Shortly after beginning my job in Kentucky, one of the pastors on my staff encouraged me to take a handful of my staff to visit a church in South Carolina that we were modeling ourselves after. We were a decent sized church that was just figuring ourselves out and the church in South Carolina was one of the fastest growing, most influential churches in the country. The youth pastor agreed to host us for a couple of days. We showed up to the church in my 1992 Ford conversion van (remember we were from Kentucky and yes, insert every Kentucky joke you can think of). The staff of the church was prepared to welcome us, gave us welcome baskets, asked us questions, let us ask any question we wanted to, allowed us to attend their youth gathering, and made us feel valuable. I remember leaving those two days feeling cared for, excited for the next chapter, and inspired to dream new dreams of what God could do in the ministry at the church I was at. On the trip home we laughed at how low budget, simple Kentuckian, way out of our league we were to be meeting with such an established, well run, generous ministry. We were honored, and we became better because of that meeting. Over the coming months we would begin to put into practice systems and programming that we had experienced. We went down in the summer to observe their summer camp and the next year we began for our church a summer camp that was modeled off of their camp. I was reminded through the relationship with that church how important collaboration with other people is in the pursuit of success.
Over my experience in ministry, I have learned that collaboration is imperative to success. Working and learning from each other is important to accomplish the vision that God has given us. I have learned a myriad of ideas from other ministries and leaders. I have also learned that the size and experience of the ministries and people do not affect what I can learn from them. I have also learned to be successful in ministry I must have enough humility to collaborate with people that do not look like me or think like me. I have learned that collaboration is intentionally investing in other people while withholding nothing from Jesus in letting Him guide my thoughts and actions. I have learned if I am willing to give up my great idea, Jesus will use other people and other experiences to give me the greater reality.
One of the best, if not the best, ministry experience I have led and been a part of was The Verge, a summer camp in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Growing up I did not really have a good perception of camp. I saw a lot of my friends go to camp, have a good time, and many of them make a commitment to follow Jesus. The problem I had was that I heard my friends made a decision to follow Jesus, but rarely saw them be different when they got back home. I saw that generally people would have an emotional encounter, but rarely an experience that produced life change. I grew up pessimistic about the usefulness of camp in a long term ministry plan. I spent my first 10 years of student ministry avoiding camps and investing more in service trips. And then my trip to South Carolina happened. What Jesus showed me through my friends in South Carolina taught me that maybe it wasn’t that camp was a bad thing, but instead if you had the right vision and strategy, camp could be an incredibly useful thing in the flow of youth ministry.
Jesus used that collaborative relationship to rewrite my opinion and perspective of camp. Because of that rewriting, hundreds of students have come to Christ, thousands have been challenged and responded to making their next step with Jesus, and numerous adults have jumped into ministry. I have had the opportunity to experience thousands of moments of life change that were much more than an emotional experience.
Throughout my ministry career, the best things that I have been a part of were the ones that were the result of collaboration. I encourage any leader to risk on collaborating with other people. I invite people wanting to better and successful to humble themselves so that they can learn from others. I ask that you would let yourself dream what God could do when you allow other people into your leadership process.