Archive - PCUSA RSS Feed

Pre-Ordained PCUSA: Me and things I’m wrestling with

February 14, 2012 in Pastor, PCUSA with 2 Comments

Ok so if you follow my blog you hopefully will give me some grace as I wrestle in print through trying to figure out how some things work out in my life.

Here’s the deal. I’m officially going to be ordained in the PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A) on June 24th.  I’ve spent the last few years finishing all the steps leading up to this point and I don’t have anything left to do. I’ve already been voted in by my new church and accepted by the Presbytery of Seattle.  That is a really great and cool thing. And, if you are anywhere near Bellevue, WA on the afternoon of June 24 please join me.

So why am I not ordained right now.  Well the best answer is I am going to be an Associate Pastor of Children and Family ministries and my new church felt like it was bad form to have me start my job while my family stayed in Texas finishing the school year.  And my church in Texas is amazing and is allowing me some time to engage in a variety of different places outside of my traditional youth ministry role. My senior pastor best describes it as giving me time to “season” for a few months before taking on my new role. I love this and will be assisting in worship this weekend in a robe.

This means I’m in the rare position of already being hired at one church but not leaving my current church for 3.5 months.  This is both a great thing but also tough. Even today in some meetings I found myself both engaged and disengaged simultaneously. And this afternoon I found myself really frustrated at one point because I was thinking about some things I feel are unfairly being directed at my current pastor. I tweeted something out then that I immediately decided to redact because I realized that wasn’t the best medium for dialoguing about that particular issue.  This blog series is going to be a response to all the thoughts that I had in the next three hours after that moment.

So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to post several times a week about some questions, thoughts and hopes I have for my new life as a PCUSA pastor. I’m hopefully that you the reader will see that in most cases I’m really asking questions without pointing fingers or picking sides.

What I’m hopeful for is that this becomes a place where my wrestling through things is helpful for you to engage in it with me. My denomination is wrestling through much of this right now too. Some people have hope but a whole bunch are starting to lose it.  I’m starting my ordained life during this very interesting season and I am hopeful that the Holy Spirit will direct my path because if it was up to me I would probably just struggle through it.

So thanks for reading.

 

 

Princeton Forum on Youth Ministry #iym12

January 24, 2012 in PCUSA, Youth Ministry with 1 Comment

Several months ago I signed up to spend a few days at the Princeton Forum on Youth Ministry in Santa Barbara, CA.  This is the 4th forum I have attended and I really enjoy the conversations and presentations.  This is a different type of Youth Ministry event for a couple of reasons.  First,  there are only about 70 people here.  I love the smallness of this event especially as it contrasts to the big events that I am normally a part of.  It feels that this size makes for a healthy committee.  We are at a church not a huge conference center so we are in a close space together all day.   Secondly, I really appreciate the way they bring in different sorts of speakers who don’t always have much Youth Ministry backgrounds. Last night we heard from Marianne Meye Thompson who is a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary.  I took a number of classes from her at Fuller and she’s incredibly intelligent and gifted. Listening to her gave me some flashbacks that weren’t always good as one class I took was so hard.  She did a great job unpacking the concept of creation which helped us think about our theology of who God is.  Thirdly, there is a great opportunity to be engaged with those who are teaching/speaking.  That takes down the curtain between how we engage with the knowledge.

If you are reading this blog and you don’t know anything about this conference you are in luck because it happens twice a year and the next one is going to be in Princeton, NJ April 23-26.  I’m not on staff for them nor are they paying me to write this so you can hear me say this with a complete honesty. If you have any money left in your budget to go to this in April I think it’s worth it.

I’ll be honest and say that there are parts of this event that push me a little. The worship times are different from what I would choose to engage with. But, with that said I was completely challenged yesterday to rethink my paradigm of what I think “worship” is for me.  There was one part of the service involving masks and pantomime/drama. It was great and really made me think.

I guess the last thing I should say is that it’s nice to be at a conference where I don’t have anything to do. I’m not teaching, leading or really doing anything besides learning, writing and interacting with others.  It’s especially cool for me that I’m actually here with three people from my new church and I’m just getting to know them.

Sometimes Saying “Yes” also means Saying “No”

January 16, 2012 in Pastor, PCUSA with 5 Comments

A few of my friends have heard this story already and encouraged me to write it out as a testimony to how following God works.  This is less a story about me and more about what it looks like when you follow God’s call.

