I’m CSPC Student Ministry Intern Chris Hanlon. This is how I’m living deeply. 

“Two years ago, I was working in supply chain management, fresh out of a time of post-graduate spiritual formation with the Knoxville Fellows program. I’d had a chance to accept a two-year student ministry internship at CSPC back then. But for a variety of reasons, including that I might be getting married, I ended up taking the supply chain job (my major in college) instead. So I had a steady job, good income, and was volunteering with the youth at CSPC on the side. Everything was lined up pretty well. But the question kept nagging at me: Is this really what I want to do? I was wrestling with whether to pursue full-time ministry or stick with supply chain. That was when a wise mentor, CSPC Executive Director of Ministry Jon Lawler, gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever received. He said, ‘You can do both for now. Work your supply chain job, volunteer with the youth, and see where the desires of your heart land.’ So I started tracking it religiously. Every single week for two years, I’d look back and ask myself: When did I feel most alive? When was I most energized? The answer was always the same– when I was with the high school boys at CSPC: leading small group, going to camps, seeing glimpses of who God was making them into. Those moments when you catch a glimpse of the kind of men God is molding them to be– that was what ignited my fire. For two years, Sarah Braden and Josh Douglass from the church’s student and high school ministries kept telling me there was a position waiting if I wanted it. But I felt like I was still evaluating, still needed to do both for a while. I’d also gotten married since that first ‘Supply chain or internship?’ crossroads, and we were still working to discern God’s direction for our lives as a couple.

Earlier this year, my wife Mia and I thought God might be calling us to Scotland to help with church planting. We were excited about the adventure, the idea of taking the gospel internationally. Our hearts were longing for something bigger, something that felt more ‘significant’ than staying put in Knoxville. But when we took a whole Saturday to seek the Lord about it this past spring, something beautiful and unexpected happened. We went away separately to pray and fast, really trying to hear from Him. And we both arrived at the same conclusion: the Great Commission isn’t just about going overseas. Jesus called us to make disciples of all nations– and that includes Knoxville, Tennessee. That includes the communities we’re already invested in. We realized we had deep commitments here that were already fulfilling that call. I had these high school boys I’d been pouring into for years– relationships that couldn’t just be abandoned. Mia had just started writing curriculum for the women’s ministry team and was incredibly excited about it. We had a small group led by Scottie and JoBeth Hill, along with Kep and Gab Barnhart, that had been a well of life for us. They’d walked with us through engagement, marriage, and our first years together. When we came back together and shared what we’d each heard, we knew. When two people who think and feel so differently both arrive at the same place after seeking God, that’s usually Him speaking. The adventure we were longing for? It was right here, just in a different form than we expected. We were already living out the Great Commission in Knoxville. A couple weeks after that Saturday of seeking the Lord, Sarah Braden reached out again: ‘I still feel like there’s something here- that you would work well on our team and do well in this student ministry intern position.’ This time, I was finally ready to accept. My heart was compelled. I wanted to do ministry as my job.

A few weeks into my ministry internship at CSPC, someone asked me to rate my life satisfaction on a scale of 1-10. When I was working in supply chain, I would’ve said a steady 6: stable, predictable, but not exactly setting my soul on fire. Now? It’s a 9, with peaks and valleys because ministry is beautifully unpredictable and relational. This summer at The Edge (a camp we take the middle school students to each year), I experienced one of those moments that reminded me why I’m here. I woke up at 7 a.m. and saw one of my high school guys sitting on a little awning with a middle schooler, flipping through the Bible with him. A moment of teaching, guiding, living out Christ’s love for the sake of another. This is the same kid who came in as a freshman with a magnetic personality- still learning how to channel it in ways that build people up rather than pushing them away. Over the past two years, I’ve watched the Spirit transform his heart completely. Now he’s using those same gifts that God gave him to bless the next generation. Watching him help lead that entire trip with such Christ-like character– it was pure evidence of the Lord’s work in his life. I can see the next 5, 10, 15 years and imagine all the lives he’s going to pour into with the gifts God has given him. It’s exciting. When I see God’s work in these boys’ lives, when I watch them discover who He’s making them to be, I see the same beauty that’s in His creation, in the birds chirping, in all the colors of the world. God has wired us to appreciate beauty, and that’s what draws me to Him, what I love most about Him. So I appreciate Him letting me see up close how He’s shaping the lives of these young men every day! The Great Commission isn’t just about going somewhere far away– it’s about seeing and plugging into God’s beautiful work of redemption. And sometimes, that means staying right where you are.”