I went to check Facebook this morning and I found this photo from nine years ago, from one of the highlights of my ministry life.
This was one of the many times in my life when I scratched my head and asked myself the question. “How did I get here?”
You might recognize me standing there, just behind Michael W. Smith. I had just ministered to the youth at his church near Nashville, along with the rest of the people all around me, my friends from the Interlinc Write Group. Interlinc is a youth ministry resource that uses Christian contemporary/rock music as the jumping off point for Bible lessons. I was one of their writers. I still write for them from time to time and it is a great resource and they put me into quite a few “How did I get here?” moments. Easting dinner in a Vietnamese Restaurant with Steve Taylor, interviewing Michael Tait at Creation, in the recording studio with Toby Mac, and on and on. It was awesome.
How did I get there? Well, the day I got my call to ministry, a plan was hatched to take a group of kids from the church I was attending to the Creation Festival. I knew I had a call, but I really wasn’t sure how it was all going to come together. I just knew I liked kids and rock music, so I thought it would be a good way to test the waters. Since I thought I might like working with youth, I went the youth leader training sessions every day at Creation. They were led by Ken McCoy, who is also in the above picture. When I became the youth leader at the church, that fall I subscribed to Interlinc’ Youth Leaders Only Resource and my kids loved it. I’d get this big box of CDs and videos and we’d do the lessons, but I was also listening to the CDs on my own and wishing the writer would have written on a different song. I decided to start writing my own lessons base on their format. When I had written a couple, I contacted Interlinc about writing for them and they gave me a shot. Before long I was writing for all the issues and then one day I got the invite to join this group. It was awesome. One of those guys has written books that are all over the Youth Specialties catalog, another was the youth pastor at the Crystal Cathedral, some were running national ministries, others were youth guys at large churches, Some had written books, they were all experts and then there was me, Dave Weiss who ministered at a small church in the middle of a cornfield. Looking back at all of our times together, I often found myself wondering “How did I get here?”
Today I want to give you the answer and this is the point for all of you creatives. I put myself out there. I decided to stop questioning my qualifications, do the work, submit it and see what happens. Too many people sell themselves short and there have been many times when I have been one of them. Don’t do that to yourself. Take a shot, show what you have to offer and see what happens. The worst that can happen is someone will say no and the best. You’ll wind up in a place that is more than you could have imagined, asking, “How did I get here?”
AMOKArts 