A Guest Post from Julie Evans Albracht
Posted on June 21, 2013 in Uncategorized
“I am thrilled to introduce you to my friend, Julie Albracht. Julie is a wonderful wife, mother, and ministry leader. Julie is my pastor’s daughter and has lived her life to make a Kingdom impact. As a mom who serves in ministry, I am anxious to read her post myself! I asked Julie to give some insight into being raised in the ministry. Julie is eloquent and sincere. You are going to be blessed and encouraged…without further adieu, Julie Albracht.”
Growing up in the ministry spotlight is all I have known and I can’t imagine growing up differently. It has many positive aspects that I am thankful for. I will never take for granted the deep roots of Christian faith that have been instilled in me; I’m very thankful for that, as well as the legacy of a relationship with Jesus that I can help nurture in my own children.
One important aspect of growing up in the arena of ministry that I try to help others with when raising their own children, is that it is so easy to get caught up in our church, or parachurch, world that we forget the value the rest of the world has to offer. We have the tendency to insulate ourselves from becoming like the world, causing us to unintentionally build a wall around our children and ourselves.
I believe it is not an accident that the Bible says we should go OUT and make disciples.
What happened in my situation was that I naively began to believe that the rest of the world saw my family the same way our church did. It was hard for me to acclimate to college life for that reason. I had never had to “try” to make friends. They were always just there, and lots of them in a mega church. Ironically that was the same time I questioned maybe those childhood friends were just around me to be close to my Dad. I started to have a hard time trusting anyone that wanted to be close.
The other thing that I experienced in my early adult years was a very severe crisis of belief. I was saved when I was 5, went to church several times a week , went to school at church, all the youth programs, camps, etc. However, I believe I became desensitized to the meaning of what was going on around me. Don’t get me wrong, I “felt” the “right” feelings and experienced the highs and lows of youth programs, but I didn’t understand until leaving home and the church bubble, why I desperately needed God. It took me being outside of my holy huddle to get close to God.
I’m so thankful for the foundation that I had in order to find God in a powerful and real way, but it was a scary process and not all PK’s have the same outcome.
God and church and God and family get very tangled and hard to separate. It’s easy to believe that the church is God. That your father who speaks for God is godlike. What I know beyond a doubt today is that there is only one God that can fill my heart and soul. We need to encourage our children to focus on God not the vessels He uses. He will always be there if other things slip away, others are important, but none can compare to Him.
Julie Evans Albracht and her husband Cory have been married for 17 years. They live in Fair Oaks Ranch, TX with their 11 year old twin daughters. She and her husband serve the city of San Antonio in their passion for Community Transformation. Julie is a consultant to ministers and their families, writer, and interior designer. She is also the proud daughter of Jimmy and Karen Evans of Marriage Today. Contact information for Julie is at Legacyseven.com
