At the end of things

So my time at Mountain has ended - as of last Wednesday morning to be exact. Since coming home, my friends ask, "how was it? what did you learn? did you like it?" and the like - and I find it both extraordinarily easy and difficult to answer them. 

Earlier today, I went out for coffee just this afternoon with a dear friend of mine who had just spent her entire semester at Oxford - both of us had had life changing experiences - although quite different from each other's. We spent a couple hours sharing about the great and hard times about our semesters, each listening as the other told her story.

The whole time I felt like my story wasn't making much sense - words like...

love

affirmation

blessing

equipping

thankful

fun

challenging

humbling...

poured out of me along with stories about different experiences like case studies, spiritual formation classes, my student ministry team, leading a small group, and heart to heart talks with God. And the whole time I kept thinking, "what I'm sharing isn't fully explaining what this semester meant to me." 

And it didn't. Probably nothing I said to my friend today truly explained my semester - and she probably felt the same way about her story.

And that's ok. 

I could tell people hours worth of stories about people who became family, events that I helped plan, meetings I went to, sermons I preached

But at the end of all the things that happened these past four months - God taught me something that he's been teaching me since August. 

When I first came - when we were on our retreat and forced to have a time of silence - I was freaking out. I had no idea what I was getting myself into; had no idea if I would be able to do it; no idea if this was where I was supposed to be... 

But God said, 

You work on your character - I'll take care of everything else
You work on pursuing me this semester - I'll make sure you can do the tasks of ministry

And that's what happened - because like I've been hearing all semester

Character really does trump skill set every time

At the end of things - I love the work of the church
At the end of things - I have a passion for students
At the end of things - I'm good at this thing called ministry

And at the end of things - none of what I learned this semester will ever matter if I'm not pursuing Christ with everything that I am.

My chapter at Mountain has come to a close - but my pursuit of Christ and the ministry he has for me has only begun. Thanks for being my launchpad, Mountain.

But I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus Christ - to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

100 Things

This list is partially copied from my dear friend and fellow intern, Danielle. I leave for home tomorrow but I wanted to make a list of the top 100 things I'm going to deeply miss and love about Mountain and Maryland in general. So, in no particular order, 


