Thinking About Church...

I've got church on my mind for several reasons today. We started a unit on church today in one of the classes that I teach. We all sat in a circle and I had the students share their thoughts. I asked them what do you like or not like about church. I also asked if they thought their churches reflected what Jesus's vision of church would be. I then asked them what do they wish church was like. Finally, we talked about if when they went to church it seemed like God was even there.
Here are a few things that they said that stood out:
-Several students felt that they feel like sermons are directed to people much older than them
-Several student felt as though they are judged by the older people in their congregation
-A couple of students mentioned that they think church should be more than just a Sunday morning thing. They felt that God would want them to be more of a community. One student even said a church should be like a big extended family.
-At least 10 student feel as though they go to church every week and leave without it ever seeming like God is even there.

We will continue to talk through these issues in class, but it was interesting to get their initial observations. I am hopeful that they will get a vision for being the people of God that is much more than an hour one morning a week.

Another reason that I am thinking about church is that tonight my church had our annual State of the Church Dinner. Sounds official, huh? It was interesting to here the staff's vision for where they think the church should go. There was a lot of emphasis on impacting the community which is great. I love how many opportunities our church gives for people to serve. Of course there was talk about money for new youth facilities. I find it hard to strike a balance between doing things to "attract" and "excite" people and also staying true to the mission of God. I hate when it seems as though it takes cool facilities and programs to get people through the doors.

All the talk of church also makes me wonder if I could/will ever work in a church. Part of me thinks I would enjoy it, but at the same time I think it would maybe drive me crazy. The church is a beautiful mess! I hope that we can continue to understand what it means to faithfully be the church in this time and place in history.

Handyman

Owning a home obviously comes with a lot of responsibility. Some of the responsibilities are a bit easier to handle than others. I have very little (ok not really any) handyman skills. I guess a lot of people learn how to do these types of things from their dads, but not me. My dad taught me how to make pizza but we skipped the lessons on changing tires, power tools, and other things of this nature.

Even though I don't have the handyman skills, I feel like I need to learn how to be able to do things around the house. I don't want to have to pay a butt load of money every time I need something little done. Over the past few days I have been trying to handle some plumbing issues at the house. I had a leaky shower faucet and what should have entailed replacing one washer ended up involving two busted valves and 7 trips to Home Depot and Robertson Plumbing in a 12 hour period.

I was finally able to take care of the issue today. There were certainly times over the past few days when I wished I would have hired someone else to come out and do it, but in the end I am glad I didn't. I got a deep sense of satisfaction from knowing that I had conquered the dripping shower head. I fixed it all by myself!

I think that often I am pretty hesitant to try new things. I generally do not like taking risks and avoid situations that I am not comfortable in. I saw this quote the other day by oil tycoon Boone Pickens he said, "Don't fall victim to what I call the ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome. You must be willing to fire.” I think I generally stay in aim-aim-aim mood. It felt good that in this situation I just fired. I didn't do everything right, but I was able to learn as I went a long.

I'm ready to fire more often.

I'm back?

I say I am back with a question mark because I never know how long my blogging will last. Lately I have had the desire to do more writing, so that is why I have been lured back to the blog world.

A lot has happened in the past 10 months or so since my last post. This fall I started a Masters in Higher Education Administration at OSU Tulsa. For a long time I had been considering going to seminary, but as of late had not been very excited about it. I felt it was too big a commitment of time and money to do when I was not completely sure that pastoral ministry is what I am being called to do. I am excited to pursue this degree. After serving in various leadership positions at JBU, I always thought it would be great to work full-time on a college campus. The other good thing about the Higher Ed. degree is that I could use it to get a job at a seminary and take classes then. I am excited to see what happens. The other big thing is that Megan and I purchased a house. It's a great house that we both like a lot.

Hopefully I will have some posts of substance over the next few days. Welcome back blog world.