Boom. There I was, at camp. It was Friday, and it had been a great week. I had slowly developed and become a leader amongst the group that week.
I was going to be a sophomore in high school that fall and I had been going to camp every year since the fourth grade. I loved it. I had grown up in a little Lutheran church outside of Cannon Falls. They sent campers every year to camp, Good Earth Village. When I was young my dad made me go to church, but by the time I was in high school, I felt like I made my dad go to church. It was great; it was somewhere where I could belong. I guess I have always believed in God. When I was a little six year old, my evangelical cousins had me "accept Jesus into my heart," but I am pretty sure he was already there.
My pastor came up to me that Friday lunch, and asked me a question. It wasn't too complicated of a question, and I didn't have to give a complicated of an answer. But at the same time, it was a defining question. It was a question, that if answered correctly, my life would spin into a whole new direction that I never would have expected it to be. My pastor asked me, "Zach, I have seen your leadership this past week, would you like to come back on Sunday and attend the Youth Servant Leadership Institute?" I answered, "You mean this Sunday? Sure." And that was it. That was the question that changed my life.
That week I told myself that I wanted to do ministry; I thought I wanted to be a pastor. I had known before that, that I wanted to be a camp counselor. But now I knew ministry is what I wanted to do it with the rest of my life. That week we explored who we were individually, what gifts we had been given, we served and built the walls for a Habitat House, grew and learned as a team of growing youth, who eventually became family. I think back on it now, and see that it was the affinity of the group really pulled me in. It was the caring and relational ministry that my pastor and the camp provided for us, and helped me develop vocationally before I even knew what the word "vocation" meant. This week instilled something bigger in me, something I did not understand at the time.
Through this program, I met people that I never would have met. These people introduced me to the program known as Teens Encounter Christ (TEC). For me, TEC showed that God loved me more than anything. At every one of the eight TECs I worked, you could feel His energy and presence within the room. The most specific time was the last time I sahred my faith story (it was quite different then). He was there, in the tears and hugs that followed my talk, and I mean this in the most humble way possible; people told me that they now believed in God because of my story. Truly His spirit was alive and working in that room the day I gave my talk.
Through TEC I have been exposed to people who don't share the same Christian beliefs that hold to be true. I have engaged in many conversations that have challenged me to find what I believe and validfy them.
But God has been in more places than just these. My friends and I once illegally climbed an abandoned grain elevator near the U of M. We climbed and climed, up old, rickety steel staircases, internal and external of the building. We got to the top floor, and look out a window at the sun over the Minneapolis skyline. It was gorgeous, but it got even better. We looked up inside of one of the conveyor belt machines, and saw a light coming through from the roof. Within seconds I was climbing the belt, and I poked my head through the whole.
Boom. Life, light and wind hit me. I was on top of the world. I climbed up and sat on the roof (my friends followed). A high hit me like nothing before. My arms were covered in goosebumps; a tear came to my eye. The city of Minneapolis shined like a beacon. The wind soared through my hair, as I sat and stared. God was there, sitting on top of this abandoned grain elevator, right next to me. It was better and more awe inspiring than what Mufasa showed Simba in the Lion King. It gets better. I got to spend the moments with two of my best friends. We talked about life, and how we had changed throughout the year of knowing each other.
The most spiritual night of recent times was the night that my favorite metal band, August Burns Red, came to town. It was the most crowded room I have ever been in. I am sure I was touching seven other people at all times. But it was the crowdedness that made me feel like I belonged. It was the crowdedness that showed the Holy Spirit to me. The lyric, "We sing for you." Is the most memorable moment of that night. 700 people screaming at the top of their lungs, "We sing for you." We sing for God. The roar of the Chirstians when the lead singer mentioned that they do this for Jesus is something that I will never forget.
God continues to show up more and more in my life now that my eyes are searching for him. He freezes Minnehaha falls, and stays within them. He was my friend, Dan, who showed up to say hey and be with me on the worst night of recent memory. He resides within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and he shines his light through every person on this planet.
I interviewed for a part time youth minister position last October. I felt it went extremely well. Then I never really heard back from the guy who interviewed me. I tried to contact him to check up on the status of the position, but he didn't respond. Well, until a month and a half later. He invited me in to hang out at confirmation, so I did, and that went well, too. But then I didn't hear from him again, well, for four weeks.
One evening while I was on break, I got an email. It was from the pastor I interviewed with. He informed me that he would like me to work for All Saints Lutheran Church as a part time youth minister. It was real. It was actually happening. I was officially a youth minister. And I still am. And I really hope I never have to stop being one. God didn't just give me this though. He taught me many lessons. Seven months ago, I was seriously doubting if this is what God wanted me to do. God made me wait months on end for this job to become mine.
And so here I am wearing many hats: college kid, metalhead. student, camp counselor, sinner, youth minster, saint. But I wouldn't be who I am if it weren't for my creator, lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
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