Friday, September 29, 2006

My Dream For My Ministry

I don't really like that title... is it really MY ministry? Does MY dream really matter?

That's the title given for the paper I just wrote. Some of you responded to the post a couple of weeks ago in that regard. Here's an excerpt from the paper about how I answered the question, "what is your dream for your ministry?"

Considerable pressure has been placed on me to decide what I want to do in ministry. Lectureship came and went with old friends asking, “So what are you doing now?” This paper asks the same question. In spite of my efforts, nothing has become clear. I don’t have a clear dream for what my future in ministry will look like. The best I can do is offer a few options that have risen to the top of the list.

Many people have lamented the lack of theological education in our churches. “If only the elders and deacons could understand…” Many ministers have lamented that no one in their churches knows what it’s like to work in ministry. It may well be that my future ministry may be to be the antidote to the stereotype. I have theological training and ministry experience. My ministry may well be to be a deacon or elder, or at least a member who lives the life in a worthy way, to be the member that every member should be. I could continue in my current career and be a “regular guy.”

My wife has been a school teacher, and probably will again. In four to five years, my children will be of school age, and my wife plans on returning to teaching. This will provide me with an opportunity. After the last year, I have no intention of ever trying to support my family and go to school at the same time. If my wife can provide the income, however, I would love to continue my education. I’m educationally minded. I have said before that I would like to teach at the college level, which in this field requires a PhD. I am a bit short of the requirements for many programs, having two Master’s but no MDiv. I may well have to deal with that when it comes along. Within the next five years, I will have a good chance to return to school again, and I will also have given Academy enough of a chance to see if that is what I really want to do.

Another option would be to seek a ministry job to start next summer or fall. Because I have a good job already, there’s no financial or time pressure to find a job. At the same time, I don’t know what kind of job I would seek. I am qualified for youth ministry, education ministry, or worship ministry in good sized churches. I could preach, although it would be quite the learning experience, and with no prior preaching experience, would likely end up in a smaller church. My resume is strong, and I have no doubt that I could get a ministry job at any time. Whether the job would be a good one or not is open, but if the goal was simply employment, I could do it.

So that's it. The best I could come up with was a series of options. We'll just have to see where it goes from here.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

What I've been doing the past three weeks

I blog too infrequently. It seems that whenever I have some great idea about what to write, I'm miles away from my computer, and whenever I sit at my computer, I'm miles away from a good idea.

Excuses aside, I thought I should let on a bit about what I've been doing the past few weeks.

I've bird hunted quite a bit. My parents came to visit on a quick pass-through on their way to Durango. Dad and I got to hunt one morning and ended up with 20. I also took Shana and the boys hunting this past Friday. Shana killed a few birds, and I killed a few. The boys mostly just played in the field. We've eaten most of the birds we killed, so I guess I'll be forced to go kill some more.

Here's my dove cooking recipe.

Filet the dove breasts. I find it easiest to do this before I freeze them, as they take up much less space in the freezer, and they're easier to filet when they're not frozen.
Marinate in Claude's Brisket Marinade

Chop into one inch pieces the following:
Green, Red, Yellow bell peppers
Mushrooms
Sweet onions
Yellow and/or Green squash

Make kabobs of the meat and vegetables, wrapping each dove breast in bacon. I recommend putting an onion or a pepper next to each breast.

Grill them over a charcoal fire. A gas grill will work as well, but an oven just won't cut it.

That's some of the best eatin' I know of, so I thought I had better not be stingy with it.

I've been working plenty. I made a fast trip to Dallas for some training about firearm sale paperwork. As far as the store is concerned, I am increasing in wisdom and stature, as the saying goes.

I wrote about 20 pages in the last two weeks for my classes. I have a ten page paper due Thursday that was the prompt for my previous posts about what kind of ministry I should seek.

I got to go out to Trey's and scout for deer. Found lots of tracks and a few rubs. Timing may be an issue, but I should get to hunt a few times with a reasonable expectation of success. Bow season starts on Saturday, but I'll be in class. I might get to go out and set up some stands on Saturday afternoon, so that maybe I can legitimately hunt some time in the next few weeks.

I may have to go for a four day training in Dallas next week, but they still haven't decided for sure. If so, it will be a major career step, as you can't be a "real" manager until you've had this training.

Haven't been fishing since I went with Mark last month.

ACU Lectureship has come and gone. I got to touch base with quite a few of my network folks, like Rob Fortson, Joe Ed Furr, and others. I didn't get to spend as much time as I wanted to on campus during the event, and they pretty much dropped the ball on Taize this year.

That's about it, I guess. Hopefully I'll post again before three weeks is up.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Bird Huntin'

Dove season has been open for six days. The first two days I was in class. The third day was church and work. The fourth day it rained four inches. The fifth day was class and work. On the sixth day, God created animals and man. On the sixth day of dove season, the man harvested the raw materials for some great kabobs. That's right, I shot some bell peppers and onions, bacon and squash.

I picked up a place to dove hunt that is only 7 minutes from my house. My landlord was over working on plumbing and the roof on Saturday. I was helping (I live here, after all), and he offered for me to come hunt his place. Turns out that he has 20 acres of sunflowers close enough to town that all of those town doves come out to dine, but just outside the city limit, and less than a mile into the "North Zone" that has a 15 bird limit (the "Central Zone" one mile south has a 12 bird limit.)
I went out this morning before work and brought home eleven, mostly whitewings. I was shooting some old Winchester Super Speed shells that I got from Kayla and Dan in Canadian five years ago, and I remember now why I quit shooting them: they stink. I hit five or six more birds that didn't go down in a timely manner, instead flying 100 yards or more into a mesquite thicket. Remington Shur-Shot would have folded them. Oh well, only two more boxes of crappy shells to go.

We're going to New Mexico tomorrow for Josh and Haley's wedding this weekend. Should be interesting.

The boys and Shana had their first day of school yesterday. I think it was harder on mom than on the boys, but everyone did OK.

I'd still like some more comments on the last post, if you don't mind. If you don't want to be that personal on the internet, just e-mail me.
Jason

Friday, September 01, 2006

What I'm fixing to have to do

I'm in a class right now called "Intro to Christian Ministry." Its "Snakes on a Plane" title would be "Moving from Seminary to Church Work."

The first thing we did was process a case study about a seminary all-star who fell flat on his face in ministry, which was OK, since I don't know anyone like that. (Your sarcasm meter should be going nuts)

I could complain that I never had a real mentor. I could argue that the churches were the problem. I could say that it was just my personality, or conclude that I'm just not well suited to ministry.

For a year now, I have had no idea what my ministry future would hold. I've moved up in retail and have a career on my hands in that arena, should I choose to stick with it. I'm being forced into a direction. I have to write a paper called "My Dream for My Ministry," and honestly I have no idea.

This may be too much to ask of my blogging community, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Those of you that know me, what kind of ministry do you see me doing in the future? I can sit around and think about it, but I want feedback from outside myself. I have some ideas, but I want to leave the question open. What do you think?