It's been ages since I've wrote on this thing. The reason for this is definitely not because of a lack of theological/faith thoughts, but because I hardly have had time to breathe, let alone write on a personal blog. Whenever I've thought about it, it just seemed like another "thing" that I "need" to do.
But...I'm on spring break. It's been nice, but I still have a lot to catch up on as far as homework and such goes. I've got to spend time with some people and not worry about running around so much. I think that this lack of writing on this blog is proof of my need to simplify and slow down. It's something I'm working on.
I just had a meeting with my supervisor from the church I'm doing fieldwork at. Our talks are always great and challenging. They leave me with many things to think about and mull over.
Today's mulling consists of:
-How does a ministry continue to challenge the students that are really digging into the Word and need something deeper, but still be able to reach out to those who are new to faith?
-How does a ministry create programming and a message that is rooted in Scripture and doctrinally sound, but still relevant to youth? How do we make doctrine come alive and be something that hits students where they are?
-How do we challenge youth in their faith and still fill them with the grace of the Gospel?
It was a good chat. If you have insights, let me know. :)
In other things:
-I attended a pre-intern retreat a couple weeks ago. It was incredible and I learned and experienced a lot of new things. I especially had different experiences and thoughts about prayer. That's another post for another day.
-It's been great hearing the stories of the senior youth during lent. They get to share their testimonies and it's been great to learn from them and hear how God is working on them.
-God cares about people. Think on that. It's good stuff.
-Love. In general...I'm in awe of it. Asking God to help me love people (especially those I don't want to) has been amazing and humbling.
-Simplicity--I'm cleaning out my closets and hopefully getting rid of stuff. The world can so easily clutter our lives and cloud our minds. The less attached I am to "stuff" the more focused I can be on God. This is something cool I'm exploring.
-I bought a journal yesterday. It's something I've wanted to do for awhile. I'm going to carry it with me to write down things that God is teaching me, how I see Him moving, and things/people to pray for. This is exciting!
-Being in the Word.....I want it, but I'm struggling.
Welcome to the inside of my brain. :) Also, today I said goodbye to the Topaz, my faithful car for the last few years. So long Topaz...you will be missed.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Sabbath and worship team: TAKE TWO
So I'm starting over on this quest for Sabbath. Today is Saturday and it's my day to just dominate my homework and projects for Monday. I'm going to go get after it so that I can Sabbath with Katy and Melissa tomorrow.
We had to come up with goals for the semester for my Parish Education class and something very cool has emerged from that. We are taking on each other's goals. Mine was to Sabbath and because we often do homework and hang out together, everyone is adopting a bit of that mindset and scheduling. Andy wants to go to some sort of alternative worship service twice a month and that's going to get a few of us to go experience different things with him as well. I know that sleep will definitely be a goal that I work on throughout the semester and that's going to encourage all of us to get to bed at a more reasonable hour.
Just taking some time out of a day for rest and freedom from the tyranny of the day makes all the difference in the world for how I feel and what my attitude is. I am also convinced that I'm a little under the weather because I didn't not have a day of rest last week. Choir took over any sort of rest that I would've taken last weekend.
Also, something else that I wanted to talk about briefly is the worship team that I lead. Last year was kind of all over the board because different people had to leave the team for good reasons and we were struggling to figure out how we would get through spring semester. Many prayers and emails later, we ended up with a guitar player who happens to be a good friend of mine and someone who said "well..if you can't find anyone else.." Then there's our male vocalist who randomly emailed me one day and said he wanted to join and hoped it wasn't too late. Then our drummer who is a fill in turned permanent. God put our team together. He did that to show me that I'm not in control of this worship team. It's not "my team." I often refer to it as such, but I am reminded that this is for HIS glory and not mine. This is HIS ministry and not mine. These are HIS gifts and certainly not mine. After all of this, God showed me that not only would He provide us with a team, but it would be a better fit than any of us could've imagined. I couldn't believe how well Fish went on Wednesday night. We had fun, we worshiped while we led, and the feedback was positive. I am humbled by the fact that I was so unsure about this new arrangement, but God is so much bigger than my worries. He's challenging us to think big in this ministry right now. I'm excited.
We had to come up with goals for the semester for my Parish Education class and something very cool has emerged from that. We are taking on each other's goals. Mine was to Sabbath and because we often do homework and hang out together, everyone is adopting a bit of that mindset and scheduling. Andy wants to go to some sort of alternative worship service twice a month and that's going to get a few of us to go experience different things with him as well. I know that sleep will definitely be a goal that I work on throughout the semester and that's going to encourage all of us to get to bed at a more reasonable hour.
Just taking some time out of a day for rest and freedom from the tyranny of the day makes all the difference in the world for how I feel and what my attitude is. I am also convinced that I'm a little under the weather because I didn't not have a day of rest last week. Choir took over any sort of rest that I would've taken last weekend.
Also, something else that I wanted to talk about briefly is the worship team that I lead. Last year was kind of all over the board because different people had to leave the team for good reasons and we were struggling to figure out how we would get through spring semester. Many prayers and emails later, we ended up with a guitar player who happens to be a good friend of mine and someone who said "well..if you can't find anyone else.." Then there's our male vocalist who randomly emailed me one day and said he wanted to join and hoped it wasn't too late. Then our drummer who is a fill in turned permanent. God put our team together. He did that to show me that I'm not in control of this worship team. It's not "my team." I often refer to it as such, but I am reminded that this is for HIS glory and not mine. This is HIS ministry and not mine. These are HIS gifts and certainly not mine. After all of this, God showed me that not only would He provide us with a team, but it would be a better fit than any of us could've imagined. I couldn't believe how well Fish went on Wednesday night. We had fun, we worshiped while we led, and the feedback was positive. I am humbled by the fact that I was so unsure about this new arrangement, but God is so much bigger than my worries. He's challenging us to think big in this ministry right now. I'm excited.
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