10 kids, there were 10 kids.
My wife and I had just moved across the country to take a youth position at a church with 10 teenagers. In the youth room, they were still using a projector to display the words on the praise songs, and this was in 2007. Needless to stay there was a mountain of work to do, and very little financial or people resource.
I spent the following weeks wondering how was I going to do this. I would talk to other ministry friends and hear about their budgets, their leadership teams, their catered staff meetings, all the while bemoaning my own situation. I would make immature excuses about how if had a budget, or if I had lived near a college, and if I had staff, then I could do all the things they did. I bet you can guess where our ministry stayed. Until one day in prayer God dropped the words “Just start” into my heart.
“Start with what?” I retorted.
Matthew 25 is the parable of the talents, and in verse 23, the Master rewards the faithful servants. I’ve always wondered why each servant got a different amount. Like was one a college grad, maybe another had his master’s, or maybe another had more followers on Instagram than the others. Jesus doesn’t give us that for a reason. We don’t need to know. We are asked to “just start” with what we have.
Start vision-casting.
You may not be there, but unless you start casting vision for where you want to go, those around you are fine staying where they are. Ad nauseam cast the vision. Not to say just say the same thing over and over again. You may feel ridiculous casting a vision for 100 students when you have 10, but “just start” casting. Think of diverse and creative ways but just start casting it.
Start building.
No, I did not have a staff or a great group of young hip ministry college kids, but what I did have was teenagers. I thought if I am ever going to have a leadership team, I am going to have to build one. That is precisely what I did, I began holding a staff meeting with teenagers in my youth group. There was an agenda and a schedule. Each person had a leadership position and we were off. Our ministry began growing like crazy. We went from 10 kids to over 200. “Just start.”
Many times, the start is the hardest, but I have found that creating even the smallest amount of momentum helps things begin to move. You may have only been given one talent but God asks you to start.
What dreams and vision are in your heart that God is asking you to “Just start?”
Let us know about a time you “just started” and God began to move.
Reprinted with permission from Victory Church. Pastor Eric Morris oversees the youth ministries.
Janet Perez Eckles 
Shawn Akers 
Abby Trivett 
