New Beginnings

I have begun! I am now officially the Minister of Youth at my new church. I stood at the front of the church this past Sunday - and shook hands with about 200 people. Yikes!

This church is one of the oldest United Methodist churches in the country. It is also a first church. But what really intrigued me was the way it has reached out to the community. Offering a community choir. In addition to this they are building a second campus. I will be a part of the staff who learns what it means to serve at two campuses. The function of these two campuses is to become more accessible to the people south of the highway. To the left is a picture of what they've begun to do with the new campus.


This week we began Vacation Bible School. I am leading recreation. That makes for a long day but a good day. Getting to play with kids has been really fun.
I was given a book Monday by one of the members of my congregation. Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations by: Robert Schnase. It is a great book for congregations to read, and particularly good for my congregation as we build the new campus. The first chapter is about Radical hospitality. Not just hospitality but radical hospitality! What does that mean? Instead of just inviting people into a relationship with Christ - what is different about the way we are inviting people to a relationship with Christ? It's inviting people into relationship with us so that they may experience the love of Christ. I really enjoyed this chapter. I think it is a good place to start ministry. How are the programs I plan going to invite others into a relationship with Christ?

As I read further on in this book hopefully I'll post some other thoughts.


And I leave you with these two pictures:



This is what I came home to yesterday evening..... a DRAGON! Interesting .... believe me it was. Imagine seeing this near your air conditioner. Now I would have left him - except about 1 foot to the left is where I lay my head.... that wasn't going to happen!

As I fought and tamed him - he ended up in this glad-ware container...



He has now been released back into his natural habitat... Hopefully never to be seen again.