Ministry Archives | Page 2 of 2 | Bad Days Better

So I have had alt of churches contacting me over the last weeks which has been crazy in itself.  The reason it is crazy is because I don’t know how alot of these Churches even know about me or that I am available.  Most of these churches are from all over the US Texas, North Carolina, and so forth.  I have never really looked that deep into any of these positions as far as what the towns are like and so forth.  I especially had not looked into the cost of living into any of these places.  

Honestly I am still undecided on what I want to do or pursue.  I really think a year off from full time ministry is probably what is best for me and my family right now as we need to heal.  At the same time I want to be open to where the Lord may lead and doors He may open to me.

Anyway there has been one Pastor that has been in contact with me for a little bit now and has really pursued after me.  They have just built a brand new facility completed a few months ago and are currently running about 60 kids and the church has about 280.  He asked for a statement of beliefs from me and I send it out to him and we seem to have alot in common.  Though I am still unsure what the Lord may want and even though personally this sounds like it would be a perfect fit for me as far as a church and even location though I would still be far from family.

Well here is the part that scares me.  The pastor said I want you to look at the cost of living here as housing is very expensive and that is the downside to our location.  I was thinking well how bad could this be I mean I live in Berks County PA and housing is expensive here so I thought.  Anyways I began to check out realtors and and soon found out that housing was through the roof.  The cheapest house I found was for 189,000 and that was a trailer on some land.  Ouch you talk about expensive.  So I did some more research thinking we could probably rent and be ok.   There was a three bedroom 2 bath trailer for rent it was only 1200 ouch again.  Man this has totally floored me.  After some more digging I found that the cost of living in this place was 16% above the us average.  The good news they are one of the fastest growing counties in the US.  

Well to some it up there is alot of potential in this church and if God calls us there He would definitely have to supply.  Please understand names, and places have been left out intentionally.

Yesterday (4-26) I had the awesome privilege of being a room host at our Regional Teens Involved.  If you are not familiar with Teens Involved it is a competition that is hosted by Word Of Life (if you are not familiar with them then that can be another blog) anyway at this competition teens can compete in 23 different categories.  Yesterday I hosted the instrumental room which was a riot for me because I know very little about music.  What I was so impressed with was the quality of teens that were in this competition. I had the wonderful opportunity to pray with every teen before they performed and to chat with them briefly and wow.  We hear so much bout our teens doing bad things and this and that but these teens wanted to be there.  These teens wanted to give what they had to the Lord.  Specifically I remember one young lady playing her violin and I was nearly moved to tears.  My heart was encouraged being with those teens.

My heart was also encouraged as I had the opportunity to hear two young men preach.  These young men are special to me as I have had the opportunity to be a part of their life and have even lead one of them to Christ.  It was so awesome to hear them clearly lay out the gospel and clearly give a plan of salvation.  It was neat to hear that they had taken my advice.  Though I am saddened to not be their Youth Pastor anymore do to my recent resignation (thats another blog), I am excited to see them live for the Lord.  Both these guys and many others hold a special place in my heart more so then they or anyone else will probably ever know.  Guys if you read this you did an awesome job and I am so proud of you,

Teens are the church of now and into the future and it is a joy to see them serve.  I would encourage you if you are involved in a church what are you passing on to those that are below you.  Look for someone to get involved with and pass the things of God on to them.