Ahh.. Fantastic Friday

What a great day to procrastinate! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and it's Friday. As I sit at my desk working on the Seniors Graduation Program, "Our King" by Tree63 is playing in the background and I can hear a baby play-date getting rowdy in the gym. Why would I not look forward to going to work? - Why would I even consider this work?

Funny thing, the seniors program was supposed to be completed Tuesday. However, all of Tuesday was spent upstairs in the Studio with our media minister. That left just enough time to begin studying for Wednesdays class... well, until the girl scouts arrived. Wednesday was a productive day. Thursday was spent designing an uplifting and edifying worship service, which did leave time to transplant the dirt in the front lawn. (oiy!)

I keep reminding myself, no matter how overwhelmed I may feel with non-job related duties, everything we do, we do for the Lord. And by gosh, I'm going to do it with all my might! If my church famiy needs me to shovel dirt to fill holes, then that's going to be the best dirt-shovelin' they've ever seen.

And, ya know, regardless of the weather, the Son is always shining! (how cliché, but true)

my prayer: may the life that I pursue, come from a hunger for the truth

On my high

Today, I'll not be wearing a hat. Youth, media, maintenance, hospital... it all seems to fall on Monday's. But I'm on such a high from last night, it doesn't matter. The youth group spent their Sunday evening out of the confines of the church building walls. We donated our time at the local homeless shelter. Met some amazing little children that are simply desperate for attention, and our kids were able to give it to them. I believe the impact on our youth was equal to, if not greater than, the impact we had on the children in the shelter. 

Praise God for opportunities like these!

When little shelter-girl Savannah was reading the Bible story of Samson to our youth, her mother was peaking around a corner, listening, tearing up, with a grin from ear to ear!

Facebook is flooded with our youth's testimonials of the impact that was made at the shelter!

Going to the homeless shelter tonight put a lot through my mind, we are truly blessed with the things that are givin to us or the things we have. If you ever feel that what you got isnt good enough or that its not the best thing you could have gotten just think, you could be living in a homeless shelter where you have pretty much nothing. This event really touched my life and I look at a lot of things differently now.

my ♥ is still smiling from our 1st "Mission Minded Outreach"!...those kids were such a joy tonight! and we were truly blessed!!

I've learned in the past year to put my primary focus on the youth ministry, when having to juggle between different ministoral duties. Jesse has done a great job of relieving many of my duties in the media and childrens ministry. It's a blessing to have a worker for the Lord with such a passion as his.

Funny how it sounds like Parkview has soooo many active ministries, and yet they are a congregation of only 150ish at the moment. Maybe it's our active ministries that will help this broken world establish relationships with Christ... I suppose we can only pray.

my prayer: praise God from whom all blessings flow

1st day off in three weeks

This post is taking place on a Saturday morning, and it is my first real day off in three weeks. Though there are to be two days off a week (per the contract), ministry calls you out to the harvest when you least expect it to.

Slept in until 9:00. How amazing was that, until I received a phone call from a lady needing in the church building. You see, this person (very polite woman) reserved the gym for a family event, properly filled out the paper work and such, and arrived only to find no one there to open the facilities she was to use. Thus, I got the call.

There are two people on the list that are to open the building. Neither of them even knew she reserved it. Luckily a buddy was in the area so was able to open the building for her. Various checkins are necessary when the building is reserved to insure that rules are being followed. I'll probably spend some time up there today :-/

But you know what? God's people work together. It says somthing like that in 1 Corinthians 12... one body, many parts. I suppose today I am the elbow joining the radius and humerus. I strive to make people happy, so just call me Mr. Funny Bone.



my prayer: patience

Juggling in Ministry - the beginning

This is completely normal; so I was told. Some days I forget what my job is, because I'm juggling quite a few different positions within the church. I work in youth ministry, the official title is "Youth and Family Minister."

I must remind myself of Paul's call to the Corinthians that because they didn't know how much time they had before God would return, they should always be doing the Lord's work.

Sometimes wearing a different hat each day can be difficult; worship planning one day, youth ministry, media then maintenance. So is this a "small church" thing? Do these problems arise from not having dynamic leaders and/or leaders that wont delegate?

I must remain focused on one thing, and that is we must work. Wouldn't it be awesome if we stood before God's throne someday and he says "I designed you in such a way so that you could take on multiple tasks, so that you could display my love through your actions."

And what if I get burnt out like so many ministers do? I'll get a job working for Walmart and still glorify him in my life. So in the words of New Riders of the Purple Sage, keep on keepin' on... and in the words of Paul, let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.


my prayer: Surround us, O Lord.