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New England's Youth Ministers
JARED COWGUR
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This is the third in a series on youth ministers serving in New England.
This week is an interview with Jared Cowgur, student minister at
EastPointe Christian Church in Portland, ME.
Tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Jared Cowgur, and I grew up in Springfield, Illinois. I am a PK (preacher's kid) and attended Lincoln Christian College, where I received my preaching degree while doing ministry just twenty minutes from campus. Upon graduation, I was hired in a full-time ministry and my wife, Rachel, and I were married. I have really appreciated Rachel's perspective in ministry, having been raised in the "fish bowl" of a preacher's home as well.
How did you hear about EastPointe Christian Church and ultimately come to serve here?
My first experience with EastPointe Christian Church (ECC) was in the fall of 2003, as I was fulfilling my internship responsibilities with LCC/S at First Christian Church in Newburgh, Indiana. Mike Claypool, my mentor at this time, was going to New England for an advisory team meeting with Restoration House Ministries (RHM) for ECC, which was about to launch. So he asked me to come along to gain some exposure to the process of planting a church. It was so exciting to meet Scott Taube and the rest of the staff of ECC, and to see and hear the plans for a new work of ministry in an area of the country that is almost void of any type of Christian community.
I came home excited about the possibilities of church planting, and soon after that I attended the National Missionary Convention where I was able to reconnect with Dan Clymer and others from RHM. I began to ask God to open a door for me to be involved in church planting. At that time Rachel and I were engaged and RHM was preparing to plant a church in downtown Boston; so Rachel and I flew out for a visit. We were completely overwhelmed by Boston--it just did not seem to be a fit for us. However, we stayed with Scott and Beth Taube while in New England, which planted more seeds of interest in ECC for Rachel and me. However, being convinced the timing was not right, I continued ministry in Illinois for two more years. During that time God began to prune, discipline, and humble me in ministry.
Then in the late summer of 2006, Rachel and I brought a group of students to the Summer Work Camp in New England. During our time there, Scott Taube described the tremendous need and opportunity for sharing the Gospel with New England youth, a need that really tugged at our hearts. So we put it aside until we got back to Illinois and began really praying about it. Rachel was pretty apprehensive, but we decided to send EastPointe my resume. Two months later, Scott called and set up a formal interview which ended with the question, "When can you come?" After that interview Rachel said, "I've never been so sure of anything in my life." That was all I needed to hear. It has been one continual affirmation after another since we arrived.
What are some of the differences you have found working within the New England culture as opposed to your experiences in the Midwest?
I thought that the culture of ministry was going to be radically different, and I was right. Back in Illinois, it was no big deal for me to go hang out with the students at school for lunch or to use the gym when we needed it. I knew the principal and the teachers, and I simply needed to wave to someone on my way into the building to let them know I was there. Here, it has been a totally different story. As soon as they found out I was a Student Minister, the door immediately closed and access was denied. I think this is a wake-up call for the rest of the country. Finding other ways to build relationships or even access to the students is a challenge and forces all of us to think creatively.
Foundationally, students are the same; it's the culture that you have to figure out. New England is not a Christian culture, so our Christian kids live day-to-day in an environment that is hostile towards them on multiple levels. They must constantly defend what they believe and often do not have a very good support system. They may be one of only ten students who are Christians in a school of over a thousand. The blessing is that Christianity is not comfortable--it really is a daily commitment to God. The students at EastPointe are really authentic about their faith. They crave Christian community and really want to be around others who believe what they do and who encourage them. At EastPointe we want them to feel part of something bigger than themselves. No matter who they are at school or even at home, they are loved here and welcomed with open arms. This is a refuge for them.
It seems you have done very well in creating healthy environments for students. How do you go about being a part of their everyday environment?
Student ministry should never compete with things in a student's life that are already healthy. I prefer to model Christian living alongside the students in their reality as much as possible. That does not mean we shouldn't meet separately from the outside community, but how are we preparing our students to be what they believe? It is a huge challenge, but a great one. We have sixty to seventy-five students who come on Sunday nights, and we really make every effort to connect with them as a way of communicating they are extremely valuable to us and to God.
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The ECC Staff
Front row: Jared & Rachel Cowgur
Back row: Beth & Scott Taube, Larry & Kim Strondak
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