Raise Them Up to Raise Them Up

On August 3, 2025, our church, First Baptist Church Stockdale, called a new worship minister, Corey Arseneault, to begin leading our worship ministry full-time. But, the story really begins back in 2018.

In the fall of 2018, after serving as the children’s pastor and young adult pastor at First Baptist Watauga for 8 years, I began serving as their student pastor. I had many, many great students in that ministry. Some of these students I had taught in the children’s ministry, while others began attending in their junior high and high school years. Cue Corey Arseneault. Corey was not in the children’s ministry with me, but he had been faithfully attending with his family for several years and had been in the student ministry with my predecessor. And it was under my predecessor’s leadership that Corey surrendered to the call to ministry, specifically feeling pulled towards worship ministry.

The previous student pastor served in both a worship and student pastor role and was able to begin pouring into Corey’s life to prepare him not only for ministry, but also for worship ministry. So, when I took the reins as student pastor, Corey already had a great foundation for ministry preparation.

It was my first year as student pastor and it was Corey’s final year in the student ministry. He was a senior, would soon graduate, and would begin academic training for the ministry he had been called to. So, I knew I had only about a year with Corey and did not want to drop what the previous student pastor had begun with him.

Since I am not a worship leader and Corey’s skills already exceeded mine when it came to guitar, I couldn’t really train Corey in worship. But I could invest time discipling him and continuing to raise him up with both scripture and practical ministry. So, I began meeting with Corey on a consistent basis. We read books together and discussed what we were learning. I also gave him opportunities to lead where I was able.

Many times, in discipling and training young ministers, I ask myself, “What would’ve been beneficial for me to learn when I was beginning in ministry?” Or “What opportunities do I wish I had been given when I was just starting out?” These questions have really prompted me to be as intentional and practical as I can so that I am raising up ministers who are well equipped to take those next steps when the time comes.

Fast Forward to 2025 when the church where I am currently serving as lead pastor called Corey to be our worship minister. You can imagine the joy and the pride that I have felt, not only seeing Corey called to our church, but to see him faithfully lead our people in worship week-in and week-out.

And now, seven years after I began leading that student ministry and raising Corey up, my daughter is the senior in high school, also sensing a call to worship ministry. But this time it is not me who is doing the raising up… well, outside of being my daughter’s father and pastor. This time it’s Corey who is raising her up. (Not to downplay the role of her student pastor in her life and what he has done for her over the last 3.5 years.) But with Corey at the helm of the worship ministry, it is he who is intentionally pouring into her and preparing her for worship ministry. It is he who is continuing to give her practical ministry experience.

This has prompted me to ask some new questions when raising up new ministers. “Am I raising someone up in such a way that I am preparing them to lead the same people that I shepherd?” And “Am I raising someone up in such a way that I would trust them to train and raise up my own child?”

Even if the person we are raising up does not end up serving on staff in the same church where we serve and even if they don’t raise up our own children, prayerfully, at some point in time, they will be on staff somewhere. And prayerfully, they will be raising someone’s children up. The question is, are we doing everything we can to prepare them both theologically and practically to carry out what God has called them to?

Raise them up to raise them up.