Michal Šubert is a youth ministry leader with a heart for the younger generation in Slovakia.
When did you trust Christ?
My classmate invited me to join a non-profit gaming project four years ago. I was never in the church, and I only thought about the church as a corrupt place full of hypocritical people. But when we started working on gaming events, I saw people around me having their lives fulfilled. So, I searched for why that may be. When I went to a sports youth camp at the same church, God showed me that they all followed Jesus, which was why their lives were fulfilled. He asked me if I also wanted to be like Jesus and change my life based on who He is. I was excited and said yes. From that experience, I started seeing how God began to shape my life so that it would be closer to the life of Christ.
What have been the defining moments of your Christian walk?
The defining moment of my life was at the youth English camp at our church in 2019. Then, four months after that, I started regularly going to church on Sundays. In 2020, I had my first opportunity to lead a group, and I started in the youth ministry as one of the leaders for teens from 12 to 15 years old. In May 2021, I was invited to join EDGE, Josiah Venture's gaming and sports ministry, as an intern. In 2022, I heard the call from God to become a pastor, so I started studying theology in Vienna.
What do you hope to gain from participating?
I was more sure about what action steps I could take in our youth ministry and had many more ideas about what we could do. One-on-one mentoring especially helped me transition from National Sports Ministry to an IT job. My mentor told me what I could do to help the ministry continue flourishing, and it really helped a new team to start with something! I hope to get inspired and share the inspiration with my local church in the form of vision, new ideas, things I saw and heard, or new resources from seminars/ books. I’m also looking forward to great conversations among people from different contexts and the ability to help one another by sharing our experiences.
What is your ministry?
I'm currently leading a high school youth group during the school year; I'm responsible for the young guys' group, social media team, and program planning. During the summer, I co-lead an English sports outreach summer camp for teenagers. Recently, we started our Ultimate Frisbee team, which also serves as outreach for this lost generation. When possible, I also help other youth groups in the area by speaking.
What is your leadership role or what were your past leadership roles?
I was a youth group leader. I was also the Camp Promotion and Production Leader. In this role, I led the promo team for two years, mainly promoting the camps through social media and annually going to schools around our city to present the camp.
Why should someone invest in your ministry?
God has been doing such miracles in my life, transforming me from a total atheist who wondered what to do with his life to a child of God, student of theology, and university youth group leader. I've already been walking with Christ for a few years, and it's still just the beginning of this wonderful journey. As a young person, my income is a bit more limited, but that doesn't stop me from spreading His Gospel and growing His Kingdom all around the places I go and the lives I interact with.
