~Following Him!!!~

I have had the same goals for the past three years and so I will re-post them again.

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.

Life has been very crazy for me lately, but it has been a good kind of crazy. My daughter graduated from 6th grade, which means she is now a part of the youth ministry at our church. I have waited for this day since she was born. People told me that I was nuts to be excited about my kids becoming teenagers, but when that is the age group you work with it makes perfect sense because you know how to relate with them.

So her first big youth trip was Rockpointe’s annual trip to America’s Roller Coast known as Cedar Point. We had so much fun together and I loved seeing her hanging out with the teens. As you can tell by the picture she pushed herself and rode one of the big coasters with her dad called the Millenium Force. It was a really great day.

During some of this time I went down to a church near Cincinnati, OH to interview for their open youth pastor position. Most of you know that I have been looking for a full-time youth pastor position since I graduated from Bible college in 1999. And have been looking to get back into some form of a paid youth pastor position since I left the church I was a part-time youth pastor at in March of 2005. It has been a long journey only to be added to when I got laid off in the middle of January from the factory job I had. So going for an interview was a very nice thing, but I really didn’t expect to get the job, because we had been on interviews for youth pastor positions a couple of times before.

I was really shocked when they called us back down for a second interview and was even more shocked when I was told that I was the only on being invited back down. So we made arrangements to go back down the last weekend in June, which threw a wrench into our annual 4th of July trip up to Manistee, MI. We adjusted our arrival dates with the campground and figured we would just take a day off to rest in between driving 4 hours south to Cincy and then 4 hours north to Manistee.

While we were down for the interview we fell more and more in love with the church and the people there. And they seemed to like us as well. We came back home with a good feeling about this one, but we had good feelings about other ones as well so we were cautiously optimistic.

The pastor had said that we would probably hear something back before he left for his trip to Haiti, which was Friday (July 3rd). However, I told people that we wouldn’t hear back until he came back on July 14th so we didn’t have to hear the constant barrage of questions if we “had heard anything yet”.

Yesterday I heard back from them and I am in negotiations to be the youth pastor at The River Church in Liberty Township, OH. I am very excited to be finally getting back into “the game” and can not wait to get down there.

We do not know exactly when we will be heading down there, but hope to be down there either the first or second week of August. The schools down there start a lot earlier than schools here in Michigan, so we want to get down there and get the kids settled in before school starts.

There are only two sad things in all of this. One is leaving all of our family, friends and loved ones here in Michigan. But we are only 4 hours south and we will be real close to Kings Island, so you are welcome to come visit. However, we will be home from time to time visiting family. The other sad thing is that I will be living in enemy territory with all of those Buckeyes, but they need Jesus too!

Lastly, I want to leave you with this video of Mike Yaconelli. I think it speaks perfectly to what I am getting into. Watch out River Church! It is going to be a fun ride! I can’t wait!!!

Are you moving? Did you get a job? What will you do if you sell your house and have no where to go?

These are the questions that Kimmy and I have been asked quite a lot since we listed our house for sale last week. The simple answers to the questions are:

“No, we are not moving other than in faith.”
“No, I haven’t gotten a job yet.”
“If I don’t have a job and our house sells we will probably move in with my parents for a while.”

The reality is that we are selling our house that we moved into about 7 and a half years ago because we can’t afford to live here much longer with me only collecting unemployment. Plus, we are really believing that I will end up getting a job soon and that will quite likely involve a move out of state. I do not have anything lined up at this time and it is simply a matter of faith, because we believe God is going to open up a door for me to become a youth pastor at a church. As I mentioned in a previous post my wife and I are at peace about this job loss and we have the same peace about selling our house.

The other reality is that now is the best time for us to try to sell our house since a short sale is the only way we can do it and given the current economic climate it is making this time perfect for us to do it. A short sale is basically when you sell your home for less than you owe and the bank forgives the difference. If this goes through our credit will only take a hit for one year and we will not have to pay taxes on the difference that is considered “income”. We bought our house for $141,000 in August of 2001 and it has pretty much dropped in value every year. We currently have it listed for $75,000 and you can see the listing here. It is sad to think that we have essentially only paid rent on our house, which was supposed to be a great investment.

However, we realize that we had a great place that we raised our family in a great neighborhood in a great school district that had a great elementary that my kids attended. So we are very grateful for our time here. We are also excited to think about the fact that someone is going to get an amazing deal on a great house in a wonderful neighborhood to raise their family. So if you are looking for a house check ours out here.

I recently saw this video from Francis Chan and I thought it was very appropriate for what we are going though at this time. I don’t want to just live a safe life. I won’t to be daring enough to impress my Judge.

After watching that video I saw this on someone’s status update on their Facebook page and it kind of rocked my world. It is one of those deep thoughts.

“When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.”

Tired of all of those surveys made up by high school kids? Here’s questions for the people who are a little older…

1. What bill do you hate paying the most?
My home mortgage, because I am paying on a home that is 1/3 less than when we bought it. I feel like I am just throwing away my money.

