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.

Case Studies (*cue the thunder clap*)

As a part of our internship, 3 times over the course of this semester we have what's called "case studies." (*cue the thunder clap*)

Ok, they aren't that bad....maybe ;)

Basically, we have to tell each other where we really blew it. Report about a time we screwed up. And then, while we sit silently, everyone else critiques us; saying what we could have done better or differently.

It's quite a humbling process.

But's it's incredibly beneficial.

I make all kinds of mistakes - some of them minor - but some not so much. And the wonderful folks at Mountain who created this program expected I would make mistakes and are now forcing me to learn from them. It also teaches me a lot about myself - my last two case studies kind of dealt with the same problem.

Thank goodness I'm making these mistakes now in an environment that forces me to learn from them. Hopefully what I learn will stick.

Home

I realized today that it's been two weeks since I posted about my semester. Well, it's been an interesting couple weeks here in Maryland - we just had a hurricane blow through. Thankfully, there was minimal damage here in Harford County.

I don't know whether it's the gloomy skies from the storm, the fact that Thanksgiving (and subsequently) Christmas are on the horizon, or the feeling that this is the first time I've stopped to breathe since the beginning of October, or more likely, a combination of all of these, but

I've been homesick these past two weeks. 

And it's a weird feeling, because I don't necessarily want to leave Mountain. 
Not at all actually. 
Just 2 nights ago I had dinner with a wonderful family, played with their two adorable little girls, and realized how much I will miss them when I leave.

But two weekends ago my mom came to visit me. And last Thursday I went up to DC to visit with my brother for a couple hours while he was nearby.

And I realized something:
As much as certain places can feel like home (as Mountain does) and as much as certain people can become like family (as many of my new friends here have), 

Nothing can replace family

I'm excited for the holidays in 3 weeks. 

But I'm not checking out yet. I've got some pretty exciting ministry coming up :)

New found joy

I discovered something about myself this past week, well actually these past couple of weeks

I enjoy preaching

And not just the physical event of preaching

I enjoy all of the studying, processing, prep work, and practice that goes into preaching.

Last night was the first time that I had preached a sermon that was completely my own. Not to say that everything little detail was an original new idea, but it was the first time I preached a longer sermon without following a provided curriculum.

And I loved it.

The funny thing about all this is that as much as I love preaching - I was crazy nervous before I spoke last night. I mean, I thought I was going to lose it.

As the band played the first couple songs, I stepped away thinking I needed to look over my notes one more time - just to make absolutely sure I wouldn't forget anything.

But I didn't look over them again.

I prayed.

And I felt this overwhelming peace just wash over me.

I looked through the black drapes at the outlines of those students. Those crazy middle school students who were about to hear a message - not from me - but from God. I realized how much God loves them and how much I love them and how desperately I want to answer their questions. Frankly, I realized how awesome it is that I get the opportunity to preach in a church-like setting at all! And the fact that I'm in this program where people are going to listen attentively because they want to give me feedback to make me into a better preacher.

I don't know whether it was out of thankfulness to my friends and mentors supporting me, or out of my heart for those students, but the combination of the two made tears come to my eyes.

Needless to say, I believe preaching God's word will be a major part of wherever God ends up taking me.

Time

(Copied from my other blog - Acts 20:24)

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

As you can probably tell from the title of this blog, the verse Acts 20:24 is important to me. It's one that I have considered my "life verse" for many years now. I just took some time to go back through Acts 20 for a sermon report I have to present on Monday for my preaching class, and - like scripture always causes me to do - I made some new realizations on an "old" text.

Acts 20 is Paul saying goodbye.

Goodbye to those he loves in order to say hello to the unknown.

He feels "compelled by the Spirit" to leave his ministry in Ephesus and return to Jerusalem to continue the ministry he received from Christ.

This point jumped out at me because I've been thinking about time a lot recently. I love every minute of being in Student Ministry at Mountain Christian Church. I love these people, I love this church, I love this place. I realized today that in all the chaos of planning, teaching, meetings, events, and good ministry, I've somehow come to the middle of my semester here.

Where did the time go?

Thankfully, it is just the middle of my semester and unlike Paul, I'm not saying my goodbyes yet. :)

But it's not going to be fun when I have to.

I know that when December comes, I will be returning to a slew of wonderful ministry opportunities at my new church plant back home and campus ministry at school. But saying goodbye to these wonderful people and this wonderful place called Mountain is going to be painful.

Like Paul did when he ministered with the Ephesians for 3 years, may I continue my ministry here in Maryland and hopefully, leave (myself) a changed person because of them, and leave a lasting impression on them and this place

Because God won't let me stay at Mountain forever.

Calling

This past week was different than a typical week in the office. After hearing a spectacular sermon from my fellow intern, we all left for Catalyst in Atlanta. 

