Our annual Graduate Sunday for our high school seniors is a bittersweet moment in youth ministry for me. I am happy for our young people and all they have accomplished, while also sad because their time in the church’s youth ministry program has ended. I have been fortunate to serve long calls that have allowed me to spend years walking alongside young people on their faith journeys — experiencing their highs and lows, celebrating their achievements, sitting with them in their sadness and supporting them along the way. You grow attached to these young people. Even when you know they are off to wonderful things, you also know you will be a little less part of their journey.
In my first call, fresh out of the Presbyterian School of Christian Education, I worked with a younger group of youth in a smaller church. It would be two full years before we had a graduating class and my first experience of sending young people out. I still remember that last youth group gathering with those seniors. I had written what I thought was a moving devotional, borrowing from Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go! It was moving — moving for me, because I could not get through the devotion I had written without tears and a lump in my throat. I had grown attached to these young people. Through the mission trips, youth conferences, hospital visits (you can’t miss the post-surgery anesthesia recovery fun), Super Bowl parties and regular Sunday night youth groups, I realized I was not ready to let them go. They were my first youth group. I loved them, and I would miss them terribly.
Thankfully, my head of staff at the time recognized this and reminded me of the Apostle Paul’s words to the Corinthians: “What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe — as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow” (1 Corinthians 3:5-7).
Yes, these words were meant for a church in conflict, but they are helpful to me and, I believe, to all of us who walk with young people in faith — whether as full-time youth workers or dedicated volunteers. It is a wonderful thing to make deep connections with young people and to be part of their lives at a critical moment of faith development. Our simultaneous feelings of joy and sadness remind us that we made a difference in each other’s lives. I draw on these words every graduation season.
In all things, God gave growth.
These words remind me that, in youth ministry, we might be the ones who plant the seed of faith, or water and nurture that faith as it begins to grow, but it is God who is behind the photosynthesis of transformation. As youth workers, we do not always get to see the fruit of our labor of love. Young people go off to college or the military, or they begin their adult lives, and we may not see them as much as we once did, so we rely on updates from parents, Instagram posts or the occasional pop-in visit when they are home on holiday. We trust that the nurturing of our beloved young people, now young adults, is in the hands of others doing their part as we did ours — and all along the way, God is providing the growth.
What then is their Sunday school teacher? What is the youth director? Servants through whom they came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. The Sunday school teacher planted, the youth director watered, but God gave the growth. In all things, God gave growth. I am thankful to God for assigning me to the many young people I have had the privilege of watering and tending as they grow. It can be hard to let them go, but it is also joyful to see them grow.
