The Calm Before The Storm

I haven't had a lot of time in the past couple of months to write. I hate that because I really LOVE to write. At my previous church, Del City Church of Christ, I used to "have to" write a bulletin article every week. The deadline drove me crazy a lot, but I always managed to crank something out I was proud of. Since I don't preach much, I guess it was my little way of getting stuff off my chest. I sort of miss the pressure of that deadline, as weird as that is to say!

Well, NCYM is going well. The website is up and running, although I'm still waiting on final approval of the registration form. Communications is a primary focus for my year as president of the board. I've learned that communicating (or OVER communicating) provides more results than improving the content a lot of times... usually the content is good! But, if people don't know about something, they can't take advantage of it. The Regional Coordinator structure is working well. I think a lot of guys will be able to contribute to the success of NCYM. It will also help the board to expand who they know, so that future boards will not be just from the "good old boy" network... who you know! I'm not criticizing, just that method is the only one we've had.... and it needs improvement.

I've decided to take a break from grad school... I'm overcommitted with NCYM and such. I am not sure if I'll go back to school. I like it, but a lot of times it seems like it's doing work for the sake of doing work, and not contributing much to what I need in my ministry. I guess I'm starting to put all my eggs into the one basket of "doing youth ministry until I die". I don't want to be a preacher!

As far as Scripture goes, what's been on my heart lately comes from Ephesians 4:12-13 "Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ." I've always struggled with whether I should spend more time with the one lost sheep than the ninety-nine found ones... I've usually gone after the one primarily, but I've made a pretty strategic change in my philosophy this year... I've spent a LOT of time trying to develop more leadership, attempting to equip my student leaders to do that. It has really strengthened the core of our youth group, but we still struggle with reaching out to those that aren't plugged in. Maybe in God's time, He'll reveal how that needs to happen.

By the way, if you haven't seen the pictures of our recent trip to the Navajo Reservation in Arizona over Spring Break, it might give you a good laugh. We (I) sunk BOTH vans up to the axles in mud and had to walk 15 miles to get help. It's close to the worst thing that's happened in 17 years of youth ministry... I'm fortunate if that's as bad as it gets.

Hey leave me a comment, even if it's just to say hi. Seems like I only have 6 or 7 people reading... could be because I'm a loser and never update my blog. I'll try to do it once a week from now on, just like my old bulletin article days!