Catalyst is a spectacular leadership conference. In 2 days we worshipped and heard from 13 top notch speakers about leadership, calling, and organizational structures. The theme for this year was

MAKE

What makes us into leaders?

All in all, it was a great conference! I'm still processing through what all I actually learned in those 2 days - many of my favorite quotes I wrote down on my "worth remembering" page.

While a lot of different ideas ran through my head, one stuck out prominently in my mind...

Calling
What is God calling me to?

I think about the idea of calling a lot...
I feel like God has called me to ministry
I feel called to share the love and grace of God with students
I feel called to preach God's word

I feel called to work in a church...

This past week I came to a somewhat disconcerting but certainly enlightening realization...

My idea of calling is too narrow for God.

Craig Groeschel preached on one of my favorite texts in Acts. 
Acts 20:22-24

And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not know what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardship await me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. If only I may finish the race and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus - to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 

(In case you didn't know, Acts 20:24 has been my life verse for years - hence the name of my other blog)

For years now, I've felt like God has called me to work in a church and minister to students. This isn't necessarily wrong - I still love students; I love the local church; and I love doing ministry in the local church. 

But these things are not calling - they are passions. 

I'm passionate about the church, and passionate about students.

I'm also crazy passionate about social justice. Delivering those who are broken from our society. A society which would rather throw broken people in prison (or even kill them) than help them become a better person.

I realized my calling from God is 

to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

As to how that calling will play out - I don't know. Right now, it's student ministry at Mountain Christian Church. When I graduate in   a year and a half - who knows. I know God will use my passions and compel me to go to the place do the ministry I've received. But it may not be "being the youth pastor in a local church." (*gasp*)

(That was to make you laugh, but seriously, the idea that God may compel me to do something other than localized youth ministry kinda freaked me out)

Or God may compel me to do just that. 

Who knows.

I only know that wherever I end up, God has called me to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Moments of certain uncertainty but uncommon clarity

Everyone needs some fun in the workplace

As you've probably noticed, if you've been following my blog for long, I've tried to write a post each week trying to either sum up, or point out the main events from each week I've been here. 

Last week can be described in one word:


FUN!

To be fair, I haven't had a week thus far that hasn't been fun at some point, however, the overarching theme for this week was "fun".

On Wednesday schools were closed for Yom Kippur. Now, I don't know how this translates in some ministries, but for Student Ministry this means: 

Ultimate Frisbee

Most of my day was spent having fun and playing frisbee with some awesome high school students. Ministry doesn't get much better than connecting with students by some good old fashioned competition.

Thursday was Mountain's All Staff Vision Day. 
Of course, this included some business but mostly, it was team building activities - ways that our staff of 60+ people can get to know each other. 
We played: 

Charade Telephone (best party game ever, I might add. Why have I never thought of this before??)
Archery
Corn hole
Paintball
and a couple other games

All with, of course, some competition. And of course, we ate together. (very Biblical of us, I know.)

Of course, any chance of getting Student Ministry work done in the couple hours was basically shot after this meeting. As much as we all tried, we ended up getting into a finger blaster war in the SM hallway. 

Let's just say, I'm convinced I have the best team of people to work with in Student Ministry - I have a crazy amount of fun and I'm also learning a ton about how to do good ministry. So thanks, Blake, Jared, Abby, Helen, John, and Jon. You all are awesome.

I'm also convinced that the Mountain staff are some of the best people I will ever get to work with. I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of something so unique and so life-changing!

All while having some fun in the process :) 

Week 7: Awakening

It was a busy week in Student Ministry at Mountain. It takes a crazy amount of energy, and lot less sleep, to plan a retreat and pull it off well, but we did and it was an awesome weekend.

Some highlights from the weekend:

Cabin Challenge: Steal the Bacon. The last round, I and some other leaders were the bacon. It was both fun and a little frightening as 70+ middle schoolers ran after me and began pulling me in 4 directions.

Getting to know some awesome 7th grade girls. Love them!

Scaring students in the middle of the night dressed as a bunny

Hanging out and working alongside some fantastic leaders - learning a lot from you all

Praying for two of my girls who came to me with decisions

Listening to students worship at the top of their lungs

Though a lot of awesome things happened this weekend, there was one moment that particularly stuck out to me...

It was the Saturday night session, and we knew it was going to be a high impact night for many of the students. During the high school session, I was standing in the back and paused to listen to them sing. As those students sang at the top of their lungs and raised their hands singing "awake my soul," tears came to my eyes. Throughout the weekend, I had prayed that God would awaken these students, and in that moment I could see it happening right in front of me. Then, it felt like God re-ignited my passion for ministering to students and I could hear him say, "This is what I've called you to. Don't let anyone say you can't do this." 

Another "Yay God" moment

To be continued...

This post is going to be short and sweet.

Aside from all the awesome ministry skills I'm learning this semester, 

I'm learning a lot about God and a lot about myself and God.

