Youth minister open to God's plan

Editor’s note: The following is one in a series of profiles of religious leaders in Roosevelt County.

link Price

Joanna Price, 20, is the youth pastor at Central Christian Church in Portales. Price is majoring in theater at Eastern New Mexico University and said she plans on becoming a film actress and moving to Los Angeles in the next five to 10 years. She said she also hopes to continue working in ministry and is open to whatever God has planned for her.

What does your job entail and when do you work?

I’m in charge of making lessons and teaching the sixth- through 12th-graders that attend AMP, which is my youth group. High school AMP is Sunday evenings and junior high AMP is Wednesday evenings. During the summer I take my students on fun trips, to camp and to an inner city mission trip. I also host lock-ins, which are sleepovers, every month or so throughout the year.

How and when did you get involved with the church and the job?

I started attending the church in August of 2012 after going to Spectrum, which is their college ministry. Don Thomas, the senior pastor, asked me to intern for the position starting May of 2013 and after the summer ended, the church asked me to stay and be the youth pastor.

What is your favorite part of the job?

My favorite part is when I see Jesus impact one of my students and it causes them to seek him wholeheartedly.

What have you learned about yourself or in general through doing the job?

I have learned that Jesus’ love is so much more than how it sounds on paper; it’s real, it doesn’t let go and it is for everyone. He is so much better at loving people than I am, but because of that, I want to love people like he does.

What does the job and the church community mean to you?

I don’t look at youth ministry as a job. It’s a position I have been placed in to help take care of a different aspect of the church body. We’re a body; a cohesive unit that takes care of each other and grows together.

—Compiled by Staff Writer Jackie Johnson