By the Rev. Beth Putney
January 31, 2024
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I was 15 when Matt Overton was called as the Associate Pastor of Youth and Their Families at Columbia Presbyterian Church in Vancouver, Washington. I’d finished out my freshman year of high school much as it had begun—awkwardly. I went to a different high school than most of my friends and struggled to feel at home there. But I always felt welcome and safe at church, so I was there all the time. Summer was no different. I was what we in the youth ministry world call “the highly committed teenager.” But as I reflect on who I was during that season, I’m still baffled that Matt saw me as a leader. I was quiet. I was self-conscious. I was physically small, not what anyone would call a “presence.” And I in no way thought of myself as a leader—certainly not a leader in the church! Matt thought differently. He asked me to come on board as a middle school ministry intern for the school year.
John the Baptist’s Finger
I showed up to the intern training session sure that there must have been some mistake, but Matt asked me to be there because he thought that I had something to offer to the middle school students on Wednesday nights. I sat in a circle of couches with seven or eight other high school students, a few my own age but mostly upperclassmen. Then, Matt began by projecting a 16th century painting on the wall of our youth center. It was Mattias Grunewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece.
Central panel of Mattias Grunewald’s Isenhiem Altarpiece. Txllxt TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The central panel is the crucifixion which also features John the Baptist quite prominently on the right pointing to Christ on the cross. Matt asked us, “What do you notice in this centerpiece?” We rattled off what we saw: Jesus dead on the cross, a fainting woman being comforted on the left, a lamb, a really grimy looking guy on the right. Matt stopped us there. “What’s going on with this guy? What’s he doing with his hands?”
“Holding a book!” we shouted. “And he’s pointing at Jesus!”
“That’s because this guy is John the Baptist. He’s paying attention to the Scriptures and pointing the way to Jesus.” Matt took a breath and changed slides to reveal a zoomed-in image of John’s finger. “All we can do on Wednesday nights is be John the Baptist’s finger. We’re not working miracles. We’re not drawing attention to ourselves. We’re just patiently pointing the way to Jesus.”
Portrait of a Mentor
Matt took me seriously as a young person and that has made all the difference. But the thing about Matt is that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. As I write this reflection in the midst of my first Advent as an ordained minister in the PC(USA) and feel the tension of productivity and hopeful, patient waiting that is supposed to characterize this season, I can’t help but chuckle at a book sitting on my desk meant to inspire me to write something nice about Matt calling me into leadership. On the back cover of his book, Mentorship and Marketplace: A New Direction for Youth Ministry, Matt chose not to submit his professional portrait that sits on the church website. Instead, the cover features a picture of him sitting on his couch at home with an eyepatch—a snapshot taken as he recovered from an eye surgery. Anyone who knows Matt would not be surprised by this choice.
Matt took me seriously as a young person and that has made all the difference.
Despite the fact that he is now head-of-staff of Columbia Presbyterian Church, he’s still a goofball who’s driven by the deeply held conviction that his ministry is not about him but about God and God’s people. That—his commitment to the ministry—he takes very seriously. I have to imagine that this posture— this John-the-Baptist’s-finger way of being —is what helped him recognize a leader for the church in an awkward teenager and name that call as sacred.
Matt and Beth cracking up before her ordination service (July 2023)
Invited to Lead, Equipped for the Journey
My path to ordained ministry was not straight. I didn’t come away from this moment convinced that I was supposed to be a pastor. In fact, it did not occur to me until I was a year and a half out of undergrad! But it did plant a seed. I continued to intern throughout high school and college, leading small groups, planning events, going on retreats, offering testimonies, and leading worship. I went off to school to study fiction writing but also managed to register for every biblical studies course offered at my very secular liberal arts college. Clearly, something in my self-perception and my faith had changed. That first invitation to leadership and the 14 years of mentorship and friendship that has followed made it possible for me to see myself as a leader in the church and to accept God’s call on my life. When I came home from Sarah Lawrence, Matt offered me a job as his administrative assistant, which provided me the opportunity to witness Matt’s changing sense of what church ministry can be (see The Columbia Future Forge) and to recognize my own call to ordained ministry that led me to Princeton Theological Seminary.
That first invitation to leadership and the 14 years of mentorship and friendship that has followed made it possible for me to see myself as a leader in the church and to accept God’s call on my life.
Matt’s concise, faithful articulation of ministry has remained a throughline for my own ministry over the years. And though my current job title is not “youth pastor,” I do have the privilege of patiently walking alongside the youth of my congregation, taking seriously their capacity for leadership, and embodying that John the Baptist witness to Jesus in their lives.
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Beth Putney, Polaris Fellow (2023)
The Rev. Beth Putney is a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the PC (USA) serving as Pastoral Resident to San Marino Community Church in Southern California. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (BA Liberal Arts) and Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv/MACEF ’23). A member of the Polaris Network’s inaugural cohort, she is passionate about innovation in the church, has a heart for ministry with young people, and loves thinking about the intersection of creativity and faith.