At the end of September, JSAW had the opportunity to attend an annual skate ministry conference called, "The Grind." This conference, put together by leaders in skate ministry, was in it's fifth who noticed the lack of spiritual equipping in skateboarding. This year being it's fifth year running, I, along with a handful of skaters from Minnesota headed out to South Haven, Michigan. The conference was full of memories, networking, and hanging out with skate family. The theme's of this year's conference were Resilience and Milestones. Through these two themes a handful of speakers lead two hundred leaders to learn the importance of rough seasons and paying attention to where God has worked in and through those themes.
One of the guys we brought with us experienced this head on. As the conference began he was super excited. He had a wealth of knowledge about the milestones of skateboarding history and was pumped to exchange that info with other riders. Having attended the previous year, he was all for heading back. This time however, the enemy had other plans in place. The first day was a lot of meet, greet, and skating, but as the second day began the first spiritual attacks came. The enemy began to attack with feelings of inadequacies, worthlessness, and depression. By day three, the enemy was in full force, whispering continuous lies. Our guy began to believe them saying, "I shouldn't be here. I don't belong. I shouldn't have come." We all tried to encouraged him that his knowledge of skating alone made him belong and show him his greater value. He responded with comments about his terrible skating, and I encouraged him that, "You don't have to be on a board to impact skaters for the kingdom." He began to ponder what this meant, and the next day he took more of a stand on trying to be present, but the enemy swung and knocked him down again. He was truly battling for resilience. On the last day we attended the Sunday skate service. The message was on the story of David and how David, though being small and insignificant, killed Goliath and rose to becoming King all through the power and will of God. This struck a heavy cord with our guy. As we were on our way home, he shared with us how he had wanted to leave at the beginning of the week but wasn't feeling that way now. He also told us that he was looking forward to what plans God had for him.
Quite often in ministry there are feelings of insecurity and inadequacy. Most people who are called to lead choose to go the other direction for fear of not being enough. This is simply not true! In 1 Timothy 4:12, it says, "Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young. Instead, set the example for the believers." When we look at scripture and all the figures of faith, we see over and over that God chooses unlikely people to cary out his plans. Abram was a pagan, Elijah was a cowered, Moses was a murderer, and the list goes on and on. God calls people who he can shape into something greater. If you feel like God is calling you to lead and don't feel ready, you're not alone. JSAW is looking for willing volunteers to step up to the plate. You don't have to be the best rider or know the whole Bible, or even be a "cool guy." If you are willing to say yes to the LORD and have a relationship with Jesus, you're exactly who we are looking for. We are all laborers in his field. Are you willing to show up to work? If so, go to JSAW.org/volunteer for more info.
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