From Burnout to Breakthrough: How Healthy Church Leadership Begins

That’s really amazing. And then just a couple years later, you became the youth pastor. Was that at the same church?

No. So immediately after that [experience] I was just that kid. I was just on fire for God. I was witnessing to anyone and everyone who was willing to listen at that time. I was reading the Word, and I didn’t understand a thing, but I read it and every time I read it, my heart was on fire. I ended up applying to Bible school, Trinity International University, because I just wanted to learn more about the Bible.

In my freshman year of college, the guest speaker from the day that I gave my life to Christ, [Paul Suh], started mentoring me—he’s now my father-in-law. That summer he called me because I was in California doing a lot of short-term mission trips out of San Diego [where Suh’s 4 Christ Mission base is located]. 

I guest spoke [for a church that had just lost their youth pastor] and the senior pastor asked me if I would be their youth pastor. So, I applied to transfer to Biola from Trinity, and I took the job to be the youth pastor when I was 18.

What do you think you learned through that process of being a new Christian and also being in church leadership?

Well, all the apostles were teenagers when they were being discipled by Jesus, other than probably Peter, because he was the only one that was asked to pay taxes and he was the only one that we understand to be married. What I’ve learned is, actually, the youth change the world, and all movements are started by young people. I think young people are naive [enough] to believe they can actually make a difference. When you put an expectation on a hungry young person, they will rise to the level of the standard that their mentor and/or discipler puts onto them. 

On the light side, I think young people are up for the challenge, and I think new believers are the most effective evangelists because it’s so real to them. For me, it was just real and true. It wasn’t Christendom or Christian culture. It was a true, real, lived experience of the gospel. 

The shadow side was that I wasn’t prepared for it. I wasn’t equipped for it. I wasn’t ready for it. But [it’s] that cliche saying: God equips the called. I didn’t know I was being developed to be a leader. I just fell in love with God, and I wanted people to know God.

Fast-forward to when you and your wife spent a couple years in Mexico ministering [and then] The Meeting Place started up. It seemed like prayer and worship were big emphases. Why do you think that was?

Because I didn’t know God growing up and I didn’t grow up in church, [up to] this day, one of my biggest convictions is for people to know God, people to encounter God, people to get saved. During that time in my life, I felt called that the primary means was to bring people into the place of prayer and worship. 

The Meeting Place was actually birthed while we were living in Mexico, and we were getting ready to come back to the States. As I was praying, I felt an impression from God. The phrase was to “gather the hungry and broken to meet with God, and then to raise people up to be spiritual leaders where they are to advance God’s kingdom.” 

So, we came back to the States. We started this prayer meeting in my apartment with about 20, 30 friends once a month. In three years, it grew to like 500, 700 people. I was also raising up youth pastors regionally. We had around 40 youth pastors go through a cohort that I started, teaching them and equipping them how to lead and serve their youth groups. I thought at that time I was just going to do The Meeting Place and missions with my father-in-law.