College Admissions Essay: My 15-Year Career

After a car accident three years ago, God used the recovery period to hone my old skills and birth new. Over the course of the process, He repositioned me for a different journey. The new path led to a transition from a secular K-12 setting to Christian higher education; yet, still within the context of supporting a diverse student population. My purpose became preparing and teaching ministerial leadership in a

Throughout our lives, we make choices and decisions that change our lives and others in positive and/or negative ways. It is these decisions that determine how we will be remembered, our legacy. When I graduate high school, I want to be remembered by the qualities that define me as a person and the good I’ve done for others. Throughout the years, I’ve been often been described by my family and friends as bold, confident, outgoing, and hardworking. Not only are these characteristics important to me, but they are important to my family, as they want to leave a legacy in the name of our family. The qualities I have exhibited are the same qualities past family members have shown and are remembered for. Through always putting out my best effort when it comes to work and school, I have shown my dedication and discipline. Through doing what I can to help others, I have displayed my commitment to world peace, the betterment of the world as a whole, and the yearning to make a difference in someone’s life other than my

When I think about the next five years of my life, I like to think that I will be getting on my feet and succeeding in life. It has taken me a while to figure out what I want to do with my life and what I would like to do for my career. Over the next five years, I am going to have to do a lot in school and outside of school to prepare for my future career .

While there have been many times I have thought about going back to school to get a degree, there have always been things that have come up or excuses made as to why I could start later or why it would be better to wait. Now that our second daughter has been born, it has given me a new desire to further my education and has helped me realize how much I want to be in ministry full time. Being a worship leader is my passion, but working in ministry in other ways has always been something I've wanted to do with my life as well. Not only do I love ministry, but I love learning about the Bible and the amazing ways God has reached out to His creation. Throughout all of the Bible, the Father has attempted to be with His love. But the constant rejection, as well the blatant refusal of recognition from His creation, led to the massacre of many and, at one point, complete annihilation of them, excluding a predestined

For 17 years God has blessed me to serve alongside my husband as directors of Chi Alpha at the University of Texas at Arlington. During my time here, I have served and mentored hundreds of young women and internationals who now fulfill the mission of Chi Alpha in the marketplace and the world as pastors, missionaries, police officers, nurses, teachers, and social workers. I am especially thankful to walk with those students who came to faith, experienced discipleship, and the Holy Spirit empowered their lives through the ministry.

As I entered adulthood, I had a natural instinct for organization and leadership and I had a strong interest in using those talents to serve the church. I worked with youth groups, participated in WELCA, served on the church council and it seemed there wasn’t a task I would not take on. Many people, myself included, anticipated the next logical stop on my journey would be seminary.

Even though I heard whispers of my call in my early twenties, I had disregarded any thoughts of seminary as passing notions or fleeting whims. I worked various positions prior to my medical career for the simple purpose of funding my education. However, one thing remained constant. Children. Even as a child myself, I was always volunteering for children’s activities within the church, from nursery attendant to VBS crafts, Sunday school teacher to Education Committee member. Jobs which did not consist of interaction with youth, left me craving a connection. Even as my medical career began, I found myself volunteering at the local YMCA as a soccer coach. Looking back at my gifts and passions, it finally became clear to me that God was calling me to youth

Colorado Christian University Essay Kim Slickmeyer A pivotal experience that I had in my walk with Jesus occurred during “The Walk to Emmaus” in September 2012. I attended the weekend retreat at Livingston First Church in Livingston, Tennessee during the women’s Walk #82 and was assigned the table of Ruth. The fellowship and spiritual experience was beyond what I had expected. The Lord revealed to me during that weekend that He was calling me to teach His Word to women. During the next few months I began leading and attending various Bible studies. I was amazed how much I was learning and the wisdom that God was revealing to me. As with everything in life, there were many who wanted to keep me down knowing I was excited and determined. Some

Drucker’s admonishment assists me as a pastor to remain faithful to what God has called me to do. My ambition should not be reflective of a business matrix. Rather, my purpose is to serve others as they progress on their journey in Christ. Furthermore, I am reminded that I am not a CEO, but an under-shepherd to the Good Shepherd. With that in mind, I must lead as Christ, through serving the needs of the mission. Jesus’ mission was to “seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10, ESV). As a pastor, my mission is found in Ephesians 4:11-16 and Matthew 28:19-20. I must strive to be faithful to the mission He has given me to point people to Jesus and develop disciples.

