Ken Edwards - The Interview

Why are you doing this?

Why do I work with students?  Well, good question.  I have to ask myself that very question from time to time.  God has used so many things to get me to this point.  Let me share something from the summer of 1986.  I was helping coach my nephew's baseball team.  On game days, I noticed that the small metal stands were sparse.  Very few parents attended, and the ones that did were usually alone--either Mom or Dad, but not both.  As the season progressed, what I learned shocked me.   Of the 12 boys on this one baseball team, every single one of them was from a broken home--every one of them!  Some of the boys went the whole season and no one came to see them play.  For some, Mom or Dad was far away, or just too busy with life to come see them play a simple baseball game.  For a few, the end of every game was just another broken promise and another demonstration of misplaced priorities.   Sometimes I felt like I was the only person in the world who was giving some of these kids any attention.  I have to confess that I don't know much about coaching baseball, but God showed me that summer that He had given me a special gift and the desire and abilities to teach and encourage students.

Talk about your salvation experience.

I accepted Christ as my Savior and was baptized when I was 14 after a discipleship class with my minister at church.  My past life had pretty much gotten the best of me, and the fallout from a destructive childhood relationship continued to haunt me for many more years. As a teenager, I got involved in a lot of things including sex, alcohol and pornography. I suffered greatly from a low self-esteem and a weight problem. I didn't know how to talk to people about the problems I was facing.  I had a terrible mouth, and made a lot of stupid decisions. I really didn't begin to experience a growing relationship with Christ until graduate school. God freed me from my past and I rededicated my life to serving Christ in 1994. Since then? God floors me almost every day with something. I've been growing closer to Him. My desire for Him has become a hunger for his instruction and counsel, an unquenchable need for his love and grace, and a passion to serve others.

Why is working with teenagers so important to you?

Three reasons. First, God has gifted me as a teacher and encourager. Can you think of two things students need more than teaching and encouragement? Second, students are drawn to me. To look at me or talk to me, you wouldn't necessarily see it. I don't understand it, students don't understand it, but it's there--and it has to be all God! I've been so blessed to be able to establish long-lasting relationships with so many students over the years--students who still call me and visit after ten years! When students see that you are willing to make a personal, individual investment in them, then they are willing to listen to what you have to say. And third, when I see these kids, I see myself as a teenager, making the wrong decisions, looking to people and things to satisfy me, but missing out on God. I really believe that if someone had made an investment in my life, and really showed me who Christ is, it would have made a huge difference. Now that I see that, I have the opportunity to make the investment.

What gives you the most satisfaction in working with teenagers?

Being involved in what God is doing. I am convinced that God is calling the rising generation of students to reclaim this world for Jesus Christ.  I feel that wherever I go, God is at work teaching and growing students to be the spiritual leaders of tomorrow.  It's incredible just to be a part of it.  There is nothing more incredible than seeing God take a student, in spite of his or her past experiences and present circumstances, and completely turn his or her life around.  

What is your biggest challenge in working with teenagers?

What are your biggest fears?

My biggest fear in life used to be making mistakes, disappointing others, letting people down. That's a lot of pressure to put on yourself. Now that I realize God's not interested in focusing on my mistakes and disappointments, my biggest fear in life is becoming complacent and being unwilling to change.  I see so many people who get to a certain point in their lives where they are either comfortable or just stuck, and they never change.  They keep doing the same thing every day, making the same mistakes, living the same way. But, growing with God means just that--growing and changing.

What keeps your faith alive working with students?

I know that I'm not a great speaker or a particularly good-looking guy.  I'm not the wisest person in the world.  There's a lot about God I don't know.  I don't know any Greek or Hebrew.  I have made some terrible decisions in life.  I've experienced a lot of things I'm not particularly proud of.  I struggle so much with "worldly" things and issues every day.  And I know that if you laid my life out on the table and looked it over, it wouldn't make sense that I should be doing this.   But, the investments I make in these kids--it works!  And when I see that I am not qualified to do this, I know that it has to be the power of God through the blood of Jesus Christ.  That's all it can be.  And that keeps me going.

What do you feel are the greatest things you have to offer to students?

First and foremost, I would have to say my life.  My life is just testimony after testimony of God's grace, power, love and forgiveness.  Kids want the things they hear to be real.  I have lived out so many of God's promises in my life, I think I have a real-life example to back up virtually every truth of God.  Second, kids need perspective.  They have their parents' perspective, their teacher's perspective, their friends' perspective, but they rarely have God's perspective.  I can share with them the wisdom, knowledge and truth of God He has revealed to me. And led by the Holy Spirit, I can help these kids see life from a new, fresh perspective.

Where do you want these new-found opportunities to take you?