As the Student Ministry Team was away at a conference this past weekend, other staffers and volunteers led BigHouse on Sunday night.
It was another example of the recent staff mantra: the most important thing about your job is not your job. It's helping this be the best team possible.
Anyway, I was one of four people who led the teaching by giving a brief talk. The four of us all had the same title: "What I Want You To Know." We were also all given seven minutes to tell the students what it is we want them to know.
And what did I want these teens to know?
That some of them in that very room -- more of them than realize it for sure -- are called to become pastors when they grow up.
In fact, a future pastor of Good Shepherd itself might have been in the room Sunday night.
I let them know that the call to pastoral ministry comes to people of both genders, to folks at different levels of spiritual maturity, and even to individuals whom others would never pick for the job.
I also let them know that if pastoral ministry was a call on their lives, they could run as fast as they could the other way . . . but God would end up winning that race.
When I was the age of most of the BigHouse students, I had no idea what a pastor's job even looks like, much less that I might do it one day.
But God takes our lives in directions that we can barely envision ahead of time.
Except now some of our students have been given advance warning.
