Called to Minister: Amelia Garrett

Photo courtesy of the Bluefield University Marketing Office.

No matter where she goes, Amelia Garrett loves bringing people to know the Lord. 

Widely known on campus as a member of Bluefield University Student Ministries (BUSM) and worship leader, Garrett is majoring in English Education with a focus in speech. She started attending Bluefield University in the fall of 2023 and plans to graduate in 2027.

Garrett became involved with on-campus ministry her freshman year. Although she attended chapel, she could not attend events because she was a student athlete playing volleyball. She then chose to quit volleyball and go all in for Jesus. 

“I decided to try out for the Home worship team as it seemed like something I could get into, because I struggled my first year seeing Bluefield as home,” Garrett said. “My house is local, but I chose to live on campus as an athlete. I went home every day because Bluefield wasn’t home for me. When I started attending Home nights and helping with worship, I started falling in love with Bluefield.” 

When Garrett joined the Home worship team, she discovered more than she expected.

“I picked up this ministry thing as an obligation I had set in my head,” Garrett said, “but I found intimacy with Jesus, not through a stage or a song, but through personal refining and a family I never would’ve expected to find.” 

Garrett has been involved with worship since she was 11 years old, when she started playing guitar at her local home church. She said the most fulfilling part of student ministries is “the fact that I can work and serve Jesus and His people, while also knowing I’m being taken care of by my family at Home.”

In the fall of her junior year, Garrett was called into a meeting with Campus Pastor Mason West and former BUSM leader Grace Trent. 

“It was a regular conversation,” she said. “They always checked in on me, but I knew something was different about this particular talk.”

Different indeed, as West had decided the next leader of BUSM would be Garrett. 

“I knew I had been clearly called to ministry by God,” Garrett said, “but I never expected a leadership role that I hold that sacred to be passed to me.”

Despite fears and doubts, Garrett said yes to God. For other students thinking about taking the next step in ministry, she shared the following advice. 

“Do it!” she said. “Pull the trigger, lose your dignity, let your friends question why you’re going. A life that truly looks like living for Jesus is dying to yourself and others first, before that empty feeling in your soul can be filled.”

Although Garrett is in a leadership role now, after college, she plans to continue leading others to Christ. 

“I believe I’ve been called to minister for the rest of my life,” Garrett said.

She plans to stay plugged into a local church and serve wherever she is needed. 

“Yes, I desire to lead people,” Garrett said, “but my heart is to nurture those people and constantly be in their corners for whatever they may need.”