As I am sure most anyone reading this already knows, my pal Luke is having a tough time making some decisions and having to face some tough realities in terms of his career and future. I sympathize with him, mostly because he is my friend and I want he and jackie to be happy in whatever they do, but also because I am right there with him. I am in a ministry position that I absolutely love. My kids are great, their parents are great, the church body is great, but I can not continue at the pace I am going now. I too am realizing some harsh realities.
- Finding a balance between Starbucks and ministry is becoming almost impossible. Even when things are going great and we're fully staffed, things can go very wrong in a heartbeat. All it takes is one call out to dramatically affect my Youth Group. Scheduling events around my school and work schedules is enough to elicit blindness-inducing headaches.
- School is tough, even it is a crappy online school. I attend Regions University(formerly Southern Christian) and I am pursuing a B.S. in Bible/Ministry. To be completely honest with you, I haven't taken it seriously and have managed to skate by so far without serious incident. However, I am getting into the meat of my courses and this semester is going to be much more difficult than I had originally expected. Luke's current situation scares the crap out of me and I know I have to ratchet up my study time and investment level, which further magnifies the problem of....
- There aren't enough hours in the day. As a full-time student, retail manager of a millon dollar business, Youth Pastor, husband, father of two, and horrible friend, I feel like I short everyone in each of those categories.
I am coming to the conclusion that something has to change. I have tried to find a new full-time position that has a more reliable schedule, but have not had any luck. I feel called to full-time ministry and I know that eventually I will end up devoting myself to a full-time position, but I wonder if that time should be now. There are a couple of positions that I have inquired about, but every time I send an e-mail or place a phone call, I feel like I am betraying my church. I feel like I am being selfish and looking for the easy way out, but I can not continue on my current path, or I will fail miserably as a manager, father, husband, and pastor. I just don't know where I go from here.
9 comments:
God never calls us to a place he's not already prepared for us to go.
Never forget that if you are honestly answering that call, your obligation is to it -- not to any particular current job situation.
A very wise friend once told me, when I was torn about withdrawing from a responsible position with a volunteer organization, "Did you ever stop to think that by staying you may be standing in the way of somebody who is called here to continue this work, in this place?"
(Had to delete my first comment because apparently God is not in charge of correcting typos on the fly.)
Thanks for the advice. A week after I really began to contemplate leaving, my pastor preached a sermon about being loyal to God, not one church or denomination. I feel like God is moving me somewhere, I just don't know where.
Hey man....I have helped with a few funerals and of course the most difficult was helping with my own Dad's funeral last year ..... God gets us through these things
No matter what other decisions you make this is your priority list (its very simple):
1)God
2)Family
3)Everything else (including work; church or otherwise, school, etc...)
If you want to talk about more of these kinds of things (in a less public setting) shoot me an email and we can grab a lunch or something.
or perhaps you can grab a coffee...
:p
Where in MGM can you get a decent cup of joe though ??? Hmmmmmmmmm
hell if i know. i hear starbucks is alright, but they tend to burn their coffee.
Yummmmmmmmmmmm burned coffee.....Its good that there is not a S'bucks on my way to work or....I WOULD BE BROKE!!!!
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