Seventh to ninth grade was a hard time for me and I don’t know why. My confidence was about zilch to none. I guess you could say I really wasn’t the most popular person in the world. And my spiritual life had kind of waned. I had once been enthusiastic about church, but during those years I went just to appease my parents. I just felt a sense of abandonment as far as my spiritual life was concerned. I had some problems—mainly with depression and anger and things of that nature.

During my sophomore year of high school, a woman came up to me in church and said, “Brad, Glendale [Church] is going to hold its first youth Sabbath. Would you like to have the sermon?”

I wanted to say no. I thought, “I can’t give a sermon. I’m sixteen years old. I’ve never spoken in front of anybody before.” I wanted to say no, but for some reason I said yes.

As soon as she left, the thought went through my head, “If only she knew exactly who I was outside of church. She would have never asked me—ever.”

I began working on the sermon. I had about three months to work on it and I used every bit of that three months. Finally, it came time to present the sermon. After I preached people came up to me and said, “You’re going to be a pastor.” I smiled, nodded, and thought, “No … no I’m not.”

Then I started thinking more seriously about what people had said. I got down on my knees one night and prayed, “God, if You really want me to be a minister, first of all, You’re going to have to change me … big time! Second of all, You’re going to have to give me a sign. The sign is going to be obvious opportunities—more opportunities to preach.”

My thinking was, what person in their right mind would call and ask a sixteen-year-old boy to go preach at their church? That’s unheard of. I thought I had out-smarted God. There was no way I was going to need to worry about being a minister now.

Well, two weeks later, God must have chuckled, because a church called, and said, “Hey, we heard your preaching. Come to our church and give the exact same sermon you preached at Glendale.”

A few weeks later, another church called, and then another church, and another church. Soon an opportunity came to speak at camp meeting. Then Fred Troxell, my assistant pastor, asked if I wanted to preach a series of seminars for Hope for the Homeland.

God couldn’t have been more obvious about what He wanted me to do. I felt like God had just picked me up and walked me through those series of events and said, “Okay, this is what you’re going to do. You made the deal. Now it’s your job to hold up to it.” I said, “Okay, God. Just lead the way and I’ll follow.”

We made all the necessary preparations. We got all the equipment. We rented a room in the Signature Inn. The first night of the meetings I was nervous. I didn’t know what to expect. I had never done anything like this before. I was praying all the time, “God, You’re going to have to get me through this. I need You to tell me exactly what to say so that somebody can be touched."

My dad’s friend, David Yancey, called and said, “Hey, I heard that you’re seventeen and giving evangelistic meetings.” I said, “Yeah … yeah I am.” He said, “Well, I want to be a part of your ministry. I [have] promise cards—these little cards that have a Bible promise on them. I want to donate those to you." He sent ten boxes of those promise cards to us.

I laid the boxes out on the living room floor and opened them all up. I thought, “I’m going to see how much God really uses these things.” I picked a random box. Then I picked a random card out of the box.

I had been nervous that whole summer. I didn’t know what I was going to say. I didn’t know if these seminars were going to be effective. I didn’t know if people were actually going to put their trust in a seventeen-year-old boy. So, I opened up the card and it said, “Do not worry about what to say, or how to say it.” And as soon as I read that, I knew instantaneously God was there. I keep it in my wallet at all times because this promise is really remarkable to me.

Through the course of these seminars, I felt this “presence” and I could sense it in people’s eyes. I knew God was working. I knew He had something special to do. Every night, people were talking about how the message had touched them and how it related to their life. One night a woman just started crying in the middle of the seminar. Afterward, she told me her husband had just died about a month before. She said the state of the dead message had given her so much hope about her husband. “Thank you, Brad,” she said. "That is exactly what I needed to hear.”

This rush of emotion came over me. I was just used by God to touch somebody. That’s what The Great Commission is all about—to go out and preach to the world and comfort people. I sensed I was fulfilling God’s mission and that God was working through me. Thoughts were going through my head about preaching that night that I had not prepared, I had not planned, they weren’t in the notes; I just said them—just off the top of my head. I knew God was leading me to say those things.

There was a man who had been away from the church for many years. The reason why he left was the message of the judgment. I guess he had talked with somebody and got so scared of the judgment that he just left. He didn’t want any part of church anymore. He came up to me after the sermon on the judgment and said, “Wow, I’ve never heard anyone put the judgment in such a hopeful way." He started to come back to church.

On the 14th night, the message was on Heaven and how we have hope for the Homeland. I saw people who had been taught for so many years that God was punitive and judgmental start to cry as they understood they did have hope in attaining a forever eternity and friendship with God. They found the Adventist message—that God was actually a God of love and forgiveness—that He was a God to run to instead of a God to run from. God had spoken to those people in a very special way, but I’m convinced that I was touched more than anybody, because God really worked on my heart that night and strengthened my faith as well.

God got me through it. He told me what to say and how to say it. Just like that promise card I read. I've had some bumps on the way, but overall I can definitely sense God has been there, holding my hand, and leading me every step of the way.

I’m thankful for all God has done and how He has led in my life. I just pray each one of us can follow Him wherever He leads. He told Abraham to pack up and go out of nowhere. I think that’s a call for each and every one of us—to just pack up and go—go out and preach His Word.

So I just feel it is a privilege to be a part of those many people who are going to finish the work. God is calling people to do that. We can either be a part of it, or we can run away from it. Either way, He’s going to get it done—with or without us.

I’m just a normal teenager. I got a C minus in speech class. I have no speaking ability whatsoever, but when I get behind a pulpit, it’s different. There have been people who have asked how long I have been a minister, and I say, "I’m still in high school." So that’s evidence in itself right there. You don’t need an already existing talent. God’s not calling talented people. God is just calling people who are willing. And if you’re willing to take that first step, He’s going to give you the talent when the time comes.

Brad Bolejack is now a 20-year-old sophomore studying accounting at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. He has a passion for sharing God's Word and has been preaching at churches across Indiana for the past four years when opportunities arise. He plans to attend the seminary.