new side blog

Check out this new side project blog by Mary and me (I like the sound of 'side project' as it sounds a little like the rock star I wish I could be).

This blog is an ongoing record of our Monday date nights and I am hoping it will lead to a creative exchange of ideas of what to do in the Madison area.

Here is it: Madison Date Night. Let us know what you think.

where have all the men gone?

As mentioned in the past post this time of the year for me is a small bit of down time before regular programming at our church begins. One of the things that I have to do each year is work to rebuild our volunteer team. This happens in a variety of ways and I am thankful for the help of other volunteers and staff to make our needs known and spread the gospel of middle school ministry.

However I have a reoccurring frustration over the past couple of years and sadly this year is no exception. Our ministry is without men. That is not completely true. We have several great guys ranging from high school age to fathers with their own middle school students involved but overall we are hurting. The interest from woman has been awesome but men, hmm. It troubles me to think about what message this sends the students, especially the boys.

Why is this a pattern each year? Is it the age group? Is it my leadership? I tend to think that most guys respond best to a direct call to action so perhaps it is that we have not done that well enough or that my presupposition if false. Either way I am frustrated. In general I think that people who are a regular part of church should be part of making that community work. This means they are involved and volunteer. If the majority of people took more action I believe there would not be the above problems. But my personal problems aside, what is it that keeps people from getting involved at church?

I fear it is our consumer mentality and the lack of the basic understanding that the church is a community and for it to function as it is created to it needs full participation of every person. This leads me to have to look and the mirror and remember that people’s perceptions are influenced by leadership and that it is my job, along with others in leadership, to create a proper biblical understanding of what it means to be part of the church or at least my best understanding.

summer recap

Breathe in slowly. Hold. Breathe out and relax. Repeat.

This time of the year feels like that. Summer is drawing quickly towards its end. Ministry trips and personal vacations are over and weekly programming has not yet begun. It is the eye of the storm, the brief pause with fast paced living on either side. It is a good place to be.

It has been a good summer and I am not yet ready to leave it behind but with our kickoff retreat this coming weekend that hard truth that another fall has begun will have to sink in. Some highlights from this summer have incluced:

1. Kicking the summer off with a trip to the BW with close friends. I know I wrote about this already but the Boundary Waters is one of my favorite places on the planet and I feel blessed to live as close to it as I do. The simplicity of reducing life to food, shelter, direction and friends feeds my soul.

2. Time in Honduras. I have had the chance to go to Honduras several times now but never before have I felt such purpose and vision as I did in July. Our team of adults and middle school students were part of a four day camp throughout the time there we had a blast building relationships with new friends as well as people we have come to know fairly well over the past few years.

3. Spending time with Mary, Chris and Sarah at a ‘cabin’. The place we stayed at was amazing, the food was great and the best part is that we had nothing to do. It was relaxing to the point of boredom. Our days were spent eating, sleeping, and traveling to nearby state parks and small town coffee shops.

4. Madison Missions. This was our third summer in a row doing this and it was again another exhausting but fully worthwhile week. As a group we did around 1200 community service hours in Madison with a number of different organizations. My favorite thing about this week is seeing students come to the realization that there are real needs all around them and not just in distant lands and that the process of trying to help reach those needs as a community can be a blast.

5. Mary moving to Madison. As she would tell you this was not really an event as much as a process over more than a month but it is great to have her here. I love starting to get into a pattern of seeing each other on a far more regular basis and learning how to do life together. Small things like eating dinner together or talking about being in a small group together seem like huge blessings after this past year of them not being an option. It makes me excited for what is to come.

So all that along with some class work, weekend retreats and trying to train for another marathon have kept things at a pretty fast pace this summer and really cut into my blogging. But now it is time to breath. To pause. And to ask to be re-energized for another year of ministry and thank God for so many blessings.