100 Things I love about Mountain

1. Roundabouts - seriously, so convenient 

2. Abby Scarff's laugh


3. Movie nights


4. Being able to see my church from my bedroom window


5. Pepper Baker


6. Blake Park's sarcasm - and his words of encouragement


7. Jared Fox yelling - "my cup is empty!"


8. Immediately following this statement a game of four square begins


9. Constant encouragement from everyone

10. Criticism that's full of grace and truth


11. Tuesday Family Ministry meetings


12. Any meeting involving the Student Ministry team

13. Curriculum brainstorming

14. Singer road in the fall

15. Ben's preaching - even all his Viking references 


16. Panera on a weekly basis


17. All Staff meetings


18. Ethan's excessive laughter


19. Being able to preach the gospel and receive helpful critique to get better


20. Erin's hugs


21. 5¢ off every gallon of gas on Thursdays at the Shell station

22. Katie Gerber's laugh

23. Gary Newsom asking me what kind of forties music I like best

24. When Elsa decided to make me a necklace - and I leave it hanging in my car so I see it everyday

25. Nathan McDade saying "hey buddy" every time he sees me

26. Constant access to coffee

27. Being on a team who likes to take Starbucks runs

28. Writing sermons

29. Preaching those sermons

30. Fortunatos

31. Morning coffee and devotions with Jenny

32. Spending hours with Lydia Park talking about life and ministry

33. Sunday nights at Chilis with my friends

34. Watching How I met your mother with Andy and Kristina Baker

35. Worshipping on Tuesday nights with the ladies at Coffee Break

36. Ben's "Hello Mountain" every time he starts his sermon

37. Brendan mishearing everything

38. Josh Dew's questions about guns and his top hat

39. Rob Kasten's puns

40. Receiving surprise letters from my friend at Oxford this semester, Meghan Wymer

41. All-staff emails

42. Everybody "Replying All" to all-staff emails

43. Tim Kick's servants heart and versatility of gifts

44. Going to bed at a decent time

45. ECHO! (ECHO!)

46. My 7th grade small group

47. April Parsons' and Cindy Arsenault's leadership and friendship

48. Being able (and encouraged) to pass people on the shoulder if they're turning left

49. The fact they announce every upcoming street with a street sign so you always know when you'll need to turn

50. Wes calling Nathan "Shootfire"

51. Wes announcing he needs to go to the "urination station"

52. Wes saying "What in TARnation?!"

53. 1/2 price burritos at Qdoba on Wednesdays and Thursdays

54. Isaac Fox's super cute face - love that kid

55. The politically incorrect MCS hallway that I walk through each morning

56. Group lunches

57. Andrea Sung's smile

58. Sparkling Cider celebrations with Jon Miser

59. Serving being a natural part of staff culture

60. Ultimate frisbee games with students

61. Watching Once Upon a Time with Gerri

62. Marge handing me a wad of cash every Thursday

63. Walking the trails at Jerusalem Mills

64. Laughing with Emilee Morgan

65. That feeling of relief once set up is over for Echo and Collide

66. Being assigned really great ministry books to read - and being able to keep them

67. Proximity to NYC

68. People telling me my Ethan impersonation is pretty good

69. Bryant and Evan's IQ

70. Hanging out with the Boyle girls

71. Heating up my lunch on Tuesday's in the Children's Ministry office just so I can say hello

72. Sarah Shuck always asking for a hand hug

73. Lisa and Jill's homemade deliciousness

74. Any interactions with Rick Sisolak

75. Martina's awesome accent and servant heart

76. The Olsen sisters

77. Having an adult pay for your meal almost every time you eat out with them

78. Having Friday's off

79. Brendan's humor

80. Emilee laughing hysterically at her own stories

81. TCTsquaredF 

82. One lane bridges

83. Learning awesome middle school ministry skills from Blake

84. Mary Jackson commenting on mine and Danielle's Facebook posts telling us how much she wants us back on Milligan's campus

85. Excessive use of the phrase "own it"

86. Being asked the same questions every Thursday at team lunches

87. Thursday morning Spiritual Formation meetings

88. Being able to write papers in bullet point format

89. Watching Nathan Hall lead both worship and our group

90. Youtube searches counting at "research" in planning meetings

91. "Making pancakes, making bacon pancakes"

92. Finger blaster wars in the Student Ministry hallway

93. Everyone reminding me that they are FOR me

94. Danielle sneaking a Lean Pocket into every Preaching and Teaching class

95. The initial awkwardness of intern meals at Mountain members' houses

96. Shopping trips with Sarah and Isaac Fox

97. Jared Fox putting "the" in front of road names

98. Praying with the volunteers before Echo

99. Sitting with the Parks and Olivers at the 8:08 service

100. My Mountain Christian Church Family

Christmas shenanigans

This past Wednesday we had our All Staff Christmas Party at Mountain.

Three words: 

BEST DAY EVER!

From 8am till 3 I was hanging out with everyone on staff - loving God, loving people, and serving the world. 

I shouldn't have been surprised, but instead of spending most of the time together - we split up into teams and blessed different organizations that Mountain partners with.

Typical Mountain style


I cannot mention enough how much I love the staff at Mountain. They really do practice what they preach - love God, love people, serve the world. 

Even during an All Staff Christmas Party

After blessing others, celebrating 12/12/12 with noise makers, and random white elephant gifts from the pastors' closets - this happened...

With Blake and Jenny's hand on my shoulder and Ben leading a prayer - the staff of Mountain Christian Church expressed their love and appreciation of us interns. It brought tears to my eyes as I felt affirmed and commissioned into my next phase of ministry for God's kingdom.

Thanks Mountain. It's nice to know you have my back.

