From the classroom to the locker room — and back again — Steffan Johnson has found himself on a 27-year-long quest to discover the “real world.”
The South Carolina native — who spent his undergraduate education at the PC(USA)-related St. Andrews University playing college football while earning a degree in philosophy and religious studies — said that because those years didn’t bring him anywhere close to finding what he was seeking, he enrolled in Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
“In seminary, since I didn’t have my friends around me in the locker room, I just poured all of that energy into my studies,” said Johnson, who received a master’s degree in theological studies in 2023. “I dove into everything that the professors gave us, including Martin Luther and Augustine. And even though seminary was life-changing, I can’t just go and tell a stranger on the street what Martin Luther said. I love Augustine, but 95% of churches wouldn’t even know who he was. I needed to find the language where I could connect with everyday people.”
And he did find it — through the PC(USA)’s Young Adult Volunteer program.
The YAV program — which has been changing the lives of young people ages 19–30 for three decades — also emphasizes living in intentional Christian community, spiritual formation and vocational discernment.
“I committed to my YAV year as a 25-year-old fresh out of seminary,” Johnson said. “Up until that point, I was just a student pursuing my education, which was a little nerve-racking. I had friends starting families and businesses, and it felt like my first time entering the world. The YAV program helped me understand the flow of the real world.”
An ecumenical, faith-based year of service that is lived out in sites across the U.S., virtually and around the world, the YAV program is supported, in part, through the Pentecost Offering, one of the PC(USA)’s four Special Offerings.
Not only do gifts to the Pentecost Offering benefit the YAV program, but the Offering also supports the Office of Presbyterian Youth and Triennium and the Educate a Child, Transform the World national initiative. Forty percent of the offering is retained by individual congregations for local ministries, while the remaining 60% is used to support children at risk, youth and young adults through ministries of the PC(USA).
Johnson was placed by the program in four different sites across New Orleans during his term as a YAV.
Johnson’s service encompassed stints with the Jefferson Food Bank; Mid-City Ministries, an after-school program; Rebuilding Hope in New Orleans (RHINO), a citywide ministry focusing on service projects and volunteer work originally established in response to Hurricane Katrina by St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church; and the Program of Hope, run by First Presbyterian Church, which ministers to New Orleans’ homeless population.
Because he was always “intrigued by youth ministry,” Johnson found that his youth-centered YAV service aided his vocational discernment.
“While in New Orleans, I volunteered as a tutor and, at the same program, I conducted a Bible study with young people,” he recalled. “It was great! Although my enthusiasm for youth ministry definitely prepared me for my role as a YAV, my background in education was put to the test by a loving group of grade school students.”
Like when Johnson was teaching second graders how to read, which he called “the hardest thing ever.”
“I was trying to be cool but also to be the disciplinary figure they needed,” he said. “And whenever they asked me hard questions, I had to acknowledge that I don’t always have all the answers. We’re all still learning.”
Since he found that he was still discerning his vocational path when his year in New Orleans came to a close, Johnson applied for and served in a virtual YAV placement with the PC(USA)’s Asia Pacific and Africa offices.
He was grateful for the opportunity — and for the Pentecost Offering, which largely made it possible.
“Presbyterians should give to the Pentecost Offering so that young people can experience diverse communities, learn more about their place in the world and build an appetite for justice for future generations,” said Johnson. “By giving, young adults are given a chance to grow socially, vocationally, and more important, spiritually.”
Emily Odom, Associate Director of Mission Communications, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Susan Abraham, Associate, Mission Program Grants & Mission Development Resources Committee, Interim Unified Agency
Angielee Acevedo, Lead Housekeeper, Stony Point Center, Interim Unified Agency
Let us pray:
O God, we ask your blessing on those whom you have called into the vocation of teaching and nurturing the faith. Strengthen them in this important service even as they strengthen the church through their work. Amen.
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