By Pete Berlin, Gathering UMD Future Leader

So what do you do? That question is probably in the top five for conversation starters in the DC Metro area. When I started the Future Leader Program, I struggled to define my answer to that question. I could just say that I work for a church, but that is a cop-out answer in my mind. After five months, I now have my answer ready.

If people are willing to listen, my answer includes a short description of my typical Monday. Usually, people would prefer an explanation when you tell them a church employs you. Right now, my Mondays are booked with all the essential elements of my role as Gathering UMD Campus Director. I will share with you what my typical Monday looks like:

Around 10:00 AM, I join the rest of the Gathering Staff at a Greenberry’s Coffee near the MBC Tysons Campus. This coffee stop is actually our weekly Bible study as a staff team. We sip some coffee, maybe enjoy a butter croissant, chat about life and dig deep into God’s Word together. As of late, we have been cramming inside around two joined tables, but during the late summer, we were able to enjoy the wonderful weather on the expansive patio. I cherish these Bible studies because I love hearing how God is working in the lives of my fellow ministry leaders. It is always a joyous time filled with passionate stories, prayer, and laughter.

Around 12:00 PM, I am in the office creating the Facebook event for the weekly Gathering worship service at UMD. Usually, I am also putting the finishing touches on my journal entry for the Future Leaders Program. Sometimes I finish the journal before 4 PM, sometimes it doesn’t get sent via email until close to midnight.

By 2:00 PM, I am in the car and headed toward the Capital Beltway. If I do not leave the Tysons Corner area by 2:30 PM, I can assume an hour extra will be tacked on to my commute to Maryland. If all goes well and there are no accidents, I will arrive at a Starbucks in College Park by 3:00 PM. A table and chair at Starbucks constitute my second office. With a tall coffee and my laptop plugged in, I begin to follow-up on emails, compile a weekly blast email to my student-base, and plan for a student developer meeting later that night. I value the Starbucks Gold Card because it gets me free refills on my coffee and I am extremely reliant on the now free Wi-Fi at Starbucks.

By 5:00 PM, I should be finding a parking spot near the Van Munching Building on campus at UMD. It is always a fight to fit my four-door sedan into a shrunk parking spot since the lot is haphazardly created on a slanted blacktop lot. Once maneuvering through the one-way lanes of the lot and parking, I walk into Van Munching and send a text message to my student director Alirio. Typically, we meet at one of the couches in the main hall. From 5:30 – 6:15 PM, Alirio and I catch up on each other’s lives and just chat on life. Starting at 6:15 PM, we switch to deciding the agenda for the weekly student developer meeting that will happen at 7:00 PM.

At 6:55 PM, Alirio and I are typically walking out of Van Munching, grabbing some snacks from my car and trying to piggyback into Commons 7 for our meeting. The meeting is in a community room with vending machines and a whiteboard on the first floor of a new dorm called Commons 7. In attendance at this meeting are the upper-tier of Gathering UMD student leadership. Delores, Chris, Esther and Matt are the four student developers. Lissa is our leadership admin and Alrio is the student director. I am just a participant in the meeting. From 7:00 PM until someone decides to get down to business, we talk about life and prayer requests. Then eventually, we tackle the items on the agenda. Usually, the agenda includes discussions on upcoming events, Gathering-wide promotions, budgetary concerns, student leader recruitment, and possibly event evaluations. This meeting typically ends around 8:45 PM and then all the students rush off to finish their homework.

By 9:00 PM, I am back in my car and heading home to Northern Virginia. Depending on how much nightly construction I can avoid, I reach my host-home by 10:15-10:30 PM. When I finally reach my bedroom and release my backpack, I either spend 30-45 minutes finishing my weekly journal entry or attempt to read a book. Hopefully, I am asleep by 11:00 PM and God-willing, it is a deep sleep because I definitely need it.

If you followed along, I worked close to a 12-hour day. This is the reality of ministry. First and foremost, I am a servant of God. Next, I seek to serve those who look to me for help or leadership: my student director, leaders, and fellow ministers. Even though my schedule is jam-packed, I love my Mondays. My role as campus director is both a challenge and a joy. I am thrilled to continue working with the Gathering into 2011. I am a servant. I am a future leader. I am a campus director. I live for Christ’s fame!