We are ministers, not messiahs - Garrett Yates

I went on many different kinds of mission trips when I was a high schooler: from trips that sought to salvage communities, as in the time we went to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to other trips where we were commissioned to salvage souls for the kingdom. Perhaps my favorite mission trip was the time I went to Southeast Turkey upon graduating high school – my young and sheltered Alabama feet were exposed to the ancient paths of the early church as my cousin and I trekked through Antioch and Tarsus and Cappadocia. But given that I only had 3 weeks to learn Turkish, not exactly a language one picks up on the fly, my early church Pentecostal zeal was largely kept in check.

I have been on various trips, and yet this one has a different feel to it!

I couldn’t be more excited to join our youth this summer as we head to McDowell County, WV. For many, this is the 3rd or 4th time to make the trip, and for others, such as soon to be 9th graders and myself, this is our first time to make the trip. I don’t have much to go on, but I have the same excitement in my belly as I did as a high-schooler on that Turkish Air flight. I am eager to meet Lori and all those at Highland Education Project, and I am eager for all the stories I have heard to gain flesh: for the faces and the smells, the conversations and the meals together. And, oh yea, the llamas and the goats.

Doing mission work among llamas: this trip has a different feel.

One of the youth, Stephanie Brown, made a video that tells the story of St. Paul’s involvement. Though it’s been several months since I have seen it, there has been a phrase that has stuck with me that I think gets at what may be different about this trip. “We are ministers, not messiahs.”

To have known this as a high schooler; to know this now. This trip, as I was saying, has a totally different feel.

We are ministers, not messiahs.

I have been reflecting a bit on what this might mean, and here’s what I’ve come up with:

Messiahs fix and help, ministers listen and pray. Messiahs heal by themselves, ministers are healed in relationship. Messiahs work for, ministers sit with.

I couldn’t be more excited to learn a little bit more about what this means. And hey, for an Alabaman as myself, West Virginian has got to be easier than Turkish. Right?