I announced a few days ago that I had accepted a call to a church in Washington State to be an Associate Pastor.  I couldn’t be more excited because this both a huge dream and a homecoming of sorts. The church I’m going to is one I love. I’ve been attending it for five years whenever I am in Washington and we have many friends who are members and in leadership there.  It’s a great and growing church and I’m so excited to be working with children and families.  I also am stoked to have my own kids grow up there in a beautiful place near my extended family and in a church I believe will care for them.

But, there is another side to this story.  I was actually interviewing at two churches at the same time and they both decided that I was the one they wanted to hire.  And truthfully the church I said no to was a church I really liked too.

It was a very different church.  The best way to describe it is to simply say they have huge hope for the present and the future and amazing people who are following God.  I believe without a doubt that they are right on the cusp of some major transformations and will make a huge difference in their area. I liked the pastor a ton and saw him as someone that I could be both friends with and mentored by.  He liked to use the phrase “dream bigger” which is one of my favorite things to do. I met really great people there who are active and hopeful and ready to follow some new vision.

This church is only a few miles from where my wife grew up and sat adjacent to the local Middle and Elementary schools. It is in a great place to reach new families.

The kicker in all of this is that this church also offered us housing and our kids would have been going to some of the top schools in California.  If you know my current living situation you know we live in a church home now and our kids go to great schools.  This was a huge blessing.

About a year ago when we knew that I would be ordainable soon and beginning the search process the two biggest concerns that I had were for housing and schools. In fact, I prayed over and over that God would help solve this problem.  It was anxiety causing for me.  So when a church offered me a job and told me those two things were taken care of I immediately thanked God.  But, the more we prayed and consulted friends the more we realized that we felt called to the church in Washington.  Honestly it really wasn’t even a question because God made it so clear. But accepting that call would mean we didn’t have housing and didn’t know where our kids would go to school. It meant that we were going to have to trust the LORD to provide.

As Danielle and I talked about it we both felt like accepting the job with housing and schools taken care of was the worlds “expectation.”  But we asked ourselves what kind of faith did we want to model for our kids.  Did we want to model a faith that was about truly following God and stepping out trusting that he would take care of us? Or, did we want to take the easy way out and take a call we didn’t feel was right just to have our immediate needs met.

I heard a story once in a sermon about a guy sitting on his rooftop in the middle of a flood and he prayed that God would save him.  People kept coming by on boats and he wouldn’t get in. Finally he drowned and in Heaven asked God why he didn’t save him. God said “I kept sending boats what more did you want?”

As I prayed more and more about this decision I just had a sense that this wasn’t the case for us. While I did feel that God had met the need I expressed for housing and schools I realized that was the wrong thing to be praying for.  Instead I needed to pray that I would have the faith to follow God where the call led and that I would believe that he would take care of our needs.

So that’s what we did. We accepted a call that God made very clear.  In doing so we said no to a church that was also great but just wasn’t the right fit.  I feel like we are modeling the right thing to our kids that stepping out in faith is the way we are going to live our lives.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m nervous and even a bit anxious wondering about where we will live and how we can afford anything.  I have my moments where I allow worry to creep in. But, I believe with all my heart that we did what we were supposed to do in this call process and that we are going to continue to allow God to lead us.

If anyone in the PCUSA world who is ordainable and would like to know more about this great church Click Here. The official Title is Associate Pastor of Young Families and I believe they have unlimited potential and amazing resources to do great things.  I’m a huge fan of the people I met there and would love to talk to you about them if you are interested.

 

My Life Update Part 2: We’re heading to Bellevue

January 9, 2012 in PCUSA, Uncategorized, Who I am... with 9 Comments

I’m excited to announce that we are moving to Washington State where I just accepted a job to be the Associate Pastor of Children and Family Ministry at First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue.  If you know us Presbyterians you know there are still a couple of steps that need to happen before it’s fully official. In two weeks we will fly up there for the congregational vote and hopefully soon after that I will be examined on the floor of the Seattle Presbytery and be approved to be ordained.

Since many of you have walked this journey with me I thought I’d unpack a little bit of it for you so you can see why we believe without a doubt that this is clearly the call God has directed us to.

First,  I should tell you that I consider First Pres Bellevue to be my home church in Washington state. Every time I am back there this is where I attend worship. It’s really fun knowing that I have been following along with the life of this church for the last 5+ years so I feel like I really know it’s values and vision well.