New favorite Christmas memory

Thankful

I realized when I woke up this morning that it's been a while since I've written - probably because the last 2 weeks have been CRAZY! 

Such is the life of a minister when the holidays approach

But, stepping back a couple weeks, I wanted to take a minute and express my gratitude.

Every year, Thanksgiving rolls around and every year I have more to be thankful for 

This year in particular - I'm thankful for Mountain. (I know, sappy moment) but seriously - I cannot express just how grateful I am to every one at this place who has taken time out of their lives to invest in me - whether in my relationship with Christ or in helping me become the pastor that I want to be.

If I were to take the time to express my thanks to every individual in this post - I would probably miss my 10 o'clock meeting - (and no one wants to read a long sappy post)

So for now, 

Thanks Mountain staff. I'm excited for these last 2 weeks as I serve with such wonderful people.

Shout out to my 7th grade girls

All semester long, I've been co-leading a 7th grade girls small group. I just wanted to take a minute and say

THESE GIRLS ARE AWESOME!!!

Seriously, these are some of the most mature, beautiful, fun-loving, bubbly, Jesus centered, middle school girls I have ever hung out with!

I'm INCREDIBLY sad that I only have 2 weeks left to hang out with them :(

Bre, Abby, Yael, Olivia, Sam, Kelsie, Aly, Allison, Emma, Becca, Morgan, Delaney, Brooke, Faith, Kiley, Sarah, and Shannon - I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!

Never lose the fire you have for Christ!! You all are beautiful young women no matter what the world tells you!

I'm also SO thankful for my co-leaders and mentors April and Cindy! I've been so blessed to learn from you both this semester! You are wonderful!

Excited to enjoy these last couple weeks with you all!

Incarnational Living

If you have read some of my other blog, or hang out with me at all, you've probably heard me talk about New Monasticism quite a bit. Over the past year or so, I've researched, written a paper, read, and spent countless hours thinking about this movement called "New Monasticism."

Well after all my research, these past 2 days (actually this morning) I finally got to experience first hand what New Monasticism looks like. 

Wednesday afternoon I headed off for Philadelphia to spend a couple days at the Simple Way, (Shane Claiborne's community in Kensington.) Needless to say, I was crazy excited! It felt like a dream come true! 

After struggling to get through Philly traffic, we didn't make it for morning prayer on Thursday, but they did stick around for about a half hour and just discussed their neighborhood, lifestyle, and different strategies for communal living in our situation. Thursday night, we joined them for a "mid rash" where they discussed a football league they were helping to start which got young men off the streets and helped dispel racism in the area. Then, this morning we made it for prayer.

It was truly a beautiful experience. 

The love that the people at the Simple Way have for the impoverished area around them is astounding and inspiring. They simply love Jesus, love those people, and stay put while building relationships.

A lot of people call their lifestyle radical - and I guess it can look that way. Living (on purpose) in the most impoverished area of Philly in order to love people that are mostly overlooked - not to mention - I met Shane and he certainly looks radical :)

But I want to live this way - incarnational living  

"Incarnational" - a very "Christiany" word but one that I think fits perfectly. 

The people of the Simple Way, and other New Monastic communities, are the incarnation of Jesus. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of ways to be Jesus in the world - (I'm working for a Church that lives this way, and they look nothing like New Monasticism)

But their lives are Simple really - live simply, love people, and serve those around you, 

Be Jesus

"Maybe we are a little crazy. After all, we believe in things we don't see. The Scriptures say that faith is "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Heb. 11:1). We believe poverty can end even though it is all around us. We believe in peace even though we hear only rumors of wars. And since we are people of expectation, we are so convinced that another world is coming that we start living as if it were already here." - Shane Claiborne

Silence

This is somewhat of a continuation from a previous post - the one titled "to be continued." Although I don't have much to say in this post either. 

Last Thursday, I spent 4 hours outside by a pond in complete silence with God alone. 

Let's just say, silence is a great spiritual discipline - and one that I need to remember to continue after this semester. 

The things you hear from God when you stop talking.