From the Field - December 2024

On July 12th, 2017, I gave my life to Christ. I had spent so much time never being serious about a relationship with God, but I was ready to be genuine. That same night I looked up at the stars and told God that whatever He wanted me to do with my life, I would do it.

From that moment on I felt a calling toward being a youth pastor. With no idea what to do with this or how to go about making it a reality, I talked with my youth pastor. He let me know that the best thing I could do was be educated about the Bible. He pointed me in the direction of his alma mater Criswell College. In the Summer of 2020, I began the admissions process. I remember writing a personal essay that has stuck with me ever since. The prompt for this essay was, “How would you apply Luke 16:10 to your life or any area of ministry?” I read the passage, which said, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” Still being new to the life of a Christian, I didn’t know much about hermeneutics or understanding the context for a verse, so I wrote the best essay I could think of. I wrote about how I believed God was giving me an opportunity to study at Criswell College and that I should not take that for granted but instead steward it well.

That Fall semester I was enrolled to take classes. I felt like God’s calling on my life was slowly coming to fruition. Then, before I knew it, I was interning in the same youth ministry that I grew up in, working alongside the same youth pastor who introduced me to Criswell College. As euphoric as this was, it was also a rough time for our church. In the aftermath of COVID-19 along with other ups and downs, our church had taken a hit. We were not seeing the numbers that we once had 3 years prior. For myself, I was unsure if this was the best place for me to plant roots and grow into God’s calling on my life.

Then in February of 2022, I was asked to be the interim youth pastor at my church. I had never been more sure that this was where God wanted me. However, I remember one thing just kept eating away at me. The youth ministry was so small. After some prayer and consideration, I sought counsel from my former youth pastor, now colleague. What he told me completely changed my perspective about ministry and life. He said, “If the Lord gives you one person in your ministry, then that is one person that He has given you the opportunity to be faithful to.”

I couldn’t believe it. It felt like a call back to the essay prompt from a few years prior. From that moment on, I never questioned God when it came to the numbers in my ministry. I knew my only task was to be faithful to whoever walks through the doors on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday night.

I pray that this is encouraging for pastors struggling with numbers or struggling with how to steward something well. If God gives us anything in life, it does not matter the state that it is in or the numeric value that can be placed on it. What matters most is that we are faithful to steward well whatever God has given us.

Jonathan Petty

Youth Pastor, Sunnyvale First Baptist Church

Sunnyvale, Texas