Second, we have a number of friends there. I have college roommates and friends from Seattle Pacific University, and my wife has a great friend  that she graduated high school with in Southern California.  For both of us to have dear friends already there we feel God’s hand in this call.  We are really looking forward to building a strong community group for our family and we feel we already have a head start.

Third, some of you might be wondering if I’m leaving “youth ministry.” The truth is I’m actually not.  In my current role in Texas I spend a lot of time working with 5-6th graders who are in our “youth” ministry. At FPCB those two grades are in the children’s department so I’ll get to spend just as much time with them.  Also, I have felt a big pull in recent years to be more involved with parents and the overall family.  FPCB is starting a “Sticky Faith” cohort with Fuller Seminary this winter. I led my church in  Dallas through that process and loved it. One thing that sticky faith encourages is for us to diminish the lines between various ministries in the church. I plan on having a lot of impact and interaction with parents of all ages of kids as well as staying engaged with students after they graduate from 6th grade.

Fourth, I have loved my time here in Dallas. Working at Highland Park Presbyterian Church will always be an amazing memory for me.  The students, parents, church staff and youth ministry team have been incredible. Living across the street from the church, close to the schools and in a wonderful small community is something we will always cherish. Our kids have been so blessed by this place and community. It will be hard to leave so many great friends.  I’m looking forward to continuing to see the great  things that HPPC will do in the future.

Fifth, I feel called back to the Northwest.  I left Washington the day after I graduated from college 18 years ago.  Over the years I have taken teams of students to work in Seattle almost every year. I do everything I can to get back there as much as possible. The best way I can explain this call is to say I feel like even after being gone so long I still “get” the mindset and life of most northwesterners. I love the prospect of reaching out to new families and being able to interact with them as a native and not a transplant as I have done in every other place I have done ministry. We are so excited to start a life for our family on the Eastside.

We are planning on waiting until after the school year before moving our family to Bellevue.  That gives me a nice long and healthy transition.  I plan on being up in the Northwest a number of times to start getting the ball rolling on some things and building relationships with the amazing staff.

As a part of this decision process we had a great group of friends come over and pray with and for us.  The confirmed this was the right call.  I also hold tightly to my life verse Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Because this call feels so right I know God is going to take care of us.  But, because I also believe in prayer I have just a couple of things I’d love you to pray about with us.

A couple things we could use prayer for: 

Housing- We currently live in a church house which has been amazing. We need to find a great solution where we can stay for many years. We are not sure if we will be able to purchase or if we will lease. Prayers over this are greatly appreciated as this is the one area that makes me anxious.

Schools-  This goes along with housing. Our kids have been blessed with amazing schools. We know all the schools on the Eastside are great and are just looking for the perfect place that our kids can feel at home.  It’s our goal to not move again while our kids are in school so this a 12 year commitment.

Car-  If you know me you know that I have a pretty great old car. I drive a 1974 VW Thing.  It’s a great car when you live across the street from church and your entire family goes to school and works within a 1/2 mile. It’s also a fun car when it’s sunny out.  It’s not a very good rain car.  I’m in the process of deciding if the THING will end up in Washington. If she doesn’t come with us (or really if she does too) I’ll need to find another car.  On a super positive note though our other car is a pretty new explorer with 4 wheel drive so bring on the snow.  :)

 

A Season of Change

January 3, 2012 in Pastor, PCUSA with 5 Comments

A while back I posted that I was ordainable and looking for an associate pastor role in my denomination the PCUSA.  Well I’m pretty stoked to announce that last night I accepted a position.   This ended up being an easy and difficult process for us.  It was easy because we felt very called to the church we are going to but it was difficult because it also meant saying no to a church that we had really enjoyed spending some time with.

I’m not going to name the church we are going to just yet because there are still a few steps to go through in the ordination process.  Right now I am planning on staying at my current church until the school year finishes and then packing up our lives and moving.   My family is all very excited and we couldn’t be more stoked for the role that I will be moving into at this new church. It’s a new season of ministry and I’m looking forward to how God uses it.

Last night we gathered some special friends around us in Dallas and let them know all about the churches we were interacting with.  I shared all the pro’s and con’s as well as any concerns or hopes we had. Our whole community of friends confirmed for Danielle and I that we were making the right decision to follow God’s call. We then had an amazing time of prayer with our friends.  It just felt like the right way to do things.

So here’s a hint.  We are heading back to my roots.

Is it right to pressure students to “save” their friends?

