Before I die...

In a paper for my pastoral counseling class at NTS I was asked how I will evaluate success in ministry/life. Since I was typing it last minute I did not get to really reflect on the whole thing and thought this would be a good space to do that.

Here are the questions I put in my paper. I'm willing to change the questions. These came to me with 40 minutes left to write the paper. Some of them are tailored specifically for my needs (and how ADD I am), others are general.

1. Did I listen for God’s voice rather than letting my own thoughts and concerns govern whether or not I ministered to others?
2. Did I love people as God loves them? Meaning, was I present with them? Did I see them with all the dignity that he does?
3. Did I seek to grow in all the ways God revealed to me?
4. Did I encourage others with grace to grow the way God revealed to them?
5. Did the use of my authority encourage growth in God, or did it push others away from God?
6. Did I find ways to involve others in the leadership of the church?

I'm curious to see what other questions people are asking themselves.

what is it about these things that make such a media hubbub?

what attracts us to controversy?

what if...

what if love was the hallmark of the church?

what if people left the church because the community loves so much?

Why Middle School Ministry is so great

Even though I was hired to be a middle school pastor when I first came to my church, I sometimes have doubts about the ministry and my role in it. The doubts have mostly to do with my lack of patience at times, than anything else. But recently I've had an upsurge (if that's a word) of passion for that area of ministry...and two stories surfaced last night that add to why I think middle school ministry is so great.

Question #1
We have a student, who I will call "micheal", who has a bad family history. Used to live in Florida, now living with grandparents here. Sometimes he is a little hard to control. Dad's not reliable (hard to be when you're in jail). So, the other night, at the beginning of our regular time micheal comes in with a most serious look on his face and says, "Josh, I need to talk to you sometime tonight." Since we were getting ready to start, I said we'd need to chat afterwards. We did all the stuff middle school ministry is so great at, stupid games, praying for each other, object lesson and discussion. Afterward, I had forgotten about micheal, and he came up to me...

So, we went to the side of things where we wouldn't be interupted by bouncing balls or frolicking girls. He looks at me imploringly and then looks to his right and left and back to me. "Where did God come from, Josh?"

here this whole time I thought he was going to talk to me about something going on at home, something about him having to be with his dad or something. I have never been asked this question with such earnestness and honesty. it had always been posed to me as some smart aleck response or some theoretical question in philosophy class. But here it was, being posed to me by an honest scrawny middle schooler, like his life depended on it.

Question #2 and 3
This story comes from Aubrey's group, where they were discussing Romans 12:1, which talks about offering your life as a living sacrifice to God. We were trying to talk about how God changes us and how we have to offer ourselves to him in order for that to happen. But in the middle of the discussion the kid asks, "So, does this mean I am supposed to commit suicide for God?"

"Well, no..." says Aubrey. "that's not exactly what the writer is trying to say. but it's kind of that way. we must kill the old self in order for God to bring out his newness in us."

"Why was the Bible written so we can't understand it?"

Ah, how I love the earnestness of middle school students and how I love how they take things literally and ask honest and unguarded questions.

Thoughts from "How to be Good"

So I picked up another book...fun stuff...

Anyway, there were some interesting thoughts on cynicism and it's role in our society now.















“Cynicism is our shared common language, the Esperanto that actually caught on, and though I’m not fluent in it—I like too many things, and I am not envious of enough people—I know enough to get by. And in any case it is not possible to avoid cynicism and the sneer completely. Any conversation about, say, the London mayoral contest, or Demi Moore, or Posh and Becks and Brooklyn, and you are obliged to be sour, simply to prove that you are a fully functioning and reflective metropolitan person.” (163)

A common language...think about it. People are always downing something...even if it's small and inconsequential. Even yesterday, I was in the postoffice...and the lady was talking with a customer and for no reason at all said that certain postcards are stinky...

What if we walked around defying this common language?