For me, the start of 2025 means rolling into year number five as your Wisconsin Conference Youth Director. The first few years of any job involve significant learning. With this job, I have experienced this in a variety of ways: learning to hire and collaborate with our Summer Camp staff, coaching our Club Ministries volunteer leaders on their leadership journey, and working with ACF (Public Campus Ministries) leaders who dedicate their valuable free time to build Gospel-centered communities on the University of Wisconsin campuses. This only covers the basics.
Many unforeseen elements of this job also had to be learned. It became immediately apparent, although unexpected for me, how much involvement I was suddenly expected to have with leaders across Lake Union. Church structure-wise, it makes sense to me now. Every time you “move up” as an employee in the church, you have increased engagement with the level “above” your own. For example, local church pastors work with their local Conference, Conference-level employees work with their local Union, Union-level employees work with their local Division, and so on. This interconnectedness is part of what makes the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s global structure so great. We are a worldwide church that works closely together in many ways.
For the past four years, my wife and I, along with our four kids, have dedicated ourselves to learning how to connect with the church structure and engage in our local Wisconsin Conference Youth Ministry in the context of the Lake Union, which exists within the North American Division (NAD), a branch of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. It’s been a valuable lesson and a joy to travel around the country for various conferences, advisories, and summits. Along the way, it has also been a joy to visit other summer camp venues, meet youth ministry colleagues from across the NAD, and get perspectives from experienced individuals who have been in the field longer than us. I also appreciate hearing the perspectives of those who minister in both similar and very different contexts from ours.
Looking back on the experience, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It has been a valuable part of helping us wrap our heads around what this job is and what it means to be part of Youth Ministries in our church, both locally and beyond.
As we enter the new year, I have recently reflected on one of my favorite books about leadership, entitled Good to Great, by Jim Collins. In this book, Collins explains how top business leaders transformed their companies from mediocre or good to truly great and enduring organizations. He famously states that these leaders did “not focus principally on what to do to become great; they focused equally on what not to do and what to stop doing.” This resonated with me, especially since I’ve started my doctorate journey at Andrews University, where professors encourage all students (who, in this case, are all working professionals in the church) to figure out what things they can cut out of their schedule to make room for doctorate study and implementation of doctoral ministry projects.
I’ve now worked for the Wisconsin Conference for nearly 13 years. I began as a summer camp staff member at Camp Wakonda, then served as the Youth Pastor in Green Bay, followed by my role as the District Pastor in the Racine District (WISEN), and now I currently serve as your conference Youth Director. I have truly fallen in love with the mission work here, especially in our various local churches. I want our local conference to succeed—notably in reaching our young people for Christ and raising a new generation of leaders who can carry on the work into the future.
Over the past few years, we’ve taken an all-in approach to understanding the role of Youth Director—how it functions within the larger church structure and wanting to leave no stone unturned in doing the job well. However, we now feel it is time to step back from the out-of-state travel that has consumed so much of our schedule.
This doesn’t necessarily mean less travel for us; this is a statewide job, with many churches, Pathfinder clubs, and youth groups spread across Wisconsin. However, it does mean being in our local churches and schools more. To emphasize this, I led three weeks of prayer last fall—rather than my usual one—and am planning two more this spring. We’ve been more available to preach in local churches, taking part in more Pathfinder Sabbaths and induction services than ever during this fall and winter, and we’re looking forward to continuing throughout the winter and spring.
What we’re specifically stopping is believing that we need to travel far to be effective at our job locally. This will allow us more time to study and be present in Wisconsin. We’ve learned a lot from conferences and advisories, and we’ve networked with countless very helpful colleagues. It seems like now is a good time to put a pause on our attendance (or attend on Zoom when possible) at these events unless it seems like a must. We’re also traveling to Adventist Universities outside of our union less, as most of our hiring over the past few years has been in-state anyway. Overall, this translates to six more weeks of being in Wisconsin, which I think will greatly benefit our ministry to the youth of Wisconsin.
Here’s my main point: if you’re looking for a speaker for your church, Pathfinder program, school week-of-prayer, or similar event, I’m making myself more present and available to you as we move into 2025 and 2026.
Additionally, if you want me to come and meet with your church membership, church board, or elder team, I am happy to come and talk about my vision for youth ministry, as well as how your church can participate in that vision. In participation with my doctorate (which is in the field of leadership), I would also be open to coming to your churches and speaking to youth and adults alike about leadership principles and how we can empower our young people to be the leaders that our church desperately needs.
We’ve loved the past four years. But we’re also super excited about what the future has to offer and are looking forward to how God will bless us in 2025. Always feel free to reach out! You can connect with me at: zpayne@wi.adventist.org. I’d love to work with your local church, school, club, or youth group as we spread the Good News around the great state of Wisconsin.
Pastor Zach Payne
Youth Director