Portrait of a Servant Leader
Justin Ciralsky
Hometown: Plainfield, Indiana
Class: Senior
Major: Youth Ministry & Psychology
Crazy. Outgoing. Passionate. Zealous. Loves Kids. Loves God more. Sound like a typical youth minister? This picture perfectly depicts Justin Ciralsky, a senior majoring in Youth Ministry and Psychology at Milligan College . With his long, shaggy hair, boisterous attitude, soccer skills, and domineering voice that is often heard yelling across campus to catch a friend's attention, Justin is the perfect individual for the youth ministry profession.
A required internship resulted in Justin spending the summer of 2006 as a youth ministry intern in sunny Hilton Head at Live Oak Christian Church. Comically, even the approach in which Justin seized the internship with Live Oak was typical Justin style.
While browsing for a church, all Justin knew was that he wanted to complete his internship somewhere near the surf, sand, and sun of the East Coast.
After searching on the Internet, Justin randomly emailed dozens of churches and in short said, “Hey, I'm Justin Ciralsky from Milligan College. Can I serve your church as in intern this summer?”
Live Oak Christian Church, a newly founded church plant in Hilton Head, was the first church to reply to Justin's email. The minister, Mark Jones, and youth minister, Jeremiah Smith, were inspired by Justin's willingness and enthusiasm and were eager to have him on staff for the summer.
Shortly after, Justin packed his Bible and sunscreen and set off to answer God's call for his life as a youth minister.
“I saw the impact my youth minister had on my life and my faith after I started attending church in high school. I wanted to have a chance to reach kids as a youth minister while they were even younger than I was, so their faith could have an even greater impact on their lives than mine has.”
During the duration of Justin's summer, he was eager to dive into his youth ministry passion, and he took on numerous responsibilities alongside Mark and Jeremiah. Justin exclusively led a Bible study on Tuesday nights for middle-schoolers and another Bible study on Wednesday nights for high-schoolers.
Justin wrote and presented the Communion Meditation every Sunday morning and also created the Power Point slides for worship. Further, he developed a youth Web page for the Live Oak Youth Group. When Justin had days off from Live Oak, he accompanied the teens on numerous trips to the beach, allowing even more time spent with the youth.
Justin's internship with Live Oak Christian Church allowed him the opportunity to attend Best8Days; an intense, college aged Christian retreat buried high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. His minister, Mark, was the main preacher for the week and his youth minister, Jeremiah, led worship.
Justin's favorite memory of the week occurred when the students were given the chance to develop their own creative worship service incorporating their glorious surroundings of God's nature and beauty. Justin was placed in charge of the location and offering for the service.
The worship service took place at a creek and Justin built a cross out of two logs and placed it in the middle of the flowing water. During offering time, he gave each worshiper a pinecone, which represented a sin in their lives that was burdening their hearts.
Justin instructed them to throw the pinecone at the cross when they were ready and give that sin over to God. The water in the creek washed the dirt off the pinecone, portraying God washing their sins from their lives.
Justin also had the opportunity to take twenty of his youth from Live Oak to a Big Stuff Conference in Panama City, Florida with Jeremiah. Big Stuff was a week long event of worship and faith discovery for thousands of middle and high schoolers. Their days were filled with speakers, classes, and trips to the beach for swimming and volleyball.
At the close of each day, the Live Oak youth would convene as a group and discuss the day and what impact it had made. Justin did a devotion one night and challenged the teens to take their actions from Big Stuff, including raising their hands in worship, being excited for Jesus, and being a whole community of believers back to Live Oak.
Justin made a huge impact that night on a boy named Derek in his youth group.
Derek attended Live Oak all summer and participated in the youth events. However, he was a little different and was frequently made fun of for being weird. At Big Stuff, Derek felt God's presence in his life, and worshipped Him unrestricted, raising his hands in worship and bowing down to his knees. That night he said that Justin's message had touched his heart and Derek said he would go back to Live Oak and live his faith freely.
Justin's captivating moment of his internship occurred at the close of summer when a seventh grade girl named Anna asked Justin to baptize her. Anna had not previously attended Live Oak regularly until she became involved with Justin's middle school Bible study and then Sunday worship.
After spending all summer being soaked in the Word by Justin's guidance, she made her baptismal decision and asked Justin to do the honor. Justin was truly touched.
“It was awesome. It was great to see the impact I had on this girl's life in such a short amount of time. It reinforced that youth ministry was exactly what God had called me to do, and I was simply responding to His call of faith and service.”
Justin's internship was supported by the Institute for Servant Leadership, a spiritual program at Milligan College, helping students to discover their call in servant leadership and to discern their own vocation path through leadership, service, and faith.
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