Getting Past the Plateau

I have been volunteering with the high school ministry at the Bridge Church for six and a half years.  It has been such a fulfilling experience.  I have been overwhelmed, overjoyed, and truly thankful for the opportunities it has provided me to serve others.  It has also taught me a lot about myself.  In the last year I felt myself feeling less engaged which was a terrible feeling.  It’s a ministry I love but somehow my passion for being there was fading.  God started to answer my prayers with our trip to Sojourn.  I posted it about here.  After that evening I felt myself wanting to do more and to be more engaged in the ministry.  I found myself trying to connect on a more meaningful level with the other volunteers.  I noticed some of my jaded feelings from the past slipping away and making room for excitement for the future.

This happens to everyone who has been somewhere for a long time.  In reflecting on it recently I realized there are a few questions to ask yourself when you find you are disengaging from something you love:

Why did you get involved in the first place?  Is that reason still something you believe in passionately?

How would you feel if you walked away?

Are you still able to contribute and make a difference?

For me the answers were that I got involved because youth ministry changed my life in high school.  It shaped me and gave me a place to get Godly advice from people that were outside my immediate family.  It gave me friends who supported me and challenged me in ways I had not experienced before.  I realized I am still incredibly passionate about helping provide that experience for current high school students.  The second question was what helped pull me out of my funk.  I would be incredibly sad to walk away from the group.  I think it would leave an empty space in my heart that would be difficult to fill.  The answer to the third question was harder because I realized the main reason I was disengaging was because I felt my contributions were not as substantial as they had been in the past.  I had faced some really difficult challenges with my current group of girls and my confidence in my gifts was waning.  I wanted it to be the same as the group I’d had before but I had to realize every year and every group will be different and there are amazing things to appreciate about each experience.  I still have a lot to offer to the group I just needed to trust that God was steering the ship and stop leaning on my understanding of how He was working within the group.

As a result I decided to start a blog with Kyle for the youth group.  I’m able to utilize my gifts and something I love to do to help the ministry.  We also changed up the small groups to help move past the plateau we had all hit as a group.  I feel very positively about the direction the ministry is headed in and I am so thankful to have rediscovered my passion for the ministry.