“When I was being obedient, I felt lonely…”

Kaylor Sheehy (4th Year), Worship

with Gabriella De Jesus

OSL student, Kaylor Sheehy, completed her second year in the Worship Internship. We were able to sit down to talk about her story and how OSL has impacted her life.

Tell me about your family life growing up?

My dad was and still is a pastor. My family was heavily involved in the church. It was like a second home to us. My dad would go in early or stay late. One way or another I was going in. Growing up, I remember setting up the bulletins. I started serving in Sunday school when I was eight. I started helping with worship when I was around twelve or thirteen. I just pretty much served as a student leader in my youth group. In terms of growing up, I was starting to learn what it was to serve the church from a pretty young age. A lot of it came from my family involvement.

Were there any major impactful moments that affected your life at that time?

In my senior year, I was praying about what God wanted me to do after graduation. I had thought about going to other schools. At the time, I remember, getting a call from my youth pastor asking me if I would be interested in being a worship pastor in France. The major impactful moment was knowing that God had a plan that was bigger than something I could have dreamt of or even planned for myself. Other moments took place through my obedience to some of the things that I had learned when I moved to France. I learned that God didn’t need my voice or my language to speak His love. My obedience helped me understand that God’s love was more powerful than my words, or my ability to communicate.

When I came back home from France, there was a prophetic word spoken over my life about worship. It was something I actually didn’t want to do. This prophetic word was about an anointing that was specifically in my future involving worship. Shortly after, God answered the prophecy through the opportunity to be the Youth worship pastor at my home church. The impact came from knowing that God had spoken and then what He said actually happened.

Who was your role model/mentor in that season of your life, and how did they help you?

The creative pastor at my home church had been a mentor through that season. She really encouraged me to be obedient. No matter where that took me, she knew that being obedient was going to be the best place for me. She was really honest with me in seeing the way I was growing and knowing it wasn’t going to fit at our church anymore. She encouraged me to look outside of what was comfortable and see that there were other places that would take me to a different level of growth than where I was.

How did you come to Christ?

It’s so crazy that the Lord allows this to be a memory, but I remember I was five. I was at my little table in the kitchen with my dad. I said something like, “Yeah, I’m a Christian.” He responded along the lines of asking me how I knew. I told him that I was a Christian because he and my mom were. He explained to me that it had to be a decision I made for myself. I remember in my kitchen, my father led me through the Lord’s Prayer and taught me what it really means to follow Jesus. It’s crazy that, even when you’re that young, the Holy Spirit can still enter your life. As I was growing up, I remember that even the little acts of rebellion, deviance, or sinfulness allowed me to feel so disgusting. Even at a young age, I felt so much more at peace when I was obedient and did what was right. Not only was it the right thing to do, but it was also what the Holy Spirit was leading me to do. I felt closer to the Lord’s heart and I felt better there than I did when I would do my own thing. I felt a lot safer when I did what God’s word said. It was pretty cool because I just continued to draw closer to the Father, even at a young age, because of the comfort of His presence in being obedient.

Was there a specific moment that you can remember where you realized the call God has on your life?

I think that I had always been pretty confident in my relationship with the Lord. I think there was a switch that happened when I was in seventh grade. The Holy Spirit allowed me to know that He had a calling for my life and that it’s to reach the people around me. He told me that I didn’t have to wait until I was older to do that. He started with where I was. He said that He wanted me to start a Bible Study at my school. I knew it was a big deal and how no idea how to even get started, but I was obedient. I made fliers, got them approved by the school, and put them up around the school. I got the new Friday morning Bible Study put in the announcements. I just knew at that moment that the Lord had called me to reach my school. Through that experience, I began to learn leadership development.

Can you tell me about any struggles you had with your calling during that period?

The struggles I had were being sterilized at the “Christian girl” and getting left out of gossip, or cliques. I felt pretty lonely at times when I was at school. It made it hard to relate when I wasn’t in on all the drama. It really ostracizes you and causes you to stick out. When I was being obedient, I felt lonely. Sometimes it felt like I was the only one living out my faith in a community where everybody cares about what everybody else thinks.

How did your story bring you to OSL?

When I had gotten back from France, I had taken a gap year. I knew that I really wanted to get my general basics done so I did community college. I had a friend who was a professor at the SAGU Graduate school, who had just moved back home to Northwest Indiana. They spoke with me and told me that they thought I would really like SAGU. That fall 2016, my family decided to go visit. I had another friend, who was a part of OSL, that invited me to a dinner that was happening. I remember going and sitting there with my parents, while they were crying. They expressed how much they felt OSL was made for me. We did get caught up in the logistics of the financial parts of it. I was skeptical about spending so much money on a Church Leadership degree. I felt like I needed a degree in something more useful in reaching people.

