a nominal christian

"a nominal christian is content with proving the way of salvation by a crucified Redeemer. But the true Christian loves it, delights in it, glories in it, and shudders at the very thought of glorying in anything else...Let all your joys flow from the contemplation of his cross"

Charles Simeon

Before you judge me...

I was asked by our church council to detail out everything that I did at my job. And i was afraid of doing this because i don't want to solicit sympathy nor do i want to invoke pride. I was heckled by people that said youth ministry was "easy", that i don't do anything, or that they can do a better job. I don't know if you can or cannot...i'm just saying that you take a look at this before you judge me. This is what swirls my mind every day that i'm held accountable for:

Church Proper:

• Staff Meetings
• Deacon's Meetings
• Setup/Cleanup
  
• Open/Close building
• Preaching & teaching
• Major events
  

Youth Ministry:

• Prepare, implement, and execute Sunday school curriculum
• Prepare, implement, and execute philosophy & vision
  
• Prepare, implement, and execute Small Groups
• Oversee ACCESS (Middle school ministries)
• Equip and train Sunday school teachers
  
• Equip and train ACCESS leaders
• Equip and train Administration team
• Equip and train Servant team
• Equip and train Junior Servant team
• Discipleship with High school students
• Discipleship with Middle school students
• Parents Ministry: Equip and train parents
  
• Parents Ministry: Communication & networking
• Prepare, implement, and execute Missions Trip
• Prepare, implement, and execute Summer Camp
• Prepare, implement, and execute Winter Retreat
• Prepare, implement, and execute Fall, Spring, and Summer Event
• Provide counseling & recovery for youth
• Provide counseling & recovery for youth leader
  
• Provide counseling & recovery for parents
• Update communications
• Network with Chinese church association
• Network with Jersey Village association
• Network with Baptist association
• Provide support for college leaders
• Provide support for missionaries & seminarians
• Recruit new Sunday school teachers
• Recruit new discipleship leaders
• Recruit new accountability leaders
• Recruit new administration leaders
• Plan for future events, leadership, and students
  

Study:

• Hermeneutic of Scripture
• Hermeneutic of Church history
• Hermeneutic of Systematic Theology
• Study of Pop Culture
• Study of News
• Study of Religion

Personal:

• Discipleship
• Mentorship
• Accountability
• Exercise
• Networking
• Missions
• Sabbath
• Relationship
• Family
• Finances & Equity
  

emotional draino

hey...i don't really know why the Holy Spirit prompted me to write you but i suppose i can't tell yall to be open and honest and i not do the same. I guess i'm writing moreso to ask that ya'll would pray for me. After today i just felt tremendously emotionally and spiritually drained. There are days when i feel like i am single-handedly destroying this youth program or i'm not doing enough. Today is one of those days - where i find it almost impossible to do a good job and please everyone. i don't know why but i can't shake the feeling that i'm letting a lot of people down and somewhere spiritually, i feel that there are those who disprove of how the things are going in this youth group. For that i apologize but i feel like i'm running on empty. But I shall work as hard as i know how. So yeah...if you could just bear with me for a little longer and pray for me. Maybe this is me asking for help or people to come alongside and walk with me. So please lift me up in your prayers. And in the end, i know that this youth ministry isn't about me nor my efforts but what God decides to do...pray that i understand that. Pray that i will continue to work hard and be faithful to what he called me to. Thanks.

Selling Out: When Push Comes to Smackdown

What happens when your faith collides with practicality? I realized that claiming to be "christian" and living out and believing it whole-heartedly are two completely different animals. We're going through a difficult time in our church right now. And if i can give you some background it might help you grasp the fullness of what's going on. Awhile back we hired our pastor to be our senior interim pastor...(he's been on for about a year now). He's a solid guy, great teacher and mentor. Before he even applied for the position he made it very clear that he was a calvinist in doctrine. So a month ago (maybe more) he started to preach on ephesians line by line. And because people had asked him to become our permanent senior pastor he thought it would be good to teach the doctrines of calvinism to the church at whole. So they had a weekend where they invited a speaker to explain what this was. Unfortunately things went south very fast - people misunderstood what they were teaching and there began a huge ordeal. It got so bad to the point where i was asked not to teach on calvinsim to the youth and to pull all my documents off the youth website regarding these things. Fast-forward 3 weeks and we're at a meeting and 2 very emotional folk said "i don't know why we're talking about calvinism...this is NOT what we believe as a church...we don't need to learn this stuff" So this is kinda the climate of the church right now. You have members in the congregation saying, "this is who we've been for all these years...and we don't need to learn anything new" and the rest of the congregation not really knowing anything about this stuff. Here are my opinions:

1. You must teach the full counsel of scripture. The bible is not there for us to pick and choose what we like and what we don't like. By them telling me not to teach on certain topics or words such as "predestination" and "election" they're cutting a bulk of scripture and saying "it's too controversial to discuss". So you're telling me to teach a watered-down version of what our hope and faith is based on?

2. You have to be willing to learn history. Many of the people really heard the phrase "calvinism" for the first time in their life this past month which tells me several things - one, we're not doing a good job as teachers teaching them about our scriptures and about our history. two, these people are not willing to learn on their own and to grow deep.

3. Primary/Secondary issues: Primary issues are those that you leave a church over - salvation, Jesus, the bible, God, trinity. Secondary are differences - methods. Although calvinism/arminianism are secondary issues for a lot of people i find it hard for to make it so as a pastor of the church. On the congregational level it is ok to disagree over secondary issues. However, on the pastoral level...you MUST be united in doctrine and philosophy of ministry. Why? because you can't have one pastor teaching one thing and his convictions and another teaching their views. The church either splits in doctrine or "maintains" status quo.

*it puts me in a hard position because if the church decides to avoid both sides then i'm limited to what i can/cannot teach...which ultimately i'm not teaching the full counsel of scripture. And in the end God will be the one who holds me accountable...which is far scarier than offending people. This might seem like an over-reaction but i think once you understand these doctrines you'll understand that i see everything through the lenses of scripture...that it affects how i do ministry and teach. And it's not calvinism on one side and arminianism on the other...i'm telling you to take scripture as a whole...examine it and let the text be the text. This is why you have to read your stuff...this is why you have to study.

The Call To The Ministry: C.H. Spurgeon

How may a young man know whether he is called or not?

1. The first sign of the heavenly calling is an intense, all-absorbing desire for the work. In order to a true call to the ministry there must be an irresistible, overwhelming craving and raging thirst for telling to others what God has done to our own souls; what if I call it a kind of storge, such as birds have for rearing their young when the season is come; when the mother-bird would sooner die than leave her nest...(Do not enter the ministry if you can help it)

2. In the second place, combined with the earnest desire to become a pastor, there must be aptness to teach and some measure of the other qualities needful for the office of a public instructor. A man to prove his call must make a successful trial of these...

3. In order further prove a man's call, after a little exercise of his gifts, such as I have already spoken of, he must see a measure of conversion-work going on under his efforts, or he may conclude that he has made a mistake, and, therefore, may go back by the best way he can...

4. A step beyond all this is, however, needful in our enquiry. The will of the Lord concerning pastors is made known through the prayerful judgment of His Church. It is neeful as a proof of your vocation that your preaching should be acceptable to the people of God...

Spurgeon, C.H. Lecture To My Students. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954.