Crazy

Ok, so my friend Seth is telling me I need to update. He says he enjoys reading my blog. Knowing Seth I am sure it has more to do with making fun of my 1st grade spelling then it does actually reading. This week as been a little crazy at the beginning of the week I was praying “ok God if I am heading down the right road show me please!” Ok well in the last 24 hours here is what has happened. We put an offer on a house in Norman still haven’t heard anything on that but our realtor says it looks good. We thought there was a chance that the sale of our house could be getting called off, and then just today bam!! The sale of our house is back on and we are moving to Norman March 24th. The house we are trying to buy backs right up to the Sixkiller’s house. Which is cool for a lot of reasons, one you always feel safer living next to a big Indian named Sixkiller, and two he has a couple of really cool sons for my son to play with. My oldest son still thinks that I maybe the worse father in the world. I figure he will get over it or have some huge counseling bills when he is an adult. Ether way I am still trying not to lose sleep over it. Anyway the point is God answers prayer!!!
One other note last night I took family to see the winter jam concert. “Skillet” is my new favorite band. Watching Noah head bang brought a tear to my eye! My boys a rocker at heart! I also decided I want to get a mo-hawk. I think I would look sweet! My wife thinks I would look like and idiot. I wonder if I would be looked at the same in elder’s meetings hmmmm!

A Different Perspective

A few short years ago if you would have asked me what a good youth minister looked liked I would have said a lot of different things. Man of God, good family man, good with students, fun, good leader, and all the other things you could put in there, but something has changed for me the last month or so. I also would have added someone who had a large youth group into that description as well. My thoughts on that have changed. Oh don’t get me wrong being a youth minister of a large group is tough you have to be organized and really good at what you do, but good "youth minister" may or may not be part of that. You see I spent years rapped up in the fact that no matter what I did it was a success numbers wise. I didn’t worry about who wasn’t there because I had so many students that were it didn’t matter. Man, how sad is that I could have huge events with lots of students and my elders, and parents could say man your such a good youth minister, but in actuality all I did was make sure we had numbers. Oh, don’t get me wrong I really believe that the ministry I did in the past really helped young people know God and I am proud of that and I praise God for that. I guess what I am saying is it was easy. I jumped in the driver’s seat of a ministry that had an established youth program for 20 years and as long as I didn’t run it off the road I got the “good jobs” from everyone. I could tell students that we were all going to meet at the building and sneeze and 100 of them would show up. I could tell parents I needed sponsors for a trip and I would have to turn over half of them away. I had unlimited resources and if I didn’t have enough money I could always get more. It was all easy!!! Now I have to battle for everything. The programs have got to be good for students to show up. Resources are limited and let’s just say parent support could be better. I guess what I am saying is for the first time in my life I am really having to work at the whole youth minister deal. The cool part is the little victories don’t go unnoticed. I girl talking to me about here family struggle, a guy who brings a friend for the first time, kids excited about an activity as simple as a flag football game. I guess deep down I always knew that numbers really had nothing to do with being good at this crazy job, I mean after all two of the best youth minister I have ever known (the two guys I work with) had groups smaller then mine at MRCC. Nope now you ask me what a good youth minister looks like and numbers has nothing to do with it at least not the numbers I used to worry about. Now a good youth minister is someone who is just trying to get as many kids to heaven as he can. To be honest I don’t know what God has planned for my group that I work with now, but what I do know is I will never take for granted the small victories ever again.

The Evolution of a lesson

This past week I experienced something that I have experienced a lot in my ministry career but I never thought about it very much. If you’re a preacher or a teacher you will understand, and if you know one of us then maybe this will give you a little insight. I was preparing for my Wednesday night class this week. At the start of the week I was pumped about the class I thought it was going to be great. I felt points were good and I was also using a video clip from “water boy”. Can’t go wrong with “water boy.” Man was I wrong by Tuesday it just wasn’t working the lesson felt really choppy and not good at all. By Wednesday morning I was ready to through it in the trash and start over. The problem was I was T-6 hours from class time no way I was going to rewrite now!! Well I did the class and in my opinion it stunk. For those of you who know me well I don’t do well with stunk, matter of fact it really screws me up in the head if something I do is not a 100%.
So I asked myself the question today why? Why do I kill myself mentally over these lessons? Here is what I came up with. I think it’s because I feel it is so important to do what I do. I mean I get a change every week to teach kids about God. To me that is very scary and exciting at the same time. I also realized that no matter what anyone says to me I will always be my worst critic. I think that has everything to do with not feeling worthy to teach. So after a lot of prayer today here is what I came up with. First, no matter what happens in my class room I have to understand that as long as a message from God’s word comes out it was worth it. Don’t get me wrong I am not going to stop trying to teach a good lesson that’s just not in my personality. I guess what I am saying is I just need to trust that God will use me the way He wants to in that situation. Second, I realized that the more I beat myself up over a lesson the less time I spend thanking God for giving the gift to teach. Finally I realized that the more I pray the better I teach. So let’s see trust, praising God, and prayer. Hmm maybe teaching youth group kids isn’t really about me at all.

All the cool people have blogs

Well I never thought I would start writing a blog, but it seems like all the cool people are doing it so why not! I will tell you I have the worse spelling and grammar in the world so if you start reading my posts it maybe a little like trying to decipher a puzzle.
Man, things are way different in my life then they ever have been before. This time last years I was the youth minister at Memorial Rd. thinking that is what I would do forever. A few months later I had resigned my position at MRCC and I was looking for something different to do. I knew from the minute I resigned that getting out of youth ministry was a mistake most of you know that feeling. You know that God has other plans for you, but your to stubborn to listen, that is me in the worse way. Well I ended up a roofing salesman for about 4 months man was that a mistake! Not because it’s not a good job it just wasn’t me. For the first time since I became a Christian I felt like I had completely lost my way.
Until one day when my beautiful wife said something that I will never forget. She said “you’re a youth minister that what you are and you’re not going to be happy unless you’re doing what God wants you to do so go do it you punk I love you!” Only Amanda can say that to me no one else. So here I am 8 months after I walked out of MRCC crying wishing I could change what I had done; now I am the youth minister at the Alameda Church in Norman. Man how things change!
So I am really excited, and really worried about a lot of things. I am excited about my new group I am working with they really are a great group of students. I am excited that they seem to really be starting too warm up to me. I am excited to see what the Alameda church will look like in a few years I really think some truly awesome things are happing here. Oh yeah I am also really pumped about moving to Norman I saw Sam Bradford in a deli the other day it was so sweet!
I am worried about a lot of things right now. I am worried that I still really miss my MRCC students. I think about them everyday and I hope they know how much I love them. I am worried that the Alameda families won’t see how great of a youth ministry we can have. Not that it hasn’t been great in the past it has, but I just see the potential of what can be! I worry about our house selling I am ready to move! I worry about my son Derek making the transition to Norman. He is still pretty convinced I am destroying his life. Oh did I mention I worry a lot!!! So the only way to stop worrying is to give to God man I need to do that more.
Finally we are trying to come up with a name for our ministry at Alameda so if anybody actually reads this I would love your ideas. Especially all you youth minister types.
Well my first blog entry is done that was kind of fun! Peace

Jeremy