain direction or even to stop. I recognized the voice, yet I wasn’t sure why He was asking what He was asking for. After accepting my new full-time position as a high school pastor, the voice was telling me to move out of high school ministry and into college ministry.
I really didn’t understand what was going on. How could this be? Didn’t You just direct me and bless me with this brand new “full-time” position? And now You want me to move out of it? You mean, God, that You want me to go to my pastor who just hired me and ask him for a new or different job?
This is where the journey began for me in my pursuit of trying to convince my pastor that there was a need for a new college ministry, and that there was also a need for a full-time college pastor to head it all up – namely, me. If you ever have a moment, start doing a little investigative research into how many churches in your area or state have someone on staff whose job it is to be a “college pastor” – someone who doesn’t wear any other hats or have any other responsibilities other than ministering to college-age people. You probably won’t find many, if any at all.
In this article, I want to simply share with you how I became the first full-time college pastor at my church. By doing this, it will, hopefully, help those who are about to sit in their pastor’s office and say, “I think we need a full-time person for college ministry and I would like to be that person.”
First, make sure this is God’s idea and not just your idea. Like I said earlier, I truly felt God was pushing me in the direction of college ministry. I know this because I didn’t want to do anything else but high school ministry. I was happy, content, and excited about my new job. Then God began to speak. He opened my eyes to things that I hadn’t noticed before.
Former students that I had ministered to in the high school ministry were coming to me and asking where a good college ministry was; they didn’t connect well in the main service and needed something specifically for them. I couldn’t refer them to our church because we had nothing to offer. It broke my heart to point students in the direction of other churches that did have something to meet their needs. These were students I had been pouring my heart into and helping bring up in Christ. Aren’t we - as pastors, teachers, mentors, and volunteers - supposed to bring people up in Christ and as members of the community? If we send people to other churches at this vital age, aren’t we essentially killing the future of our church?
If you have noticed the same type of problem where you worship, then it may be that God is opening your eyes to a major need within your church or community of believers. Spend some time seeking God and confirming with Him what has been revealed to you. Pray that your pastor or whoever makes the final decision would be open to what you have envisioned.
My second suggestion is this: be purposeful and strategic in proposing your plan to your pastor. The worst thing an army can do in battle is just run out on the battlefield with guns blazing. Sometimes, they may get lucky but, most of the time, they will get shot down. However, those armies that have the most success are the ones that go into battle with a plan, a purpose, and a strategy.
When you have confirmed with God that your church has a need for a college ministry or that it is time to consider hiring a full-time college pastor, use your head; don’t go running into your pastor’s office with weapons aimed because, chances are, you’ll get shot down pretty quick. Most pastors I know are very much Type A personalities. They don’t make major decisions (like starting a new significant ministry or making a personnel shift or approving a new hire) on “gut feelings” or “I thinks”; they want facts, plans, stats, numbers, etc…
When I finally approached my pastor about the direction God was calling me, I did it humbly yet seriously and that worked, for the most part. Right then and there, he decided to change my hours from 100% high school ministry to 50% high school and 50% college - with an agreement to start the college ministry in four months. It usually doesn’t happen like that; I guess I got lucky. I then asked him what he would need to see in order to shift me to a full-time role as college pastor and he replied, “Let’s see how it goes first” (i.e., “Let’s see what your numbers are like”) and “Research other churches that have college pastors and find out at what point they hired a college pastor.”
So I pass this along to you: come into your pastor’s office prepared and know what you are talking about. Show him how serious you are about this ministry by explaining your heart - but also have your statistics and your research from other churches and their college ministries. Talk to other pastors and college pastors about when and why they decided to take college-age students seriously, when they hired a college pastor, at what point did they bring someone on full-time, etc.
This leads me to my third suggestion. Be public and patient. It was over a year before our pastor finally decided for me to go from half high school/half college to full-time college pastor. Our pastor wanted to see that this ministry was healthy, consistent, and growing – and that people were coming to know Jesus and maturing in their faith. I would meet with him often during that year, having both good conversations and very frustrating conversations. I knew the ministry was “kicking butt” but he didn’t know that because he didn’t come on Sunday nights. So I would do things publicly with the college ministry in order to show him and the church as a whole that something cool was going on with the college ministry.
One of the best things to do is to invite your senior pastor to come and teach; he is then forced to see and feel what is going on.
It is also helpful to get your people baptized. We all know how exciting it is to see people coming to the knowledge of the Lord and then publicly confessing Jesus as Lord and Savior – and, at the same time, the more of your folks you can get in front of the congregation, the better. Don’t get me wrong on this. It should never be your intent to use your people just as a tool to promote your agenda. But when God is moving and people are changing their lives in a real and authentic way, it can’t go unnoticed.
Another tool is your local newspaper. Ours has a section every Saturday about churches and faith-based organizations. I decided to give them a call and see if they would do an article on us. They did . . . and guess who got the newspaper in his mailbox the following Monday morning. Yep, the senior pastor. Go public with your ministry. Get them involved in church-wide events where they are participating with the entire church and not just their own group. Get them on stage in the worship band or choir on Sunday mornings. Show your pastor, elders, and church body that God is working in your college ministry.
Then be patient. You have to be. Respect your pastor’s decisions to wait for a while and make sure a full-time hire is in the best interest of the church. I had to learn this and only came to fully realize it after God opened my eyes to it. The senior pastor is accountable to the entire church for decisions being made regarding staffing and money. He is also accountable to God. Trust that he also is being led by God in the decisions of the church; God isn’t speaking only to you.
There is a lot more that I could share about my journey to becoming the college pastor at my church but, at this time, I will leave you all with just the above. It is not an easy task getting the church leaders on board with the idea of having a full-time college pastor but, when it happens, it will positively affect the lives of those within your church - from the infants to the seniors. Be prayerful, be purposeful, be strategic, go public, and be very patient. God bless!
Brad Prather
College Pastor
theHouse (www.thehousesvcc.com)
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