That's all I'll say on that for now.

Sundays at Mountain

Life in ministry leads to LONG Sundays. No, really, Sundays are crazy long days.

I knew this before I came to Mountain. I grew up with a Children's minister for a mom and my dad was involved in worship ministry basically my entire childhood. I knew Sundays were busy, but yesterday was exceptionally long.

I was at Church a total of 14 hours yesterday. 14

Needless to say, when it was time for Echo and Collide I was tired. Somehow, I found enough energy to toss some frisbees and hang out with students before the services and just like always, I had a great time.

Even though I was crazy tired and my feet hurt from standing most of the day, one moment made it all worth it.

I was sitting with the students during worship at Echo and they were learning a new song that the high school had learned at CIY. During the last chorus I stopped singing and listened.

There's nothing like hearing a bunch of middle schoolers singing, "I will live to love you, I will live to bring you praise."

Reasons why I'm becoming a youth pastor.

Convictions

I've felt called to youth ministry for a long time - since I was a junior in high school - and I've been following that path ever since. While sitting in my preaching class tonight, I realized that my "doing youth ministry," whether as a volunteer, or here at Mountain, has become almost instinctual. That's certainly not to say I always know exactly what to do - that's not true at all and this semester teaches me that daily.

I haven't thought about why I'm doing youth ministry in a long time.

And not just youth ministry - ministry in general. Why in the world am I dedicating my entire life to work for and in the Church?

That passion I felt when I knew this is what God had called me to - that fire that I felt in my bones - that feeling in the pit of my stomach when I said, "yeah this is what God wants me to do"

It's been a while since I felt that....


And I realized, it's because it's been a while since I felt that same fire about the Bible, about how incredibly awesome Jesus Christ is (Luke 4:17-21) , and how crazy it is that God has entrusted me with preaching these words. (Romans 10:14-15)

Needless to say, my passion for ministry once again feels like a flame in my bones. (Jeremiah 20:9) (And you're thinking, "Really? All this from a preaching class?" Yeah it was great, you should've been there!)

It's nice to have a reminder about why what you're doing really matters.

Week 3: And the schedule gets busy

As of last Monday, classes officially began for us interns. I now realize how wrong I was when I thought this semester would be less hectic than my time at Milligan.

College life is busy, but it's also a somewhat regulated business, because most people seem to be really busy around the same time - mid-terms, finals, humanities exams, etc. So when things get crazy academically, our social life pulls back a bit and we have time to focus.

Not so in ministry.

Church work doesn't slow down for my Greek exams or Preaching assignments - I just have to find time to get everything done academically and still find time to send those 10 emails, lead a small group, or preach at Echo and Collide.

Granted, this week wasn't bad - but I can see it all coming.

Good thing I can manage my time well!

But if I miss a week on my blog, you'll know why :)

Week 2: Yay God

Last Wednesday I experienced my first All Staff meeting at Mountain. I knew going in that it was a long meeting and so I expected to be sitting through 2 hours of business - finances, structuring, sermon series...those types of things. I mean, this staff of 60+ people only all meet together once a month, there's a lot to catch up on.

But we didn't.

A good 80% or so of the meeting was community based. We were encouraged to sit with people we don't normally work with and we shared stories from our summers - not ministry related. About half of the time was spent introducing a new staff member and us interns.

And then, the floor was open for us to share "yay God" moments.

It was a time for everyone on staff to hear about the awesome things that God has been doing in our lives since we were last together. We were told that as time goes on, more and more of those will be ministry related.

And then of course, the last 20 minutes or so were business related.

It's so cool to be a part of a staff who puts staff relations and God moments over business but still gets a lot of great ministry accomplished.

Yay God for bringing me here!

Week 1: A Little Overwhelmed but Excited

Every once in a while I sit back and think to myself, "oh my goodness, what have I gotten myself into." Last Monday, I drove to a place I had never been, pulled into a church I had never seen (not to mention the biggest church I've ever seen, and suddenly became part of a pastoral staff of a congregation of about 4000 strangers. Oh my goodness, what am I doing...This is going to be awesome!

Yes, I'm away from Milligan and it's tough to read move in stories on facebook. Yes, I met about 70 people last Wednesday and remember maybe 10 names. No, I still don't have the big picture as to what my job is going to look like exactly (although that is going to change pretty quickly.) Yes, people in Maryland pass you on the right shoulder when driving (it's frightening.)

BUT

No one expects me to know what I'm doing yet.
These 5 other interns are quickly becoming great friends.
The staff of this church are wonderful, loving, and compassionate people who want to see me succeed and deeply care about my walk with Christ.
My host families are saints.
And I am entering into 4 months of doing what I've felt like God has called me to do for years - student ministry.

So yes, I'm a little overwhelmed right now but when I sat in service today, I realized how much I'm going to love this place by the time December rolls around. Or even by the end of this week.