A Note from Pastor Keith
For Me, It’s Personal.
January of 2025 marks 29 years for me in youth ministry. People often ask “When are you going to move up to being a pastor to adults?” I do my best to explain to them that for me, youth ministry is a very personal passion. As a senior in high school, I decided to transfer from a large public school to a small Christian school. My love for basketball was my reason for the transfer. I hoped to be able to have an amazing senior season and possibly get an offer to play basketball in college. Little did I know, but God had much more in store for me during that school year. I did not grow up in the church, and the little exposure I had to church life was anything but positive. Things were very dysfunctional at home, and I had experienced a lot of trauma that caused me to feel that I was different than the other students around me. I was looking forward to basketball, that’s all. When I first arrived at the Christian school, I immediately noticed something about the students there. They were different from my friends at the public school. They genuinely cared about each other. They weren’t engaging in the foolish, self-centered behaviors that I had come to expect from teenagers. They were sincere in their desire to befriend me, and to share their faith in Jesus with me. The largest influence in my life that year came in the form of 3 male teachers. One of them was a basketball coach, and the other two were teachers. These guys knew my story, but they believed in me. They said that God had a plan for my life. They genuinely lived out their love for God and their love for students, including me. Their genuine faith caused me to take a second look at the Christian faith. I began reading my Bible each day. I was soaking up Biblical truth in Bible class, chapel, and a small group Bible study that I attended. I had even started to attend a local church! After 5 months of investigating the Christian faith, I surrendered my life to Christ at a Christian concert at the King’s Place, a local concert venue for Christian concerts. As I look back at that year of my life, I realized that God used his Word, his church, godly peers, and godly mentors to bring about an eternal change in my life. After college I began working in youth ministry. I realized that youth ministry combined the very things that God used to change me; Biblical truth, godly peers, and godly mentors, and the local church. Now, nearly 3 decades later, I still see God transforming the lives of students through these same life-changing influences. I desire that every student would have the support of a relationship with Jesus, the encouragement of godly peers, the guidance of older godly mentors, and the community of the local church. I am a living testimony that God can use these influences to break through the chaos of the teenage years to bring about life changing transformation. I believe this because for me, it’s personal!
Robb Bolar, me, Randy Osborn, and Richard Reiter. These are the men that God used to change my life. Over 30 years later!
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