Sanquita Stallion

I attribute my success to God. I've truly been called, and there's no question about it. I know that what I'm doing is God's will, and I'm in alignment with His will because I received visions and dreams before I even stepped into ministry. Back in 2013, God would literally show me myself in the pulpit, doing ministry, and during that time it didn't make sense because it wasn't lining up with my reality. I was questioning why I was seeing and hearing these things. One vision in particular showed me at my home church with my aunt sitting behind me in the pulpit. At that time, she was pastoring a church two and a half hours away, so it didn't make sense. But years later, God brought her back to my home church to pastor, and she was the one who licensed me. Every single thing that I dreamed came to reality, it was just years later. I also prayed and asked God to help me overcome my fear of public speaking and standing in front of people. He built my confidence over time, and now people who really know me are amazed at the transformation. I give all glory to God because He had to do that, I couldn't do it on my own.

The best advice that I have received is understanding that there's the spiritual side of ministry, but there is also a business side of ministry. Knowing the difference will help equip you. When you're just a member of a church attending a worship experience, you're not really a part of the ins and outs of the different meetings and the business side of what's happening behind the scenes. You get a different experience from people that have to handle the inside stuff. I grew up in the church and sung in the choir for many years, but I didn't understand the behind-the-scenes stuff, the administration of the church, and the business side of the church until I got into ministry. Church people can be some difficult people. You must have patience. You have to have a good prayer life. You gotta pray for people, and you gotta also keep your own self prayed up.

I would tell them that this role is not easy. Just make sure that you know that you're doing God's will. And that if you know that you're doing His will, everything else will begin to fall in place for you. Don't get discouraged. There are gonna be times or seasons that you will become discouraged, but you have to keep, you have to stay focused, you have to remember that God is always with us. He said that He'll never leave us nor forsake us, and so you have to walk in your spiritual confidence, assurance, knowing that no matter what it looks like, God is always with you, through the good and the bad.

I would say reaching young people is the biggest challenge. All the people that are currently in the church, working in the church, even the pastors, even myself, we gotta get old, right? If we're not impacting, equipping, training our youth to be ready to pass that baton and get set in place, so that when we do reach those ages, they can stand in the gap and keep these churches afloat, we are in trouble. I think a lot of times we forget that because we're so caught up on what the adults want to do and what we want to do as a church. We fail to talk to our youth and ask them what they would like to see done, what kind of ministry they think we need, how they feel about things. We don't have a lot of those real conversations because most pastors and churches have their own agenda and vision, and we just operate the best we can. But I think the key to keeping churches successful is making sure that we bridge that gap and keep our youth and young people involved. A lot of them, when I talk to them, they feel like churches are boring. They feel like they don't have a voice in the church, they're never heard, and they're really tired of church as usual. In order for us to do that new thing, we have to make sure we have these hard conversations. Sometimes we feel like because they're young, they shouldn't have an input or they don't know what they're talking about, and I really think that that's hurting us a whole lot.

Balance is the most important value to me. Having balance is crucial. When I first started in ministry at age 29, I was so excited and driven by staying in my word that I was putting all my energy into one thing. When you wear so many hats like I do, when you put all of your energy into one thing, there are certain things that become lacking in your life. I had to learn how to balance and identify when I'm putting too much into one thing. That goes on both sides, not just the thing you're putting your energy to, but you gotta also pay attention to yourself, because you can't pour from an empty cup. There were times where I was extremely tired, but I didn't care about that. I was working, working, working, but not realizing that I need my rest, I need to make sure that I'm not missing meals and staying healthy, doing my exercise, so that I can be effective in what God is trying to do in my life. Now I make sure I'm good, I make sure everybody is good. I'm not just focused on the church, because before the church, you gotta make sure your home is good, your children are good, you're getting your appointments and getting checked on. Then, the church. I'm still not an expert at it, but I am sensitive enough to realize when I need to kind of slow down a little bit and put some attention into whatever area that I need to do it in.