Eighth Grade: Then and Now
December 9, 2021 | Shaylee Redmon
When I was in eighth grade, I really didn’t have any interest in church. I loved my sports, my hobbies, and hanging out with my friends. Ironically, those are all things that eventually got me to set foot into a church. A close friend invited me to a summer camp. She told me there would be sports tournaments, live music every night, and good food. Needless to say, I was ready to go! I went to the camp, laid my burdens down at the feet of Jesus, and decided to let Him lead my life from that point on (yes, believe it or not, even 14-year-olds can make commitments like this – and stick to them!).
Sticking to that commitment was unexpectedly challenging. Thankfully, I made a few relationships with youth sponsors from the camp I went to earlier that year. They weren’t anyone with special gifts or extra-qualified to be leading, really. Besides the youth pastor himself, there was no professional biblical training, no ordination, no expository preaching, or years of experience leading a church. They were just normal people. One leader worked at the post office and had three kids of her own to raise. One leader was a hairdresser and had just gotten married to her high school sweetheart. One leader was the secretary at our church with 4 kids of her own. The thing that they all had in common, though, was a deep desire to help other people love and be loved by Jesus. Sure enough, through their commitment to me as an angsty, mouthy, hard-to-love teen, that same desire was instilled in me.
The truth is, I didn’t really need them to explain the meaning of life or take me down rabbit holes about conspiracy theories surrounding the Bible. I really just needed them to talk me through the drama going on in my friend groups, to teach me how to obey my parents even when I was annoyed with their decisions, and I needed someone to teach me how to read the Bible in a way that could be understood. Those leaders did all that and much, much more. Ultimately though, they worked together to show me with their own actions and words what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.
When Jimmy Scott (Venture Student Pastor) talked to me about being the eighth grade girls small group leader last year, it was a no brainer that I wanted to do it. I thought of myself at that exact age and how I desperately needed those youth sponsors. However, that same night as I was talking to my husband about how I would like to become a small group leader, Satan began putting doubts into my head... “What if the girls don’t like me?” “Am I fun enough?” “Do I have enough experience?” But the Holy Spirit had something to say about that… 2 Timothy 1:7 popped into my head: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.”
The truth is, it isn’t my humor, my wit, or my education that is going to make me a good small group leader. It’s listening to what Jesus is speaking about these girls and praying that over them. It’s helping them to be confident in who God made them to be. It is teaching them how to pray out loud, how to memorize scripture, and practical ways they can make listening to the Holy Spirit a part of their daily routine. Now, don’t get me wrong, we have a lot of crazy fun when we meet together, but it isn’t because I have any special gifts or extra-qualified ability to lead… It’s because we love to be together and have bonded through our mutual love for Jesus.
I pray that making that decision to be a small group leader here at Venture has blessed my girls as much as it has blessed me. I truly didn’t know my heart could love a group of wild teenage girls so much. Jesus has shown me His heart for each of these little ladies (even though they like to remind me they are taller than me) and it is absolutely breathtaking. I pray they would see His unconditional love in many more people throughout their lives other than just their families and I. I pray Venture would continue to have a strong student ministry, backed by adult leaders who are willing to let God use them, no matter their own strengths and weaknesses. I also pray that should you feel the pull to student ministry like I did, that you would have the courage to jump in, both feet forward, and share the love of Jesus with our students.
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