June 18, 2008

Update

So it has been awhile since I updated last and that is the reason for having a blog right? Or at least that is the way that you lose readers, right? So this is the update.

Wednesday Night
I spoke to the Jr. Highers on Wednesday last week and I would be lying if I said it was easy. It was far from it. Relating to the age group of the Jr. Highers is more than difficult. Then again, maybe it isn't, I just haven't been in tune with that age group for so long that it made it difficult to feel as if I was relating properly. However, this was a situation where I had had so long to think about the topic that I think that I "over thought" it. I mean come on, distractions really shouldn't be that difficult right? you get distracted, so turn back to Jesus and you can walk on water! haha... I did enjoy the experience with the Jr. Highers as that is the only time that I will be upfront speaking to them. But then again, maybe that is the best thing for me. Maybe that allows me to focus on the more important part of being in ministry and that is the importance of relationships. More on that later.

Friday with Pastor Dave
Don't tell Christy, but I think that I love this guy. Friday we had our leadership meeting with Pastor Dave. Pastor Dave Engbrecht is the Senior Pastor here at NMC and he is responsible for growing the pastors here into leaders as well as shepherding those in the congregation. Pastor Dave shared some of his thoughts on leadership, especially in ministry, and gave us many different qualities of a good leader as well as visited with us about our lives and just kinda got to pour into us. Let me just say, I could sit and listen to this guy talk for hours on end. I mean, I seriously was locked in on this conversation think it might have been the most focused hour and a half that I have been apart of in a long time.

The biggest thing that most of us took from this time was Pastor Dave's relation of leaders to this idea of leaders who "multiply" and those that "add." I thought about this as he detailed what exactly each leader does and how each leader acts. I found it so important to realize where I fit into this spectrum as it relates to excellence and empowerment. The "Adder" focuses more on excellence while the "Multiplier" focuses on empowering people to achieve excellence. This would become quickly used in my life as the Sunday School setting was arriving soon and the planning for this was quickly becoming a situation that I needed to focus on buying to the multiplier mentality.

This guy is sweet.

Sunday Morning
So, we have started this curriculum called "Fuel" and this curriculum is very deep, I feel, for the Jr. Highers and Preteens. But what made it even more difficult was the fact that we were using a new format from the format that we had used the week prior. So this was a challenge. I was responsible for developing questions for pre and post question sessions for both 7th and 8th graders when they would be in classrooms with leaders. I think that the hardest thing about this was not forming the questions because that was a matter of thinking about what I would like to know more about and simply putting it down and then paring that list down to that which seemed more relevant than the others. But what was more difficult was my desire to make sure that the leaders got the students to where they needed to be in order to fully comprehend the message that we were trying to portray. All in all, this was a difficult process that really grew me in a way that I didn't know was going to happen through one simple Sunday School lesson.


This Week
I have found myself growing more and more this week as I took a bit of an assessment about where I am at in my pursuit of Christ. I am reading Francis Chan's new book Crazy Love and it has given me some perspective. I will add a post about some of my thoughts on this probably later today or tomorrow, perhaps. But this book has challenged me to think more and more about the way that I view the world. WHAT AM I LOOKING TO ACHIEVE? I almost wonder what it is that I am pursuing on this earth? Is it fame? Fortune? Success? What am I defining my success with? These are some of the questions that are in my head right now. I have found that perhaps I am starting to realize that I need to be more focused on that which is important. But that wisdom is coming.

Pray for the Preteens tonight as they will be going through that which God has laid on my heart.
Pray for the Impact team in Mexico as they continue to do God's Work in Mexico.
Pray for the DCGO team as they continue to learn how they can share their faith with others in a meaningful way.
Pray for all of those that are in need of God's undying Love.
Thank Him for everything that He has given us today.

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