Look at me! Posting twice in a month!

hey everyone, I told you last time that I would update this blog every friday. Well, it's friday so here goes. Lemme tell you why I picked this day. I keep office hours every day except sunday and wednesday, 11-4pm. Yea, those are sweet hours, cause I can sleep in till 10am each day if I want. But we picked those so that I would be able to catch the students as they leave from school at 3pm. So, if I need to make any calls to students, I have office time to do that. Anyway, I'm also on a rotational system with my office hours. I goto sciotoville church on monday/saturday, wheelersburg on tuesday/thursday, and minford on friday. I don't ever goto south webster for office hours, since they have a very small church with a very small office...and no wi-fi+spotty cell reception. Just a reminder of the 4 churches I work for


Anyway, on fridays, I come to minford and the internet is slow, cell signal isn't great, and I NEVER see anyone here. So, I devote this time to things that don't need fast internet/cell signal/people, lol. I'm sure you'll all be much happier because of this.

And on the subject of Fridays, they no longer seem like days off. In fact, my Sabbath is now on Wednesday. It can't be on sunday, cause I work the hardest on sunday. I usually put in a 12 hour day every week. All total, I'm averaging a 40 hour work week, with wednesday as my sabbath. i fill out time sheets every week to let my pastors know what I do with my work time and I always refer to wednesday as my sabbath, not my day off. I think it's important to remember the sabbath, well for starters, because God says so in the 10 commandments, but also because our bodies need a day off every week or we get run down. So, wednesday is like my weekend. I kinda like it.

I've also been dealing with several personal problems. The least of which is me gaining weight. I've gained a lot of weight since I moved here. It's due to a combo of poor eating habits and lack of excercise. It's so bad, that only a few of my pants still fit, and none of them are long pants. they are all shorts! so, as things get colder, I either better lose some weight fast or buy new clothes. As much as I hate it, I'm gonna have to buy new clothes. I have joined a local health club, but am having trouble finding a good time I can goto it. The best is obviously in the morning. I could get up at 8, go workout and start my day right: devos and excercise. But despite my slick new tempurpedic bed, it is very tough for me to get up in the morning. I think the bed might be too comfortable, lol. But this health club (named the life center) has a nice pool and I'd like to start swimming for excercise. Low joint impact, multi-area workout, and good cardio. If only I could just wake up when I want...Actually, if you guys could, please pray for me in the area: waking up at 8am. That also involves going to bed earlier, which I've been doing almost great with. I usually get into bed right around midnight, but I play around on my iPad and end up not falling asleep till 1:30! So, I think in addition to praying for help with this, I will dedicate myself to not using the iPad in bed and actually trying to sleep at midnight. that would give me a solid potential 8hours of sleep. If that fails, I'll move my bedtime back to 11pm. but if I am able to wake up early, it would improve my life a lot, I think. I'd be able to read my bible steadily, work out consistently, and both those things will make all areas of my life better!

Now lets talk about ministry. First, the bad things. I HATE how hard it is to make things happen. Like, if I want to take the youthgroup to kings island, it's so bloody hard. First, getting all the logistics sqaured away is tough. Finding ticket prices, getting permission slips, drivers, advertising. Granted, most of it is my fault and my shortcomings, but it's so hard to make stuff happen at all. And if we don't do stuff, the students get bored and stop coming. Now, I don't want to say anything bad about the students cause I really like em all. Even the crazy ones! But they are so busy with their own lives, that youth group has to be awesome for them to come. I can totally relate as a former teenager, but this is obviously frustrating to me as a youth minister. In an ideal world, students would care more about learning about God than being entertained. But like I said, we've got some solid Christians in the youth group, both young and old, they are just uber busy. But then again, everyone tells me to expect it to take 2 years to form a somewhat normal youth ministry. I think we're on the right path.

I've also been thinking about the often heard "it's not about numbers" cliche. My theology greatly agrees with this. It's about their spiritual growth, which isn't measured in attendance. However...I also think that a strong Christian community is one that grows, both in service and faith. Both those areas cause new people to want to join the Christian community. So, in all honesty, I do believe that a "good" ministry aimed at Christians (rather than a food pantry for example) should naturally grow as members grow closer to God and reach out to others in faith and service. So, as controversial as it sounds, I think a good youth ministry is one that grows. It's the same as saying that a good christian should produce good works. It's the whole "real christianity naturally produces works" thing. Real christian growth in my students should

1.) Make them more open to God's truth/working
2.) More concerned about their peers' souls
3.) More likely to serve others

All those things make for a place where people hopefully want to be. I haven't fully developed this idea yet, but what do you all think? I mean, if people don't want to be a part of my youth ministry, doesn't that mean I'm doing something wrong? The 1st century church saw explosive growth, to the point at which some 5000+ people got saved after hearing one message. I'd call that a successful ministry, wouldn't you?