I was born in the year 1972 in Springfield, Missouri and I grew up in Polk County. I had lived an uneventful, "westernly" normal life up until which point I realized I am called into full time ministry. In retrospect this is a calling or concept which I knew fairly early in life and yet denied with all my strength. I had all the excuses, i.e. "I am terrified to speak in public", "I hate crowds", "I am inarticulate", "What do I know about the Bible"...This list goes on. Sometime in the late 2000's I decided I would go back to school and get a degree in psychology or counseling and put it to some sort of use "at church", I took classes, got the Biblical Studies certificate through CCU, changed majors two or three times, and did very much average work. I

Something that make me smile, gets me excited, makes me do something is softball. I have played ball all since the day I could walk. I started off playing baseball since I was 2 years old. Then at age 8 I went on to play softball for a select softball team in Pearland. Playing softball has always made me smile! I love the intensity, excitement, and the teamwork that is used to play ball. We all look out for each other and try to pick each other up even when we are not all in the spirit. Some activities that involve science, technology, engineering, and math that I find to be fun is robotics and underwater robotics. Robotics has always been a big part in my life because my dad is a robotics teacher for this school and I always loved playing

As a pastor it is imperative to possess a desire to be successful in the up building of God’s Kingdom. However, often times there become a very thin line between success for God, and success for self-gratification. At this point, one would need to re-look the purpose for their calling.

Recently I sat down with my pastor to discuss my future in ministry. I had some very heavy things weighing on my heart. After laying them out, I stated that “I often feel like I don’t have the needed self-confidence to do this ministry thing” and that “I think that I’m going to need a very supportive pastor in order to survive my first pastorate.” It was there that he stopped me cold and made if very clear that I could not and should not enter into ministry with that mindset. I could not expect my self-confidence to come from other people. I had to seek that from God. In the moments to come, through some very introspective conversation, I realized that I had been approaching the entire idea of ministry from the wrong direction. Without realizing it I had made it a “strong on the outside” thing. I had completely avoided the true spiritual formation that needed to be occurring on the inside.

And for a moment I scoffed thinking that I would just abide my time as other itinerant AME pastors had done before me; never laying down roots, long term plans, never solidifying church relationships or interactions, but instead prematurely crafting an exit strategy as soon as they walk through the door. Even my leadership told me not to make long term plans, because they had no intention of keeping me there long. No, this was most certainly just another stop along the road of my denominational journey, moving from one church to another as part of the progression of climbing the ecclesial hierarchal ladder of what many pastors and laity foolishly believe and view s the road to success. And to be completely honest, my vision for ministry beyond my church context as I stood there with many competing emotions in the midst all that was before me was self-centered and disjointed. After all I had drank the denominational Kool-aid and from my optic I assumed that I would fall into the normal blueprint of connectional church pastors who choose to pursue the politics of personal advancement and status over the fragile needs and spirits contained within the bowels of many these aging and deteriorating

In examining my experience during the recent Cohort Intensives held at Payne Theological Seminary (PTS) in Wilberforce, Ohio; I was quite intrigued with how all of the scholars and guest speakers reinforced many of the initiatives I have already implemented in the context of my own ministry. Likewise, my time spent in class with my Cohort mentors Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie and Rev. Dr. Kenneth S. Robinson was both scholastically and spiritually invaluable. During the week-long Intensive class sessions with my mentors, I learned a number of new things about myself that I was not previously willing to address. In short, I had a moment of self-actualization that required some personal omissions on my part regarding my faith and yes some internalized oppression as labeled by author Gayraud S. Wilmore. Opening up in class and admitting a few of my own short-comings was nothing short of liberating. Suddenly, I felt as though I had an epiphany; that has given birth to a renewed zeal, mind, and spirit. For the first time in years I am certain that I am now moving closer to the apex of excellence where God intended me to be.