1) Grow in my knowledge of youth ministry through attending a couple of conferences and reading books.

2) Invest in the lives of teens so that they can invest in the lives of their friends. This happens not only personally, but when I also invest in the lives of adult volunteers who are investing in the lives of teens.

3) Do more to care for our planet (i.e. recycling, conserving energy, etc.)

4) To live my life in light of these deep and profound words…

My fitness goals….

1) Run a half marathon.

2) Participate in the Warrior Dash.

3) Keep running in 5Ks and 10Ks.

4) Run at least 250 miles in 2011.

Those are my goals. Do you have any?

1) Do something about my job situation, whether that means a new job and forget ministry all together, or do something to get into ministry.

2) Do more to care for our planet (i.e. recycling, conserving energy, etc.)

3) To live my life in light of these deep and profound words…

Little did I know when I posted this list last year that part of my first goal would be answered for me when I was laid off from the company that I had worked at for almost 15 years. Not too mention the fact that the owner of the company is my dad. That is how bad the economy is in Michigan.

After that happened my wife and I literally saw it as an answer to prayer. So we decided that my full-time job would be to find a job in the ministry as a youth pastor. Not long after that happened we were flown down to College Station, TX to interview with a church down there. That didn’t pan out for us but we had asked God all along during this almost 5 year process to close the doors we were not supposed to walk through and open the one we were. Almost 7 months after getting laid off we finally walked through that door and move down here to Liberty Township, OH so that I can take the job as youth pastor at The River Church.

I am so happy to take that one off of my list of goals.

My wife and I continue to recycle and we are hoping that we can encourage our church to do the same thing. It feels so good knowing that we are not being as wasteful and that we are doing our part to care for the planet that God has given us to care for.

Not only do I feel that this is something that I continually grow in, but I also am spreading that same message to the teenagers that God has given me the opportunity to pastor. I believe that if Christ-followers can grasp a hold of that concept that we will be able to have a greater impact in our country and world.

I had set three fitness last year as well….

1) To run a 10K.

2) To continue working towards competing in a mini-triathlon.

3) I plan on running in several more 5K’s again this year.

I ran in my first 10K when I ran in the Nike Human Race 10K, which was run by myself and then I uploaded my run to my Nike+ account. I then ran in my first 10K with a group of people on Thanksgiving Day when I participated in the 100th Annual Thanksgiving Day Race here in Cincinnati. My goal was to finish it under one hour and I did. I was very happy.

With the move down here I was not able to participate in the mini-triathlon like I had hoped to, but perhaps I will see about doing one this summer. The only problem will be trying to find a place to work on the swimming.

I did run in a couple of more 5K’s and hope to continue doing that. I am also hoping to help one of my youth pastor friends run in his first ever 5K.

Did you make resolutions or goals? If so, share some with me.

Many people know that I am a huge fan of the TV show The Biggest Loser. I have watched it since the very first season and I have not missed an episode. It is one of the things that inspired me to put down the bowl of ice cream, get off of the couch, and change my lifestyle. I was borderline obese and I needed to do something. I had tried diets but it was time to change my life if I wanted to lose the weight, keep it off and live for a long time. I found that inspiration while watching The Biggest Loser.

In season 3 of The Biggest Loser I had a fellow youth pastor, that I knew through an online community (YMX), participate in the show as the representative for Maine. His name is Matthew McNutt and you can read his story on his website. This season there is another youth pastor that is participating on the show (and was sadly voted off this last week), whose name is Sean Algaier. It really got me to thinking, that in my limited view of the youth ministry world, there seems to be a lot of overweight youth pastors/workers out there.

I think that is a sad thing. Youth pastors are called to be an inspiration to the next generation and I think that we need to stop limiting that to only spiritual things. I believe that if we truly believe that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit then we need to practice that in how we take care of our bodies. I hope that in my current ministry that I am inspiring my teens to not only to live a godly life, but that I am also inspiring them to live a healthy and full life.

I am so grateful to Matthew and Sean for inspiring many youth pastors to start changing their lives and to start shedding their excess baggage, so that they can be their for their families and for their teenagers long term. I hope that this doesn’t just become a fad that ends up dying out, but I hope that youth pastors, pastor and Christ-followers everywhere take it upon themselves to push themselves and get healthy.

I love what Bob Harper of The Biggest Loser has to say about weight loss, “The key to becoming a big loser is mathematically very simple: Eat less, move more.” And if you need someone to get up in your face and push you, like Bob and Jillian do on the show, the find someone to do that. The most important thing is that you do it. I hope and pray that the Church in America can not only show the world that living for Christ is the best way to live, but I also hope that we can show them that being healthy is also important. And I hope that youth pastors everywhere will take the lead on this.

