A few weeks ago I posted this on the Life In Student Ministry Facebook page:

AGREE OR DISAGREE: You’re passionate about youth ministry, but what you’re truly passionate about is actually something much deeper inside you. Youth ministry is just how you express that passion.

The comments that followed proved to provide a lot of fodder for thought.

My take? Our passion for youth ministry is actually fueled by something else. We say we’re passionate for teenagers, for their families, and for being a spiritual influence in their lives, but there’s actually something deeper in us that drives that passion. Youth ministry is just how we express it. You’re not actually passionate about ministry in and of itself.

Once you identify what that deeper passion is, chances are good that there are several other ways you could express that passion outside of youth ministry and find it to be just as fulfilling.

It sounds a bit blasphemous at first. “What?! Pursue something outside of youth ministry?” *gasp!*

But here’s what I learned once I started expressing my deeper, driving passion in other ways besides youth ministry: it complements my ministry efforts in amazing ways I never anticipated. In fact, I understand ministry and how I express that in my life far greater now than I ever have before. Sometimes it just takes looking at the driving passion through a couple different lenses to really put it’s ministry expression into focus.

Furthermore, it frees me up to be more flexible to other ways God may want to use me. Seeing what the passion truly is removes a lot of the tunnel vision that naturally occurred when I was serving in full-time, vocational ministry.

As a result, ministry is now a much more integrated part of who I am than ever before… because it’s driven by a deeper passion.

QUESTION: What is it that you’re truly passionate about that fuels you in ministry? How else could that passion be expressed outside of youth ministry?

Posted on January 24, 2013