Episode 236: Called to Raise Up Future Church Leaders
"We challenge our kids to take AP psych and AP calc and all of these things. And then our senior Bible class is just like the easy, like a freshman could pass it. That's not going to be the case with me...Teaching teenagers is just at the core of something that I'm really passionate about...I think he's more uniquely gifted me in youth ministry that when I'm teaching teenagers and speaking to teenagers, there's a resonance there that not everybody gets...My desire is that I'm in a position in this role that I wasn't in in my previous role, where I can actually hopefully start discipling people into ministry." —Jason Ruis
Summary of This Episode
On the Messy Reformation podcast this week, Jason, Willy, and Dan are together to talk through a significant life and ministry change for Jason as he is transitioning from his call as pastor at Faith Community Church in Beaver Dam, WI, to the role of a chaplain and teacher at Central Wisconsin Christian School in nearby Waupun. Over the last few months, he has slowly felt God giving him a clear call to this, and while wrestling quite a bit, he’s come to the conclusion that it would dishonor God not to take it.
Willy invites him to share what big things led into this. A significant piece is Jason’s passion to work with teenagers and the kind of response he’s witnessed from them. This brings him back to where ministry began, especially with teaching and the excitement that he finds with discipling youth. Willy, having been discipled as a young adult by Jason, shares he isn’t surprised and expects it will be a good fit. Having served as a senior pastor and thinking about a youth pastor/chaplain, they both see ways that these roles can work together for the church. Jason is clear about the separation of church and school as different spheres, and he does not see teaching in a Christian dayschool as a demotion but rather a “reassignment.” He acknowledges some may expect a person may go from being a Bible teacher to being a pastor or a pastor to teaching in higher education, but he sees young people as such an important life stage to mold and form.
Jason invited hard questions, and so Dan asks how he can make this decision when we’re in the middle of a pastor shortage or crisis. Jason admits that’s been a difficult piece in the discernment process, especially when Dan starts dropping the numbers of those leaving. While he feels some guilt, he does desire to remain connected to and serving in the local church; he’s not abandoning it. Dan shares a memorable part of his calling was the impact of a high school teacher, and so he sees Jason still having an important role while not behind a pulpit as much.
Willy also picks up that this new role will allow Jason to live into our covenant theology, helping parents raise their children in the Lord, while also planting seeds into future leaders. Jason shares that he hopes to be an associate pastor in a local church, continuing to work with youth in the church setting, which will be interesting to navigate as separate from CWC but with a number of students from there. He is hopeful about the possibility to help multiply new leaders. He shares he has some creative ideas that perhaps he’ll be able to give more time to now. Dan expresses that he’s interested to see how Jason handles this move as there’s not a lot of information out there about what it’s like to go from the congregation to a school or higher education/academia.
Next time, we pick up the conversation as Jason gets into if it’s hypocritical for him to leave in the midst of a church revitalization process that he expected to pastor through for years to come.