Finding faith through football
Philip Jenkinson tells Glyn Henman of the tipping point that led him to find faith and then move into a behind-the-scenes youth ministry role.
Handing over the writing duties for this article to Glyn, the CEO of Young Life, is not an easy or natural thing for me to do. I’m a writer and a marketing man, and I always have been. But, it’s high time I told my own story of positive transformation, so after I complete this little introduction, I’m going to let Glyn Henman do the questioning, so that I can do the answering.
I joined Young Life Australia as Marketing Communications Manager at the national office on the 3rd of December 2007, less than a week after my dad Eric died. Within the first hour of starting I knew I was at the right place, and as I approach my second year at the charity, that point of view has only strengthened.
GH: Young Life is the first time you have worked in a ministry organisation. Tell us about your own journey of faith.
PJ: I’ve lived a pretty full life, and I only found faith eight years ago, so I never even considered working for a charity up until very recently. Before Young Life I worked at advertising agencies, marketing consultancies and big companies like the ANZ bank and Coles Myer Liquor Group.
As a kid I never went to church or Sunday school and neither did my parents, my brother or sister or any of my extended family. In fact, I didn’t know any Christians at all. Well, there was one boy I vaguely knew from Primary, and another guy at high school who hung around with my group who went to St Matts (the church I would eventually go to as a first-time Christian) but he was a bit of a nerd and we didn’t really have much in common.
Over the years I’d thought about religion and spirituality at times, and was a bit new age I suppose when I got married in my late 20s. It’s a bit embarrassing now but I really got into karma, reincarnation and crystal meditation there for a while. My wife occasionally went to church, so that made me think about religion at times too, but my own journey of finding faith finally came to a positive conclusion from playing Over-35 football some years later.
I was captain of a newly formed team and six of the guys were from St Matts West Pymble (on Sydney’s North Shore). At first I wondered how well they could play soccer, but these blokes were not only big on faith, they were very skilful players too. One of them was even Brazilian! Anyway, we had a killer season without losing a match (68 goals to 7, I seem to remember) so our team qualified into the Championship playoffs for the division.
So that meant playing the last two games on a Sunday morning, which, as the St Matts guys told me, meant that they’d have to miss out on attending church for the good of the team. So, one of them, Phil Mance, spoke for all of the ‘churchies’ and asked whether in return I would come to check out their church once or twice after the play-offs.
Well, our team won the Championship and I decided that I would check out St Matts to return the favour. I liked the vibe immediately and the place was packed too. The sermon was about serving, everyone was so friendly, and there were only a couple of Ned Flanders types there. I went again, and liked it even more. Then I did the ‘Simply Christianity’ course. And then I pledged to live my life for Jesus. I became a Christian in October 2001.
GH: Did you ever go off the rails as a teenager or when you were in your twenties?
PJ: The short answer is yes. I got into all manner of trouble and lived a fairly selfish and self-obsessed would-be rockstar lifestyle for four years in the inner-city, where I pushed the boundaries way too much. I was in bands and we did a record and played gigs and I thought I was much more important than I was. A couple of friends of mine died and the whole thing got a bit hazy after a while. I was on the brink of losing my job as well from partying too hard but I managed to get out of the city before it was too late, and got my life back on track.
GH: So what has been the pinnacle of your professional career so far?
PJ: Young Life Australia of course! But perhaps a fraction ahead of YLA, in terms of fulfilling a boyhood dream of one day breaking into the big time of advertising, was when I became a senior writer at McCann-Erickson Sydney in 1996. I’d finally made it in advertising. My key accounts were Coca-Cola, Levi’s, and Cathay Pacific Airways, and I did heaps of TV commercials, radio spots, mag ads and more.
Problem was, now that I was at the so-called ‘top’ it didn’t take me long to get disillusioned with the agency and the whole ad industry in general. After McCann’s I pursued more of a marketing communications career, side tracking to a bit of sales management along the way.
GH: And your biggest disappointment, from a professional standpoint?
PJ: I was working for this funky ‘green marketing’ consultancy and enjoying it, but I was still looking for the BIG challenge. And then up popped a job for ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) in May 2007. I was attracted to the position immediately and I applied for the role of ‘Area Support Manager – Northern Sydney and North Western Rural Region’. I jumped through a lot of hoops on that one... doing psychographic testing, problem solving tests and complex analytics, and then I attended four interviews including two very stressful panel interviews. It got down to me and another person I was told, and then I had to wait and wait and wait. I was finally advised that I had missed out on the position in the middle of October of that year.
I heard about the Young Life marketing role shortly afterwards, then got it, so the story had a happy ending after all. I’d found my new challenge. So disappointment led to contentment, as of course it often does in life.
GH: What has been your biggest regret so far?
PJ: The breakdown of my first marriage and more particularly, the fact that I had to leave being part of the day-to-day lives of my two young sons, Clark and Connor. This happened in August 2005 and it cut me up for quite some time. It took a couple of years for me to bounce back from that. My new-found faith and great friends, both Christian and non- Christian, really helped me through it all. Mind you, the kids are happy now and I have never been happier.
GH: Tell us of a real highpoint for you over the past year?
PJ: Well, I think you know the answer to that one already Glyn! Meeting Lindy, a wonderful, clever, caring, beautiful woman, and life-long Christian, eleven and a half months ago. We married on the 4th of July this year. We met through RSVP and we just clicked straight away (appropriate really because it is an online introduction agency). We’re so happy together and I will be praying my “Praise Be’s” every day for the rest of my life.
GH: What gives you the greatest satisfaction in your working day?
PJ: I like working behind the scenes at the charity, equipping our wonderful team of staffers and volunteers in the field with the best marketing communication tools I can make, so that our message is heard and reinforced in the collateral we produce. I suppose my favourite part of that is putting together the national newsletter ‘Connections’ four times a year, so I can spread the good news of what we are doing, as well as writing teenage-related articles of interest and value to people of all ages.
GH: So why Young Life? What do you think separates Young Life Australia from other organisations and ministries working with teenagers?
PJ: Young Life Australia is so different from church-run youth ministry because it is outward focussed not inward directed. I really like the servant-based model of leadership that we stand for. We go to where the need is greatest, and that’s out there in the suburbs, where young people don’t have great role modelling and most of the time don’t have any Christian friends whatsoever, let alone a Christian faith of their own. Young people without purpose and life direction are the most vulnerable, particularly if they don’t have good mentoring from older people that they trust and admire. Young Life is fun and unique. And it works.
GH: Finally, do you have a philosophy or motto that you live by?
PJ: I would love to claim Amy Machin’s mantra of “adventure before dementia” as my own, and I certainly subscribe to it. As you know Glyn, Amy is one of our talented young leaders up in Ipswich. But these days my own philosophy is far simpler than that. And that is... it takes two to have a conversation. If you listen as much as you talk, both parties are respected. That goes for a faith relationship, love, and friendships too.
Date: 18/08/2009 Author: Glyn Henman and Philip Jenkinson
Young Life Australia is a not-for-profit registered Christian charity that operates in Sydney, rural N.S.W., Brisbane A.C.T. & Melbourne. For more information visit the website www.younglife.org.au or call 1300 557 647 toll-free.
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