Cutting the Clouds

I find myself somewhere completely foreign today. For seven weeks I have been serving as the Pastor of Groveport CCCU. It is a new adventure for my wife and I. While I grew up in a pastors home, I never could have prepared myself completely for the feelings, emotions, and the work of the senior pastorate. It is such a new experience for me, which is proving to be quite exhilarating. We have come up here unsure how the people of Groveport would respond to my views on ministry and my preaching. While serving as a staff pastor at my last church was rewarding and provided a great deal of experience, I find myself feeling motivated,driven, rejoicing, and terrified.

This experience reminds me so much of the time I was sitting in a dorm room at Indiana Wesleyan University and one of my friends said, "Hey, lets all go skydiving." Being the intelligent men that we were we all scheduled a weekend trip to skydive a couple hours away from campus. None of us had jumped before, and none of us were telling our parents ahead of time.

We arrived at the airstrip as the sun was about to set the night before our big jump. We got out of the cars and stood silent and watched these experienced skydivers sailing trough the breathtaking, fall sunset. We didn't know all of the risks of skydiving. We didn't know how parachute would open. We just knew we would jump and we would live (hopefully) to tell this story to our children, grandchildren, and maybe even our parents. :)

The next morning we woke with great enthusiasm and fear. We suited up and went to our extensive 5 minute training session. By the way I think they should make those last a good hour or two even if they only have 5 minutes of training, because 5 minutes was not enough time for me to feel confident about this jump. we were informed that we would be jumping from 13,000 feet up and that we would reach speeds up to 120 miles an hour. We would free fall for nearly a minute before pulling the cord. I was also informed that since I was the heaviest jumper that I would be the first one out of the plane. Great! I really had to commit to this thing. Everyone in the plane was watching me.

They opened the hatch and i leaned out of the plane and jumped. I was skydiving. The clouds were parting around my arms and I could see for miles. I felt the clouds brush my face and saw for miles. I breathed the most crisp air and saw the shoot open. As I landed It hit me. I just went skydiving.

Coming to Groveport has been like watching the jumpers the sunset the night before I cut the clouds. I see that God is wanting to do great things. Our church looks to the sky and sees what we desire to do, and who we desire so much. We see that the church is triumphant and that while we may be on the ground looking up. The time is coming.

So we wait and look, ready for God to do what he does. The restorer of broken, Hope to the hopeless, and Reviver to our church will revive us. As a pastor I see the hatch open and the clouds below. God is moving in our church. He is calling us out from the parking lot, sitting and staring at what could be and is telling us to train and get in the plane and jump.

As a pastor I feel like I could have used more the the five minute training session with this church. In six weeks i never would have thought that our attendance would have already doubled last years average. I was ready for a long on site training. God is confirming in my heart that He is reviving this church and that now is His perfect time for me to be here. I need to get in the plane lean through the hatch and dive.

Why? because the plane is full of people who desire the same thing I do. They are all watching and waiting to see if I jump. If I just stand in the hatch No one can do what they dream to do. This congregation is watching. Groveport is watching. My wife is Watching. My God is watching and waiting on me. JUMP

Easter Aftermath

I made it through my first easter in ministry with few injuries. Our services were well attended and I did wear a femanine colored shirt from kohls. I think the color was sunset orange. It was something. Easter was all that I had anticipated and more. As I preached easter morning, proclaiming a risen Christ, I sensed a closeness to God that I had never sensed before. Here I was (17 years to Easter Sunday a Christian, 10 years after I had been called to ministry) preaching the most important message. Jesus is alive. It was so awesome to preach hope to a people that I brought through the crucifixion scene two days earlier in our tenebrae service. By the way, you definately don't have to be a high church to have a more liturgical service like this. This service on Good Friday was powerful and moving.

I woke up monday exhausted and even a little tired yesterday. I never realized the amount of energy this weekend would take from me. Its one of those good tireds, like when I was in high school and just finished a cross country race. I had accomplished the course. Given it all and pushed beyond what I had. Through this exhaustion I feel strangly refreshed, motivated, and focused to minister.

Does the easter season really make a difference in the life of the church? Honestly, I want to know. Obviously it should, but how do we really take in the season? My sermon sunday morning was out of John 20. There were three reactions to the empty tomb in this passage. Mary weeping, John saw and believed, and Peter simply observed. What is your response to the empty tomb. What does it mean to a Christian? Im afraid, for many of us, it's nothing more than an observation. I pray that you and your churches will be deeply impacted to be changed by the easter message.

Sink or Swim: Ministry During the Easter Season

I never gave it very much consideration. What it takes to lead your congregation through the Easter season. It's not at all what I expected at the age of 12 when I received this call. As far as I was concerned, growing up, it was nothing more than a comforting sermon at a well attended service where I would wear a femenine colored shirt and tie. With the big Sunday ahead of me I realize that perhaps I 've been a bit mistaken.

Today I sense a heavy burden and passion to convey the greatest event in the history of the world accurately and in a way that penetrates lives. This week alone I will be preparing a Bible Study, Sunrise service message, and for the first time at our church, coordinating and leading a tenebrae service. I haven't even thought about when I will run down to kohls and get my manly pink or green shirt and tie.

Why do I this easter season feel different than every other year? I believe that God is permitting for me to reflect the responsability of sharing the greatest story every uttered from the lips of man. Why do I experience unrest as I am preparing this tenebrae service? I believe it is because I will lead the people of God throug a service that will envoke the realization that we truly abandoned, betrayed and crucified the messiah, king of the Jews, and the Son of God. We will not end this fridays service with a pat on the back and an empty tomb. We won't leave singing "Up from the grave he arose" just to go home and sleep well. No! We will leave in silence and a heavy heart, relaizing what really happened to Christ. Perhaps one this friday will leave the church and walk down Ohio Street, contemplating all of the times that they have denied Christ. They will not be alone, and man named Simon Peter would say he has experienced the same thing. Mabye one will get in their car, and drive home full of anger as she realizes the injustice of this crucifixion. She will not be alone, a woman named Mary walked down a hill, full of heartache and anger just the same.

This is the environment I will draw my congregation into this friday. Not one of comfort and rejoicing, but one of silence and darkness as their light and hope was brutally murdered, not for them, but more importantly, because of them. This is why Easter this year will not be the same for me.

Pastors and Christians, please do not jump and rejoice over the empty tomb before you fall and mourn over the cross.

The Lord be With You

1st Post

I'm no theologian, and I don't claim to be a great writer, but I do hope that is blog is productive and a great way for me to vent and get my thoughts down. I am passionate about being the best pastor I can at Circleville First Church. In this blog I will stand on many a soapbox. Feel free to comment or push back. I will simply make some observations of a young pastor of a conservative holiness church in Central Ohio. I will share some things that work and laugh at the many failures I'm sure that I will endure. Nevertheless, I will give God praise for everyday and every lesson he gives me as a young pastor. What is in store for a young pastor in the Churches of Christ in Christian Union? More importantly, What is in store for a young pastor in the church in America today?