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 :)