Yesterday was my first day at my new job. Okay, that might be a little bit of a stretch.

Yesterday my job at Hope Lutheran Church changed from Youth Director to Director of Youth and Ministry Development. Our Associate Pastor of Ministry Development, Wendy Berthelsen, decided that she wanted to devote her time to the development of her non-profit teaching ministry Call, Inc. Instead of hiring a replacement for her, the church has chosen to shift my responsibilities around to cover both youth and ministry development. We have hired a full-time youth ministry intern to take over many of the tasks related to youth ministry.

At our church “Ministry Development” is sort of a catch-all phrase. It includes:

• Christian education for adults and children
• Oversight of adult small group ministry
• Training people in spiritual gifts and helping to discern God’s call on their life
• Molding the ministry and practices of our church around the unique gifts, talents, and passions of our church
• Overseeing church communication and administration
• Launching new ministry initiatives
• Training and supporting people in existing ministries
• And probably more

So, all of the above responsibilities come in addition to my role as the lead staff person for youth ministry, and I’m excited about the possibilities. I actually think that my new role will force me to utilize my strengths to an even greater extent than before. From my assessment in Strengths-Based Leadership I learned that my leadership style falls under the category of “Strategic Thinking” (and not executing, relationship building, or influencing).

While I love youth ministry, being involved with such a narrow ministry so intimately meant that I did not spend a high percentage of my time utilizing my strategic thinking strengths. Much of my time was spent preparing for events, cleaning up for events, administrating the ministry, and spending time with youth. All of these things are good and necessary, but they perhaps underutilized my strengths. By widening my responsibilities so broadly, I will be forced to stay on a very strategic level while equipping others to carry out many of the practical ministry tasks for the simple reason that there is not enough time for me to focus my energy on much else.

And as one who has a keen interest in ecclesiology, having a wider responsibility will allow me to dabble in this ecclesial lab over the coming months.

I would appreciate your prayers as I transition into this new role at our church.