I may be the exception to the rule…I don’t know if it was the church I was in, the calling of God on my life at an early age, the people I hung out with or a combination of them all.

I remember in a discipleship training class when I as 7 that I said, “it’s time I got baptized.” Two weeks later I walked the aisle and made my profession of faith. I had my first study Bible when I was not yet a teenager, my first commentary at 12, and was regularly watching Charles Stanley on TV and taking notes. I even studied my sunday school lesson as a teenager with my commentary!

I had an uncle who discipled m and a 25 yr old who would eventually go into ministry that hung out with me and mentored me as a 12-18 yr old. When I was 15, a couple took our youth discipleship training class through DiscipleYouth, a discipleship program that was MasterLife for students. I would be the only one to finish both terms out of 15. I was teaching sunday school at 17 or so and adult discipleship classes at the same time. That couple would be called into ministry, give up a nice engineering job and go to seminary. In fact, the husband’s first sermon was the night I knew God called me into ministry.

We didn’t do a lot of games or retreats or weekend stuff…we just shared life together. I know it’s different 20 years later. Culture is different, we need to teach in a way that is best for folks.

But in doing youth ministry during college and seminary, as well as spending almost 5 years in campus ministry in college, the greatest impact came through life together. I had the privilege of leading 2 MasterLife groups in college. All but one of those 7 guys ended up in ministry full-time at some point and the one who didn’t is so involved in his church he might as well be.

I remember coming home from summer missions in college, at age 19, and our campus ministry had a let’s-reconnect-before school-starts-back party at a home. I remember how a small group of 5 quickly turned into a group of 25 college kids sitting around a table and on the floor as we answered questions about God, about our fears, our hopes, and life in general. That group was a unique group during the next 3 years of our college existence.

Maybe that’s why I will never lead the masses. I’m too concerned about investing int the 25-40 and believing they will change the world. Of course, I guess that lack of games and pizza and parties is also why I didn’t make a good youth minister, though I did some incredible things happen with some of those kids…

Oh well…sorry for my rambling…