Lately I have been pushing my distances, because I want to run in a 10K now. So I have a 7.25 mile course that I have now run twice. During these runs I noticed something about how I run that made me reflect on my own personal spiritual journey.

When I run I only looking a few steps in front of me. I don’t focus far ahead on what is coming, but I mainly look at the next couple of steps I am going to make. For me it helps me to keep my focus and to not lose heart when I am on a long run. While I was running I thought of the verses in Hebrews 12.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

It is important to keep your focus on the right thing when you are running. Otherwise you might grow weary and lose heart. Instead if you focus on what is right in front of instead of the things that you don’t know, then you will endure and make it to the end.

I have been on a crazy, endurance journey these past 4+ years that I have been seeking a job as a youth pastor at a church. Yet during all of this even though there has been times that I wanted to just give up and throw in the towel I would stick with it and keep pressing on. All I knew was what was right in front of me, so I tried to focus on that and just keep running. Hopefully, I will see that finish line coming up soon but I am not worried. I will keep running because I know that just as Eric Liddell said in the movie “Chariots of Fire”, “And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

That is the reason why I keep pressing on. I keep doing it because I feel God’s pleasure. The reason that I do is because I know that I am doing what He created me to do. Just like when a tulip comes up in the Springtime and blooms, which is an act of worship to God because it is doing what He created it to do, I will keep pursuing Him.

When I go out and run I run, because it brings me pleasure and I believe that it helps me to bring pleasure to God as well. I know that I feel closer to Him. So I encourage you to keep running, don’t give up and keep your focus in the right place so that you don’t lose heart.

I ran in the Winter Witch’s Hat 5K on February 7th and that was my first time running outside with them. They felt great and not only provided great support, but because they are more of a trail shoe, it provides great traction for running in the winter time on the road. I have ran several times outside since then and I love these shoes. I am pretty sure that I will also be sticking with Asics as my shoe of choice for running. Their fit, comfort, and support are wonderful.

I am a newbie to running so I am no expert on running shoes, but for me these shoes are great. And I also think that they are reasonably priced. If you are looking to get into running or maybe you have been running for a long time I would encourage you to check out the Asics brand and especially the Gel-Kahana 2 shoes. They have an excellent tool on their site to help you fin the right shoe for you, check it out here.

Check out their latest ad campaign.

1) Do something about my job situation, whether that means a new job and forget ministry all together, or do something to get into ministry.

2) Do more to care for our planet (i.e. recycling, conserving energy, etc.)

3) To live my life in light of these deep and profound words…

I have done a pretty good job of continuing on the path of these goals. For the first one, I have been sending out resumes and will continue to do so. Things are pretty bleak here in the state of Michigan because of the economy and with me having a job tied closely to the automobile industry it is no secret that times are very tough. It is quite possible that the company I work for could go out of business or I could get laid off, so a job change may happen whether I am ready or not.

I have a couple of ideas of things to do. One thing that I have been toying with is the idea of becoming a personal trainer. I love going to the gym and have become somewhat of a fitness nut, and so I thought that it would be a natural fit. Not too mention that I have always loved motivating people to make better choices in their lives, so it really wouldn’t be too different than ministry. I don’t know just some thoughts. I also have thought about teaching. Especially after having this 12 day Christmas break.

My wife and I have been continuing doing what we can to reduce, reuse and recycle. It really isn’t as hard as I thought it would be and it is amazing how good you feel knowing that you are doing something to help make this planet a better place for our kids.

I can’t even begin to express how much better I feel in regards to my interactions with people, because I always look for ways to make sure that “love wins”. I am a much calmer driver and person. I honestly don’t get to frazzled when I am in a long grocery line or caught in traffic. Don’t get me wrong there are still times when I do lose my cool, but overall I am much better.

I do have a couple of fitness goals that I plan on adding to my goals for the year.

1) To run a 10K. I don’t really care about a time, I just want to be able to do it. After running in the Turkey Trot 5K I realized that if I run a bit of a slower pace that I could do a 10K.

2) To continue working towards competing in a mini-triathlon. I have seen a couple of them on runmichigan.com and so I will shoot for doing one probably in 2010. I am really working on trying to get the swimming portion of it down. I am pretty confident in being able to do the running and biking portion. I even saw one in Coldwater, MI that I might be able to do this year.

3) I plan on running in several more 5K’s again this year. My first one this year will be the Winter Witch’s Hat Run 7 February 2009. My friend Eric talked me into running a race in the middle of winter. That is crazy!

So do you make resolutions or goals? If so, share some with me.