Never Will I Ever: Taking the Brave Step You Swore You'd Never Take

By Mary Carver

God's Brave Women - Mary's Story

The moment I did something I’d said I would never do is seared into my mind. Though years have passed, I can’t seem to forget it.

I was sitting at my desk in our church office, half listening (fine, call it eavesdropping if you must) to my friends and colleagues talking outside my door. The children’s ministry director and the creative arts director were discussing the challenge of finding volunteers to lead worship for the kids on Sunday mornings. The goal was to recruit and shepherd teen leaders, but it was proving difficult for various reasons.

They came to the conclusion that an adult needed to head up this pocket of the children’s ministry department, but they just weren’t sure who would be qualified or, let’s be honest, interested in this position.

By this point I had walked out of my workspace and stood in front of them, inviting myself into their conversation like friends and colleagues do. As I heard them describe the gap in their team and their frustration trying to solve the problem, my heart began to beat faster. Confused, I was unsure what that feeling was about because, Lord knew, I had zero interest in serving in children’s ministry.

I certainly had no desire, inclination, or qualification to work with middle school kids in particular. And yet . . .

Before I could stop myself (could I even have stopped myself?), I spoke up. I followed that pull in my gut, spoke up, and volunteered to head up our church’s “Praise Parkway team,” a group of adult storytellers and middle school-aged worship leaders. Though my brain was shouting, “What are you doing?! Whyyyyy? Yes, it’s music but it’s kids. Little kids and big kids. Middle-schoolers!!!” my mouth said, “Yeah, I think this will be fun!”