2. Do you miss being a child?
I still act immature enough to not miss it, but I do miss being in high school.

3. Chore you hate the most?
Shoveling snow. I am so sick of winter.

4. Where was the last place you had a romantic dinner?
Red Robin. Our last attempt at a date didn’t happen, because my daughter became ill.

5. If you could go back and change one thing what would it be?
Over using credit cards when we were first married.

6. Name of your first grade teacher?
Mrs. Zawislak (sp?), I think? It was about 30 years ago.

7. What do you really want to be doing right now?
Living someplace that has no snow ever.

8. What did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a Mack truck driver.

9. How many colleges did you attend?
1 – Elim Bible Institute

10. Why did you choose the shirt that you have on right now?
It is one of my running shirts and I am going to go for a run after this.

11. What are your thoughts on gas prices?
I don’t like the high prices, so I sold my Jeep Wrangler a few years back and bought a more fuel efficient car. I say let the prices keep going up, especially if it is going to force more people to start getting more fuel efficient cars so we emit less pollutants into the air.

12. First thought when the alarm went off this morning?
I need to get my wife up, so she can go to work.

13. Last thought before going to sleep last night?
I hope I can get a job as a youth pastor soon.

14. What famous person would you like to have dinner with?
I have a couple: Bo Schembechler (sadly, I can’t because he is dead), Doug Fields, Donald Miller, Erwin McManus, and Rob Bell

15. Have you ever crashed your vehicle?
Nope.

16. If you didn’t have to work, would you volunteer?
Heck yeah! I have been doing a lot more stuff at my church since I have been an unemployed bum.

17. Get up early or sleep in?
Sleep in. I prefer the night life.

18. What is your favorite cartoon character?
SpongeBob Squarepants

19. Favorite thing to do at night with a guy/girl?
I am married, so you can guess.

20. When did you first start feeling old (but never too old for this $#!@)?
I don’t. I actually feel like I am in the best shape of my life. I run all the time, work out and I am hoping to compete in a mini-triathlon this year.

21. Favorite lunch meat?
Turkey

22. What do you get every time you go into Wal-Mart?
Vitamins, Kashi cereal, or rice milk.

23. Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual?
No way! Marriage is great.

24. Favorite movie you wouldn’t want anyone to find out about?
I really don’t care and I tell people that “Somewhere in Time” is my favorite movie all the time. Yes, it is a chick flick. That is how I roll.

25. What’s your favorite drink?
New Castle Brown Ale and water, but not mixed together.

26. What radio station is your car radio tuned to right now?
96.3 WDVD, but I mainly listen to podcasts from different churches Sunday services. Yes, I know that makes me a nerd. Sadly, my iPod that I have had for almost 5 years has died, so I am taking donations from anyone who want to help me buy a new one.

27. Do you like the person that sits directly across from you at work?
I don’t have a job.

28. Have you ever had to use a fire extinguisher for its intended purposes?
Nope.

29. Last book you finished reading?
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan

30. Do you have a teddy bear?
Yes, my Aunt Diana made it for me and then made another one just like it when my daughter was born. Mine is made from green corduroy and my wife entered it into an ugly bear competition when we were first married.

31. Strangest place you have ever brushed your teeth?
Over a campfire.

32. Do you go to church?
Yes. Church may not be perfect, but neither are any of us.

33. How old are you?
36

Tomorrow I am getting together with most of the people who were on my volunteer youth staff at the church were I was a youth pastor. I have not hung out with that entire group in about 3.5 years and that has been way too long. I developed such rich and good friendships with everyone and have maintained some contact with each of them, but it will be fun to have the whole gang back together again.

We used to hang out and play games together and just talk about life so much. It was on of the best teams that I was ever a part of. We modeled what the Christian life is all about and I believe it was the direct reason why that student ministry there was so successful. It really had not much to do with with me and a majority of it was devoted to all of us pastoring those teens together.

Hopefully one day soon I will be able to formulate another team together that can be just as good as that team and we can have a profound impact in the lives of students. Half the fun I had as a youth pastor was investing in the lives of those leaders and seeing them have meaningful relationships with teens. So tomorrow while people in Detroit will be celebrating the labor unions, I will be celebrating our union together and the labor of love that we collaborated on together.

I wrote an article for YMX, which is a part of a series of article we wrote to encourage youth pastor’s and let them know how much they matter. You can find the rest of the articles here, they all start with “You Matter”. Below is the opening paragraph of my article titled, “You Matter to Your Volunteers“. I wrote the article from the perspective of being a volunteer myself at my church.

Often times we volunteers forget how important you are to us. We forget how you not only lead and guide the students at our church, but you also lead and guide us. I know at times we gripe and complain that things are not as organized as we would like, but without you we would be missing the most important person to our student ministry. When we are having a personal crisis you are there with us in friendship and prayer. When we need advice, you offer good, sound biblical guidance. You also guide us in our own spiritual journey, as we help students help students in their own.

You can read the rest here.