Things Change....

Tonight marks the end of an era...well almost anyway. Over 9 years ago I became a youth minister. I had no idea what the job entailed and I am so glad I didn't because if i did there is no way I would have taken it. Most people think of a youth minister as "someone who hangs out with teenagers all day". Wow, if i have heard that once, i have heard that a thousand times. That could not be more far from the truth from what youth ministry is (pat yourself on the back if you are a youth minister, core member, etc. reading this and you just nodded your head because you have been told that too!).


I took the youth ministry job at Mary Our Queen 9 years ago and I will be honest, those are some of the best memories I will ever have! I wasn't much older than some of the teens, I was ON FIRE for my faith and could not wait to share it with the teens. My first week on the job was a week long beach retreat with 250 teens and i was in charge of 20 of them...nothing like jumping in head first! Those teens were amazing!! They made my job so easy!! Nothing like a week with 20 teenagers to really get to know them!! No one told me when i took the job as youth minister that I would love a group of teenagers so deeply. No one told me that I would develop relationships with them as a mentor and learn so much about what makes them tick. I POURED my heart and soul into that program because i loved them! I loved that so many of them would stop by after school and spend hours in my office just talking to me telling me about their day, their newest crushes at school, their upcoming tests they were stressing out about, what fight they just got into with their parents, etc. I loved that we would spend hours talking about our faith and why it is so awesome. I became friends with so many of their families and often went to their houses for dinners. It was hard to separate the job from life...it was all just one. And i loved it!


Of course, being as there is only one of me and there were lots of teens in the program it was hard. No one told me when i started as youth minister that because i developed these amazing relationships with these amazing teenagers that I would get middle of the night phone calls because some of them had no one else to call. I dealt with a lot the first few years of ministry. One teen was being abused by her dad, one teen was cutting herself because it felt better than the pain her parents were putting her through, several teens called me because they thought they were pregnant, and one sweet teen was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy. That's a big load! Of course there were always the little daily problems and if you don't know, to a teen there is no LITTLE problem...they are all HUGE! It is draining to take on such a load! I am not saying it isn't worth it, but it is draining!


I left Mary Our Queen not because I didn't love those teens (I was heartbroken to leave them) but because there were a lot of changes happening in the parish and i needed some stability. Afterall, I was newly married, buying a house, having some thyroid complications again, and my grandmother had just died. What i really needed was a break! I needed to recharge my energy but instead i jumped into another youth ministry program. This program I had to build from the ground up! And on top of that, a month after starting my new job at St Andrew's I found out I was pregnant! Youth Ministry was not top on my list anymore but what could i do? I stuck with it for 5 more years and developed more amazing realtionship with more amazing teens (and families)!

Well, My time as youth minister has come to an end. I am not exactly sure where God is calling me next but i know it isn't into full time ministry right now. I need that break! I need some time for myself and my family. I am going to miss so many things about youth ministry but most of all i will miss the teens!

Please keep me in your prayers as I find where I am supposed to go next. Please keep the teens at St Andrew's in your prayers as they transition youth ministers and please keep the new youth minister in your prayers as they transition too!

love,
Meghan