Going Out of Business Sale

Once again, sorry for the long delay. I’ve learned not to make promises or deadlines when blogging, because most of the time I can’t meet them. I would like to give props to all of my readers, over 1500 visits is pretty humbling. I think it may really just be 3 or 4 people that continually check in to see what other points they can argue. I’m still feeling good about it nonetheless.

I want to tell you all something that’s a little personal and that Ashley and I haven’t really told that many people. A lot has changed in the past month since my last blog. After we left our previous work in Brownsburg, we had a couple of places show some interest in having us come and help their assemblies. We were desperately seeking God’s will and direction. I do have a strong burden for the city of Brownsburg and so the thought of starting my own work weighed heavily on my heart and mind. Another church that I had preached a youth revival for a few months back had contacted us as well. This church has really got it going on. The pastor is a great visionary, they’re in the midst of building a new facility, including a coffee shop and youth facilities. Great music, great worship, great preaching, great people, everything you would look for in a potential church home. Needless to say, one of the most appealing places we visited. In fact, I was 99.9% sure that is where we were to end up. As most of you know, 1. It’s never that simple and 2. God doesn’t work on our percentages.

No Resolutions is my New Year Resolution

Wow! It’s really been a long time since I’ve blogged. With a clean slate, which is what the new year brings, perhaps I’ll try to make a bigger commitment to blogging time. A lot has happened recently and our new adventures have been exciting, encouraging, and little depressing all at the same time. Ashley and I decided in November of 2007 to resign our position as youth pastors at the church we’ve worked at for the past 3 years. It was a very tough decision, but we really felt like we were going in a different direction then the church leadership was wanting to go. I thought about changing the blog title to something a little more appropriate: Confessions of a Former Youth Pastor; but really, who would want to read that?

Me vs Revival

A fantastic preacher told me once, “I love the work of God, it’s just the people that really drive me crazy!” Unfortunately, this is a universal problem. I always laugh when someone gives an excuse of why they don’t go to a particular church anymore and they say something like, ‘they gossip too much’ or ’some of the people there have bad attitudes’ or my all-time favorite, ‘did you see that dirty look they gave me?’ People drive me crazy, too. You can kind of understand God’s regret when he’s trying to deliver the Hebrews out of Egypt and make them into a powerful nation and they start whining and complaining about every little thing. Reading that story today, we’re like “Man, God just split the friggin’ Red Sea and wiped out the army that was coming to kill you like 5 minutes ago, and all you can do is complain?”

Purpose Driven Words

Sorry for the delay, I think I am running out of things to enlighten my readers on. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately on why people say what they say and say it like they say it? I consider myself to be somewhat tactful with my words, as is a majority of the people I know. The true fact of the matter is that I am a people pleaser. I may say things that are mean and rude sometimes, but I butter them up more than bag of Uncle Willie’s Microwavable Popcorn (real brand, check it out).

Wounds That Never Heal

There are few things more enjoyable to me than a great fiction book. One of my favorite authors, John Grisham, can keep me so caught up in his story lines that I actually look forward to getting home from work so I can read. There are a few movies out there that I feel the same way about; you know, the ones you can watch over and over again and never get tired of. What I enjoy most though, more than any fictional work or any movie, is hearing a great sermon.

The Great Porn Debate

Last Wednesday, I attended a debate between Craig Gross and Ron Jeremy. Just to give you a quick background of the two: Craig Gross is a pastor of a church out in California that has a ministry focused on helping people get out of the porn business and also helping people who struggle with porn addictions kick the addiction. Ron Jeremy, on the other hand, has appeared in over 1800 porn films and was recently a contestant on the show ‘The Surreal Life’.

Christian Frugality

My apologies go out to all two of my faithful blog readers for the delay in posting. My wife and I decided we needed to get away for a few days and I was somehow tricked into spending 4 days in Northern Michigan. Actually, we had a decent enough time. There were some very cool sites to see. My wife and I have two different ideas when it comes to vacation.

The Abandoning

WOW! This has been a really tough summer already, and we’re only one month into it. I’ve had my share of ups and downs in ministry, but to lose over half of your youth group in one month is heart breaking. We’re losing three to graduation, we’ve lost two because of a family move, we lost another due to a decision to attend a different church. I think this summer should be aptly named as ‘The Abandoning’.

The Personal God

Here of late, I’ve really been trying to figure out how two people can go to the same church and one be spiritually healthy and the other be spiritually dry. The only conclusion I can come to is that the spiritually healthy person must have a strong, personal relationship with God outside of church services. I was able to preach on Sunday morning and the title of my message was ‘Casual Christianity’. If we really believe that God is calling us to make an impact for the Kingdom, we cannot afford to be so nonchalant about our ‘personal’ relationship with Christ.

Father vs Dad

Pastor mentioned something to me before that has really stuck with me. Have you ever noticed that at church services on Mother’s Day we honor the mothers of the congregation with beautiful, graceful words of exaltation? On Father’s Day, however, the sermons are usually the opposite. We preach our sermons directed to the fathers on how to become fathers; you never hear us admonishing the women of the congregation on Mother’s Day on steps to become a better mother.