Colton Ebbens : My Leadership Pathway

I really had no intentions of ever being in ministry. I had always wanted to be a manager of a company, and that’s what I pursued in college. I loved my last job, where I was able to share Christ with my coworkers nearly every day. I thought that was God’s plan for me, until I realized that God was laying it on my heart to do more for the church through full-time ministry.

At the start of 2020, I knew I was being called to ministry but COVID had limited opportunities for me until God opened the door through Leadership Pathway at my home church, Faith Church in Northwest Indiana. Currently, I am serving in residency and at Student Ministry at the Cedar Lake campus. 

Working in the church has really helped me to develop a lot of relationships with lots of people I would never have met, and that has been one of the coolest parts of ministry. 

Nothing is perfect, but there’s joy in the process of failing and growing from those mistakes or joy in learning how to handle different, difficult situations when they arise. I think naturally when I begin anything, my biggest concern is to make sure that I do everything perfectly so that I look good and impress. I never want to let people down, especially my bosses, so the beginning of my job was a lot of focusing on how I can impress them. I quickly realized, though, that the most important thing is making sure that God is getting the glory in everything; I’m no longer looking for human approval for my own personal gain but actually hoping that God works through me, so that people have no other reaction than to praise God. 

I would tell anyone considering ministry to not be nervous about the future when preparing for ministry. “God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.” I didn’t go to school for ministry at all, and yet God still could use me to further His Kingdom.  You may think you’re lacking in knowledge, equipment, time, or whatever, but the reality is God will provide you exactly what you need to be effective in ministry.

I’m Colton Ebbens, and this is my leadership pathway.