By Mercedes Thomas
“The STEP Program is best begun without an end in mind.”
That’s what Joy Fasick, Associate Pastor of Slate Hill Mennonite Church, shared when asked about the STEP Program. Joy was a graduate of STEP in 2012—Slate Hill’s first graduate—and now serves as an instructor in the program.
I had the opportunity to conduct a few interviews with individuals from Slate Hill who have been involved in STEP. Lynn Shertzer serves as the lead pastor there and advocates for STEP both as an instructor and a pastor. With his support, Slate Hill consistently sends students to the three-year program, which has produced a robust leadership pipeline within the church.
In addition to Lynn and Joy, I recorded a Zoom interview with Khan Bounma, Dan Ryder, Johnny Zook, and Ben Simcox—all of whom were sent to STEP from Slate Hill and have since graduated. In our interview, they affirmed Joy’s thought that it is best to begin STEP without having an end goal in mind.
For Khan, Dan, Johnny, and Ben, personal and spiritual growth was the driving factor for joining the program. Khan—who is a leader with the Laos Fellowship out of Slate Hill—says, “I was at the point of my life where I wanted to go deeper with Christ, and I figured, why not? What is it going to hurt to try it?”
And if growth is the draw, then STEP helps students accomplish this. “My desire to be part of the STEP program was to learn more, to learn more deeply, and to gain more skills to help me in working with the youth. And I feel it’s done all of that,” says Johnny. Johnny currently serves as the Jr. High Director at Slate Hill.
So why should students begin with a growth mindset, rather than having an end goal in mind? Ben, who serves in a variety of ways at Slate Hill, including being a member of the board, says, “There have been people who have gone through STEP and have had end goals in mind, and it hasn’t gone well for them. And the reason for that is because it’s not that kind of program.”
Joy agrees: “Though not always possible, I believe it is most ideal when students can begin STEP for true exploration and simply see where the Lord leads as the years progress. This was my experience—and, I would add, blessing.”
STEP facilitates hands-on learning, where students hone skills in preaching, teaching, pastoral skills, leading meetings, etc. and practice them in their home congregations. But it also promotes biblical and spiritual learning. The classes on preparing a sermon and the Old and New Testament have helped Dan in his preaching—but he’s only on the preaching rotation at Slate Hill a few times a year. However, he notes that it is the spiritual disciplines that have really stuck for him: “At the end of year one, a big part of the year was developing a rule of life, and there was a prayer we had to write as part of that. And it’s crazy because, six years later, I’m still saying that prayer every morning.”
It’s clear—from the graduates’ perspectives—STEP has been crucial in equipping them as leaders and shaping them to do ministry wherever the Lord may send them. “I believe that my life is a ministry field. It’s not just certain things that are ministry; everything I do is ministry,” says Ben.
So, how do congregations identify and raise up leaders in their own churches to send to STEP?
“Commit to a Kingdom mindset,” says Joy. “Be willing to support the growth of this individual, even though it’s possible that when this education is finished, they may be called to another church. God’s Kingdom will be blessed by your giving.”
To start the process to identify potential future leaders, Dan suggests starting with prayer. “Put it before God and say, ‘Hey, this is the direction we want to go, give us the people with the desire, or give us the wisdom and discernment to see who we think the next person should be or who would be a good fit.’ And then from there, let the Holy Spirit do the work.”
Everyone also agreed to look for those who are hungry and ready to grow and learn. Consider looking for those who are already leading in different capacities at the church, perhaps as worship leaders, Sunday school teachers, powerful prayer warriors, etc. And don’t be afraid to ask them questions to try to gauge what they want and whether they’d be interested in additional training.
Once those leaders are identified and the congregation has discerned they’re a good fit for the STEP program, be ready to invest in those leaders for the duration of the three years. Encourage them, pray for them, and help them monetarily with the tuition.
Slate Hill budgets for STEP and sets aside money to pay their students’ tuition in full. While this may not be a reality for all congregations, those interviewed agreed that some level of monetary support is incredibly important. Ben says, “Churches can be allocating funds to STEP because investing in your own people is one of the best investments you can make.”
Lynn sums it up like this: “It’s a cost when we aren’t sending people and have people on the bench. That’s a cost, and sometimes that cost is even more expensive or more difficult. So everything we do in life has a cost. When it comes to this, there’s a financial cost. But there’s also a cost if we aren’t raising up leaders in the church.”
Supporting the congregation’s STEP student/s recognizes they are a future leader and have a crucial role in leading the church into the next generation. Khan says, “Churches should be prepping for the next generation, prepping for the next upcoming leaders. You’re going to need somebody, so you need to identify who that is … For a smaller congregation, it is really important to have the next generation of people lined up so that your church is able to continue growing fresh new ideas.”
At the end of the day, the investment made into STEP and future leaders will pour out over the rest of the church. Throughout the program, these leaders are learning new skills that can help the congregation in areas that haven’t been explored before. And afterwards, these leaders may remain in the congregation, continuing to be a blessing there, or they may go somewhere else, being a blessing to the Kingdom wherever they go.
For Johnny, who has continued to be involved at Slate Hill, the blessing is visible. “I can see from when I first started [attending in 1998] to where we are now, something’s different. There’s a richer experience at church. And it’s either richer because we’ve built more people up in the church, or it’s richer because I’ve become more attuned to the Spirit. Either way, I’m feeling that the experience at church is closer to God than it was … and now having gone through STEP, I can see it’s likely played a part in it.”
I had the opportunity to sit down with Lynn Shertzer to talk about the STEP Program for this article. You can watch the full video—as well as the full interview with Khan, Dan, Johnny, and Ben—on our YouTube page: youtube.com/@2160LMC