And Finally...My Own Best Day

My last night at Springfield Friends Meeting

Today I mark the end of this remarkable series of guest posts about great days in ministry by sharing my one of my own best days.  In some ways, me trying to share a "best day" on this blog is really quite redundant.  For the past 900+ days I have been sharing with my readers the ups and downs, highs and lows of being in ministry. I have shared with you many of my very best days, both from my years as a professional youth pastor and in the nearly 5 years since that part of my life came to an end.  There have been and continue to be so many amazing days with so many amazing people.  I considered following the examples of Ashley and Shae in their guest posts and doing a list of some sort.  I considered writing about great days still to come.  But after thinking about it for 2 weeks now, I have a brief, seemingly unimportant story to tell about a day that could have easily been forgotten...but never will be.  

That's the bride, top right-
 with a bunch of cousins!  1987

Sometime back in the early 2000s Marilyn and I flew to NC to be at the wedding of one of former students from Springfield Friends Meeting.  Erin Moran was one of our favorite people and her parents were some of our dearest friends, and we were excited to go.  Since many of the youth from those days were in some way related to to Erin, we also knew we would see lots of people we loved at the the event.  I had last worked at Springfield in 1994, and so many of the people we had shared life with when they were "youth" were now married with families of their own.  It was a wonderful day, and we did indeed get to see a lot of people we loved.  After the wedding we all headed downstairs to the Rees Fellowship Hall for the reception, which to us felt a great deal like a homecoming.  So many old friends to see and catch up with.  Seeing them all was such a wonderful reminder of the 8 great years we had spent in ministry at Springfield as a part of their families and the family of God.

That's Jill in the middle!

But none of that is what made this a day worthy of being called a "best day."  That moment was provided by Jill Glbreth, Mandy Beggs and some of the rest of the cousins of the bride.  You need to to know that down the hall and around the corner from the Fellowship Hall at Springfield is the dungeon we called a youth room, a place that held so many memories of so many great moments together.  Jill and the gang, all dressed for the wedding, many of them with their own small children in tow, came to me with a request.  They were joking (sort of) but at the same time it was heart felt.  They wanted to know if we could go around to the youth room and play our favorite game, Sardines. And then they wanted to know if I had my guitar.  In the middle of a wedding reception, these young adults wanted to go relieve their youth group days. They wanted to play.  They wanted to sing. They wanted to worship together as we had so many times almost a decade earlier. We knew we couldn't really go do it (and although it may surprise some of you, I don't actually carry my guitar EVERYWHERE I go!) but the sentiment moved me deeply.  It was one of those crystal clear moments when I KNEW that God had indeed used me to make a difference in the lives of the students I had served.  And when youth ministry has been your life, that is indeed a great day.


I hope that this series has inspired you as much as it has me.  The lessons are many, but I hope if nothing else has been clear that this has been- great days in ministry are not always BIG days in ministry.  Most of us will never have Billy Graham moments where we lead thousands to Christ. Most of us will never sing to the multitudes.  But all of us- every single one of us- can have great moments serving God and serving others.  And that is what ministry really is.  Thanks again to all of my guest writers.  Have a blessed Sunday!


Because of Jesus,