Four weeks before school started, I had written SAGU off. That entire summer, I had been fasting and praying about where God wanted me to go. I could feel my roots coming out of the ground and I knew God was going to place me somewhere else. One night, my mom had put a bunch of scrap paper on my desk, that just happened to be papers from SAGU’s welcome week. Later that night, I felt the Lord tell me that I needed to go to SAGU. I decided to be obedient but I still wasn’t sure what I was going to study. The Lord then asked me if I would regret not doing OSL if I came to OSL, and I knew I would. Within the span of the next three days, I made the decision to go and God provided financially.

What internship are you in? How did you choose that internship?

From start to where we are now, I’ve been with Oaks Worship. I honestly didn’t want to do it because I had been doing worship for so long. I had felt so insecure about my ability to lead. I was ready to move on and thrive somewhere else. Part of me knew I would regret not doing the Worship Internship. What if I could gain confidence and thrive there? I would wonder if I didn’t at least start there. I decided to start there and if I felt called to transition and grow elsewhere, I would do it. I haven’t interned with other departments but I have been able to work with other departments, like Powerhouse. It’s such a great experience because it allowed me to use my previous experience with working with kids and be a part of the process of how their department works.

Have there been any difficulties you have gone through while in OSL?

The beginning was really hard because there was so much that was new. When you’re an incoming freshman or transfer student, you are walking into a brand new school. It depends on the situation because some people can come into OSL because they’ve been at SAGU. If you’re a brand new SAGU and OSL student, that’s really overwhelming because you’re getting accustomed to a new university, a new church, and you’re thinking about how you’re fitting in with people. I remember feeling pretty overwhelmed at the beginning because I was learning how to be an intern and what my responsibilities were as an intern, as well as finding where I fit in the grand scheme of things.

How have you gotten through them?

Time. That’s like the biggest word because I began to feel more comfortable once I realized I didn’t have to prove myself. It’s easy and tempting to feel like you have something to show to others. When you realize that the Lord has called you to a place, you lose the pressure of having to impress. You then go on to realize that God has called you to grow and to simply be obedient in being here. The pressure to look good around others wasn’t as daunting. It allowed me to feel like I could grow at my own pace. You get used to the balance of knowing the amount of time you spend and where you spend it. With time, you realize what you can and cannot handle.

Down the line, where do you see yourself after graduating from OSL?

Realistically, I can see myself being in more of a connections department. I have a very high level of relatability with people. I have an organizational mind. I think in terms of how things function together well. I think the mix of my creative and my logistics make well for a position like that. Obviously, I’m trained to be a worship pastor but I don’t really know if I feel like I’m going to do the thing I’m called to do right now. It seems a little bit odd because you would wonder why I’m in a department doing what I’m doing if I don’t think I will be doing that for the long haul. I think the Lord has called me to be faithful to where He has me. It may not seem like it makes sense, but God is using every season to prepare me for the next. Even though it might look different, there is a purpose in your obedience. You might not necessarily know what that means for your future but you have to trust God in placing you where He has you right now.

What are your hopes for the time that you will spend in OSL?

My hopes are that I continue to learn the healthy aspects of leadership so that no matter where I go or what I do, I will keep loving people at the forefront of everything I do. Working with others is inevitable, and I want to continue observing and learning how to better operate as an organizational leader. I want to learn the balance of responsibility, as well as how to work well with others. I want to steward what I have been given well.

Lastly, do you have any advice for your peers currently going through OSL and those looking into it?

Do everything unto the Lord, not to impress or prove yourself, but do it as your act of worship. Excellence isn’t to get people to come to church, or to join your ministry but done to please and bless the Lord’s heart. When we do things well for His glory, not our own or for others, then the Lord will bless your sacrifice of praise and in due time those seeds you have planted will produce a harvest. If you plan on doing ministry for the long haul, you have to let your mindset be one that keeps God the boss, the one you do everything for.

The Oaks School of Leadership (OSL) at Oaks Church was founded in 2009 and since then more than 600 students have gone through OSL. Many serve in high-caliber leadership positions throughout our nation and around the world. OSL exists to position students for effective leadership in a variety of capacities, including ministry, non-profit and business leadership, by providing students with hands-on leadership training combined with a degree from an accredited university.