March 7, 2011 in PCUSA, Youth Ministry with 10 Comments

I get myself in trouble sometimes and I probably did that a bit this weekend with a tweet I responded to.  Someone had tweeted something about how students should do everything they can to “evangelize” their friends.  The tweet put a lot of pressure on teenagers to be the ones who “saved” their friends from going to hell.    I’m a Presbyterian and Reformed and I believe very strongly in the sovereignty of God and that ultimately most things are up to God.  But I’ll also admit that I don’t really know what to do with Evangelism. I wrestle with this and assume that I’m not alone. I like all these organizations that are reaching out to teenagers and encouraging them to share with their friends about Jesus.  I think that there is probably not enough of that in their world and anything that we can do to encourage teenagers to be vocal about their faith is probably a good thing. But how do I reconcile that desire for students to share their faith with my belief that God is fully in control of all of this? Here’s where I land: 1. Students sharing their faith with their friends is as equally important for the students sharing as it is for anyone hearing. 2. God will use whoever God chooses to bring the “good news” to whoever God wants. 3. Even if I believe that God is fully sovereign and in charge of all of this I can still believe God uses us 4. I have to believe that God doesn’t need me but chooses to use me This is clearly a pretty shoddy attempt to explain what evangelism is all about.  But, I’m ok with that.  This just proves I have more to learn and to figure out.  I’d love some thoughts about this.  If you have something to add in let’s dialogue. I’m more than willing to admit you probably are smarter than me.  

“Millions of Americans are Good without God”

December 1, 2010 in Church, Highland Park Presbyterian Church, Non-Believer, PCUSA with 9 Comments

Untitled1 I saw a news report tonight that a group called the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason is sponsoring an advertising campaign where they are putting signs on busses that say "Millions of Americans are Good without God" 

The reporter was interviewing a Fort Worth Pastor who said that he encouraging Christians to boycott the bus line during the holiday season.  I did some research after this and found this quote.

“We are offended byy the anti-God signs and we are very disappointed that The-T Transportation Authority would approve this, especially during the season when Christians around the world are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” said Bishop B.E. George, with Ministers Against Crime.

Stay with me on this but I'm a pastor and I'm not offended by the quote at all.  In fact, I am encouraged because I believe that millions of Americans probably think it's absolutely true and I'm glad that they are willing to admit it especially here in the Bible Belt where "Christianity" is linked to culture, the Republican party and the Country Club. 

I just don't know how boycotting people who don't believe in God is something that we are taught anywhere in scripture.  

I work in a mainline denomination that has really struggled in the past 5 years.  We've lost a couple million members and those who have stayed are struggling with some very tough issues about Biblical interpretation, the role of Jesus and the authority of scripture.  

I don't believe that rejecting people who don't believe in God is the right way to go about loving people.  

Back in September the Christian community was slammed pretty good by the Pew research study that showed that "Atheists, Agnostics, Mormons and Jews actually scored higher on a religious knowledge survey"  I don't remember the Christian community being so pissed at that survey.  We were embarrassed and we should have been but we didn't point a lot of fingers at ourselves.  The spiritual maturity of many Christians in the United States now is not something that I think the "millions of Americans who are Good without God" are looking at and feeling compelled to follow.  

So my take on this.  Let's ride the bus.  I'd be way more comfortable getting on the bus with people who don't believe in God and ask questions to find out why they feel that way.  I'd like to ask questions about what that statement means.  I'm guessing that for many of them that what they are not rejecting God so much as they are rejecting the Churches in the United States.  And if we want to boycott anything as Christians let's boycott the churches that are teaching an incredibly skewed version of God that honestly I don't need either. 

So if you don't need God I'd love to talk to you. Not to "convert" you or "change" you but to just have a conversation and to share some honest conversation about all of this.  If you want to get on a bus and go for a ride I'm cool with that. 

Quick Update: A week of being Lars

July 12, 2010 in Missions, PCUSA, Travel, Who I am..., Youth Ministry with 1 Comment

I haven't posted in about a week so I thought I'd give a quick update about what I've been doing.  This isn't a typical week as I generally don't have this much going on but it was a great week of youth ministry. 

-Took a  group of 33 Junior High Students, parents and leaders to San Francisco to work with YWAM San Fran for a week.  It was an amazing trip and we really had our eyes opened to the incredible need within the inner city to love people who just don't see anyway out of their difficult situations.   The stories shared by the students have been amazing as they really seemed to "get it."  On a similar note one of my top days of youth ministry happened last Tuesday.  We served breakfast to about 1000 homeless people and then headed out on the streets all over San Fran to pray for churches.  It was both really fun and a great time with my team.  

