By Katrina Leslie
September 25, 2024
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Who would have thought that the girl who was too busy doing homework on Sunday night to go to youth group in high school would end up being a minister for youth and young adults just 10 years later? I for sure did not see that coming.
Now, I’m not sure how many people can relate to the awkwardness of being a middle schooler in a new place. No? No one? Well, imagine this: 12 years old, the youngest sibling, just moved to a new state, new house, public school, in a full arm cast. My family had just moved back to Texas, the state I was born in, to start our next chapter. That first summer back, my older brother asked, “Are we going to find a church?” Turns out this would be the question that changed everything. In the years prior, my family was living overseas and didn’t have a Sunday church. Instead, us kids attended weekly chapel at our private Christian school. Setting out to answer my brother’s question, my parents began researching to find a church in Texas we could call home.
Walking into our church for the first time with the light of a very warm Texas sun beaming in the windows, we were greeted by more kind people than I can remember. The hearts in that church were beating as one to worship music I enjoyed more than ever before. It was wonderful, but the sermon we heard that Sunday was the final piece we needed to sway us to stay. Over the years, we heard sermons from Episcopal priests who truly lived for the Lord. Their words were love-filled, sometimes convicting, and pointed us to Jesus. This simple yet beautiful church built by our own parishioners’ hands is the foundation for my faith.
I remember during my sophomore year of high school my parents told me at dinner one night they both coincidentally had the same idea of a job I could be good at. You’ll never guess what they said: an Episcopal priest. We all sort of laughed it off and thought it was funny. It was a nice idea, but it wasn’t something I saw for myself. At that point, the idea of working in the church was a big no for me, so in it went to the “never going to happen” box inside my head. The years went by leading up to college, and I explored other career paths, like environmental science and astrophysics, until I eventually decided to study political science with a goal to go into education reformation.
When I got to undergrad, I immediately found the Canterbury Episcopal Student Center, and there I found amazing young Christian friends and mentors. It offered me the experience of Christian community with people my age that I never had time for in high school. At Canterbury, I was poured into like never before. I got to ask the confusing and hard questions of faith that I had bottled up for years. I served in multiple leadership roles over my college years. Even through a pandemic, I found a way. I joined online Bible studies with friends, went to outdoor church events, and led freshmen through the Bible while sitting six feet apart. This community was so rich and intentional that it has been difficult to find a similar experience after college.
I got to ask the confusing and hard questions of faith that I had bottled up for years.
The summer I toured grad schools, my parents and I drove from Texas to the East Coast stopping at schools along the way. On our last day, I decided to visit Boston on a whim. Once there, I felt a tug on my heart that made me feel like I should look at more than just the one school I came to see. My mom and I began frantically googling “universities with education policy master’s programs in Boston” while my dad drove around to each of the schools that popped up in the results. That fall I applied to a couple schools in Boston that we saw that day as I held my breath for where I would be accepted for grad school. I remember the day I got my first acceptance email so vividly. I had just left an evening political science class and was checking emails as I made my way toward the bus stop. The light of a bright pink Texas sunset was reflecting off the cars in the parking lot nearby. And there were the words from a Boston University letter head, “We are pleased to inform you….”
The only other acceptance letter I received was months later from my undergrad alma mater. As much as I loved my undergrad experience, I still felt like God was tugging on my heart to head to Boston and experience something new. So, I said, “yes” to Boston University.
Since originally moving to Boston for my graduate studies in education policy at Boston University, God has continued to tug on my heart in many other surprising ways. As I was entering my last semester in my master’s program, I got an interesting Monday morning email from a priest at my church in Boston. I thought it was a thank you note for reading the Old Testament passage at church the day before, but to my surprise, it was a job offer? I had already begun applying for positions to do education reform and was in the “wait and see” period, and here was a job offer to be the new Minister for Youth and Young Adults.
I strangely began crying tears of mixed emotions in the middle of the library (I know we’ve all done it). I felt like the neat and tidy figurative ball of yarn that I had made my life into was unraveling without much choice. I had just been offered my first full-time job! However, it was a job in a field I said no to already. Up to that point, it felt like my life had been this tidy progression of steps. I left my parents’ house with a dream to improve American schools, so I went to undergrad to learn the foundations of political science and how change gets made in this country. After I had the foundations, I went to graduate school in Boston to specifically study education policy all with the expectation the next step would be to put my passion and knowledge to practice helping improve schools. This job offer from the church was not a part of my plan. The most difficult part of the offer was that I couldn’t tell any of my friends affiliated with the church about the decision I was faced with and receive any advice from them. So, I talked to my parents, and I prayed. I picked up the untidy ball of yarn that was my life and brought it straight to God.
My prayers continued as the weeks of the discernment process went on. At first, they were in denial and went something like: “Why God? Why did you give me this offer? I’ve already said ‘no’ to working in the Church full-time. I have plans to improve schools.” Overtime, they began to be a little more open minded as I prayed: “What if I took the job, God? What if I worked as the Minister for Youth and Young Adults and used my knowledge of schools in a church setting? Maybe you have given me an opportunity to find out what working for the Church is like.” Right before I gave the church my answer, my prayers to God were more confident as I prayed, “God, guide me in this next chapter and help me learn what you want me to learn.”
After all those months of prayer, I trusted God’s plan and said “yes” to the job.
A few months later, I became the new Minister for Youth and Young Adults.
A few months later, I began to create a youth program I would have gladly postponed my homework to attend.
A few months later, I began crafting the young adults’ program I have craved as a recent graduate.
The 18 months since that email have been challenging and fun, disheartening and rewarding, frustrating and grace filled. Even though I often feel like I don’t know what I’m doing, I am reminded how even the disciples were sometimes uncertain as to what they were doing. I am particularly reminded of this in Matthew 8:23–27. Though the storm was mighty, and Jesus was with them, the disciples still did not understand that they had nothing to fear. They didn’t have faith in God and in his watch over their futures. I feel sometimes I am like the disciples in this story. Though youth ministry often feels stormy and unpredictable at times, God is with me. Even though I might not have the perfect answers or know what the future looks like, having faith is what Jesus asks of us during the storms. It feels like that tug on my heart that led me to Boston was ultimately tugging at me to discover what I would have been missing out on when I said I would never work for the Church back in high school. All I had to have was faith that God would be with me. I thank God that my “no” was transformed into a “yes.”
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Katrina Leslie, Minister for Youth and Young Adults
Katrina Leslie is the Minister for Youth and Young Adults at a large Episcopal church in Boston. Originally from Texas, she moved to Boston after undergrad to pursue an EdM. Though planning to work in education consulting after graduation, she found herself with a full-time offer with the Church that she accepted after much prayer and consideration. She is passionate about faith formation and the way weekly worship can improve spiritual, mental, and emotional health. Katrina is looking forward to learning from other young adult church leaders and their experiences.
