Often I have people asking me what my major was in college. Then, when I tell them the answer they either laugh or ask “why”.
This past December I graduated from Kennesaw State University with a major in Health and Physical Education. If you’ve never heard why then you’re probably saying,” Dude, you work in a church, and you got a PE degree???”. I most certainly did. Most the time when people ask why I simply tell them that it was the easiest thing I could find to major in since History was too boring and because KSU didn’t have a religion degree available. Here is the long story.
I started my collegiate education in 2003 (now you’re saying,” Bro, you started in ’03 and you just finished with a bachelors degree in 2010?!? Most people who spend that much time in college become doctors.” Trust me, I know). At that time in my life I was intensely coaching a boy’s gymnastics team here in Cartersville (gymnastics was a part of my life for almost 20 years), and I had just started leading worship for the youth group I grew up in. My first year in school was about the only time I took the appropriate amount of hours to be considered “full time” in school. After that year I started semesters “full time” but dropped classes frequently which is why it took me FOREVER to get through school.
I thing around 2005 (maybe 2006??) I finally chose to major in HPE. Part of the reason for this was because I was still coaching gymnastics very passionately, and I was successful as a coach. Also, I figured I could major in PE, then go back and get a masters in business and eventually open my own gym. However, all the while I was still leading worship, loving it, and still knew I was called to ministry…so I would coach and play in my worship band I had in Cartersville (I thought we were the stuff, but my wife tells me otherwise now).
Okay, that’s why I majored in HPE, and I never understood how that matched with God calling me to be at Oak Leaf Church eventually to become the Worship Pastor (or worship guy as Pastor likes to refer to me 
).
In 2006 I started attending these meetings for a church starting in Cartersville called Oak Leaf Church. After attending my first meeting I was bought in. Never had I been a part of a church that had such a vision for reaching people far from God. I started with the thought of leading worship, but after a while I would have been fine holding doors because I was bought into the vision. Obviously, God had different plans.
I had this thought the other day,” Maybe I was led into education because God was preparing me for work in the church that involves the same skills”.
At KSU I learned how to study. It took me a while and many failed exams to figure this out, but I eventually got it. As a church leader studying is something that MUST REMAIN CONSTANT. God is an infinite being that we will never fully comprehend, but through study and prayer we can still gain knowledge on who He is, the Gospel, and how to lead His people.
In the education program they teach you to become a planner. I cannot tell you how many lesson plans I wrote during my time at KSU, but I wrote many and this has become super helpful to my role as a worship pastor. As the service programmer at Oak Leaf Church I try to be planned out at least 1 month before a series or weekend. Sometimes this happens, and sometimes I don’t have enough information to be as planned out as I want to be. The point is that by planning you create more opportunity for excellence. I have different systems in place that help me to be planned out.
As a teacher you have to be able to communicate clearly. At KSU we had to teach lessons to our peers, in front of our professors, and eventually student teach for 4 months. To prepare us to communicate to the best of our ability they required us to write down exactly what we planned to say in our lesson plans. Writing lesson plans took forever and EVERYONE hated doing it, BUT I can honestly tell you that I rarely had a problem communicating information to my students because of this practice. As a worship leader I have to be able to communicate clearly in front of people. During the week I will pray and listen to God for what he may want me to communicate to His people during out corporate worship through music time. At times I write down what I will say in order to clarify what exactly I should say. If you are a worship leader I would encourage you to try this practice.
Up to my graduation day I never fully understood why I was graduating with a degree in education. I don’t really want to teach PE. Yes, I do have a degree which I am thankful for. Plus, I have something to fall back on. But, now I am finally beginning to see how God was preparing me for His work in His Church. And for that I give Him the glory and praise!