-Got accepted to become a candidate for Ordination in the PCUSA.   I was anticipating this being more difficult than it was and I was wrong.  The committee I met with was great and I enjoyed telling them all about my time at the Hospital this last spring and how God used it to grow me.  I will go before Grace Presbytery on September 10th to "officially" be voted on as a candidate.   My next step though is to take and pass my ordination Exams at the end of August.  

-Went to a Waterpark with a bunch of students in the rain.  After my red-eye flight back from San Fran to get home for my early ordination meeting I followed that up with a short nap and then driving the bus to a waterpark for an event hosted by PureGroup in Dallas called Better Together.  My friend Rawd Jones is the amongst other things is the Director of the Dallas Metro Area for the National  Network of Youth Ministries.  He's got an amazing goal of making Dallas one of the most networked youth ministry cities in the country. I actually think we might pull it off since there are a ton of us who care about each other, youth ministry and building each other up. 

-Summer is getting a bit crazy and I'm about to head out on a trip that I'll talk about in a few days.  

My Church: Great things happened on Pentecost

May 30, 2010 in Highland Park Presbyterian Church, PCUSA, Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

Sometimes your church has a moment where it is pretty clear that the Holy Spirit is doing something amazing.  This happened to us last Sunday on the day of Pentecost.  Our Senior Pastor Ron Scates spoke a message called "The State of Highland Park Presbyterian Church" and it was the first time that all 3 11am worship services had the same message via a simulcast from the main sanctuary.  This was a significant moment in the life of our church.  Ron talked about who we are and what we are here to do and I don't think anyone missed the point that we are here to "make disciples" and that we are strategically set up to do that. 

Of course one of my favorite parts of the sermon was when Ron said that Youth Ministry is one of the things he cares about the most.  I say "Preach it brother"

After the message Ron was honored for his 10 years of service to Highland Park Pres and it was a surprise to him.  I'm going to include the videos below of the sermon as well as the All Church Picnic that happened right afterwards.  Watch if you want. 


Pentecost Sunday Sermon | 5-23-2010 | 11 a.m. from HPPC Comm on Vimeo.


2010 – All Church Picnic from HPPC Comm on Vimeo.

Introverted Youth Pastor

April 6, 2010 in PCUSA, Who I am..., Youth Ministry with 7 Comments

 Introverts in Church #3702

Pretty good title because it sums up who I am in a nutshell.  I'm an introvert.  For a long time I felt that was a pretty negative thing and I didn't know what to do with it.  I'm also pretty sure that not everyone is aware that this is who I am.  You see I mask it pretty well most the time.  I can be a lot of fun and sometimes find myself at the center of the exciting things going on.  My wife laughs and says that when I have a mic in my hand I become a totally different person.  I can come across as confident and comfortable around people I don't know.

But it wipes me out.

I go home after Church on Sundays just drained from being that guy who is masking who he really is.

So how do I do it?  I'm pretty sure I've always been an introvert.  I love people and value friends but I also need alone time.  Recently I was with one of my closest friends for 5 days and just was wiped out afterward because I didn't get enough time to recharge.  

And that's it really.  I just need to recharge after and to focus and prepare enough in advance.  I can do what I need to in order to be outgoing and relational it just takes a lot out of me. 

I've been a youth pastor for about 20 years so obviously I've learned how to cope.  I still go on missions trips, sleep in cabins with kids and manage to maintain sanity. But, I also give myself a ton of slack and grace.  After a long day on the missions filed I feel absolutely no guilt for taking a nap or putting on headphones when we get back to camp.  I don't feel like I need to be with teens 24/7.  I prepare myself and give what I can but I also recognize who I am and what my needs are and do what I need to do.

I'm really thankful that Adam McHugh wrote "Introverts in the Church" this year.  I feel like he is finally giving a voice to so many of us who love the church and have worked in it for a long time but don't always feel comfortable being ourselves in it.  Adam does a great job of providing a voice and a hope to those of us who love Jesus, love church but don't always fit the model of the gregarious personality who tends to do well.  I felt vindicated when I read his book and wanted to hand it to people and say "Read it you will understand me better" 

Adam and I have never met but we interact in the social media world.  I know that he's an ordained pastor in the PCUSA which gives me great hope because I'm in that process too. He interviewed me on his blog for a series he's doing on people who are introverted and working in the church.  I think his stuff is worth reading so check him. 

Page 1 of 212»

Switch to our mobile site