Evidently my whole “update once a week” thing was a total bust. But, in my defense, this past year has been a complete whirlwind of tasks, teaching, emotions, and just general busyness. For those who may not know, since March of 2013 I have been serving as the youth pastor of a small church in Middle Ga. At the end of July of 2014, I stepped down from that position because Sharon and I felt God leading us toward the seminary for further education.
During the past year, I believe we have both felt God molding us and giving us direction of where he wants us to focus our attention, especially me personally. The more I pray and ponder the direction in ministry that God may have for me, and the more I seek council from trusted friends/pastors/etc… the more that I feel led two very specific directions: pastoring on some level, and teaching on the collegiate/seminary level. I may not see both of those goals come to fruition, but I feel led to pursue an education as a means to that end.
Now, why the random update, name change, direction change after so many months of silence? Well, it’s simple: it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want. But seriously, let’s all be honest, most of my posts are in the field of theology or church history, or what I’m reading at the time, or if I’ve happened to preach/teach a message so why not? I still feel compelled to review good books and movies, which I will do from time to time. And if I can figure out a way to add pages on blogger, I’ll try and keep it as neat and clean as I can. If not, then I may need to seek another medium for this endeavor.
So, what are we going to do in the interim between now and seminary? Well, we’ve moved back to be closer to my full time job, and we’ve starting attending a local church here. I’ve applied to Southern in Louisville (and got my acceptance letter today!), but we did apply for next fall (2015) so it looks like we’ll be in Georgia for another year (to my dismay). However, this does afford Sharon and me the opportunity to seek out something that we’ve been missing since we moved from Jackson, TN: Community.
Not to knock our experience serving in the church, but we felt a little lonely in that we had no small group, no core group of our own, made up of people our own age (or close to it) that we could discuss life and family and the Scriptures. That’s not to say we didn’t experience any personal growth, because we did, or that we didn’t love our teenagers, because we did, or that we didn’t make friends while we were there, because we did. However, when you’ve been married for three and a half years, and the last time you really felt like you were growing in community was in the months prior to your wedding, it might be time to take a step back and re-evaluate. And that’s what we’ve decided to do with this next year, unless of course God has other plans and asks us to move sooner.
I do know that Sharon and I “yearn for the physical presence of other Christians…” as Bonhoeffer wrote in Life Together. We strongly desire to simply sit back and enjoy this blessing from God that is life with other believers.
From his chapter on Community in Life Together I am both encouraged and humbled by Bonhoeffer’s words: “It is easily forgotten," he writes, "that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed” but, “The believer feels no shame, as though he were still living too much in the flesh, when he yearns for the physical presence of other Christians. Man was created a body, the Son of God appeared on earth in the body, he was raised in the body, in the sacrament the believer receives the Lord Christ in the body, and the resurrection of the dead will bring about the perfected fellowship of God’s spiritual-physical creatures. The believer therefore lauds the Creator, the Redeemer, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for the bodily presence of a brother” (pages 20 and 19 respectively).
Again, don’t misunderstand me, we’ve lived among believers and have felt their love and care for the past 3 years, but we’ve also missed our deeper connection of community that we enjoyed and were blessed with in Jackson. Whether or not we ever move back there again, I pray that we find similar community before our time on earth is done.
With that all said, I do want to let you know (mostly to keep me accountable to continue posting) of a few things I’ll try to highlight over the next few posts. I will try and discuss our past year and a half serving the youth, but those posts may be spaced between other posts. I did have the opportunity to preach at the end of June and I want to discuss that some (and hopefully post the video footage). Regarding some fun stuff, Sharon and I went to our first con back in May! So I’ll touch on that as well. Also, the never ending, always fun book reviews. I’m currently reading about 4 books, but I just picked up Scott Hahn’s “Consuming the Word” that I’m looking forward to diving into.
So sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and pack your pipe with me as we, hopefully, move forward with more regular updates and discuss some fun topics, exchange ideas, and share life with one another here, on the Back Porch.
Grace and Peace to you,
Nick
During the past year, I believe we have both felt God molding us and giving us direction of where he wants us to focus our attention, especially me personally. The more I pray and ponder the direction in ministry that God may have for me, and the more I seek council from trusted friends/pastors/etc… the more that I feel led two very specific directions: pastoring on some level, and teaching on the collegiate/seminary level. I may not see both of those goals come to fruition, but I feel led to pursue an education as a means to that end.
Now, why the random update, name change, direction change after so many months of silence? Well, it’s simple: it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want. But seriously, let’s all be honest, most of my posts are in the field of theology or church history, or what I’m reading at the time, or if I’ve happened to preach/teach a message so why not? I still feel compelled to review good books and movies, which I will do from time to time. And if I can figure out a way to add pages on blogger, I’ll try and keep it as neat and clean as I can. If not, then I may need to seek another medium for this endeavor.
So, what are we going to do in the interim between now and seminary? Well, we’ve moved back to be closer to my full time job, and we’ve starting attending a local church here. I’ve applied to Southern in Louisville (and got my acceptance letter today!), but we did apply for next fall (2015) so it looks like we’ll be in Georgia for another year (to my dismay). However, this does afford Sharon and me the opportunity to seek out something that we’ve been missing since we moved from Jackson, TN: Community.
Not to knock our experience serving in the church, but we felt a little lonely in that we had no small group, no core group of our own, made up of people our own age (or close to it) that we could discuss life and family and the Scriptures. That’s not to say we didn’t experience any personal growth, because we did, or that we didn’t love our teenagers, because we did, or that we didn’t make friends while we were there, because we did. However, when you’ve been married for three and a half years, and the last time you really felt like you were growing in community was in the months prior to your wedding, it might be time to take a step back and re-evaluate. And that’s what we’ve decided to do with this next year, unless of course God has other plans and asks us to move sooner.
I do know that Sharon and I “yearn for the physical presence of other Christians…” as Bonhoeffer wrote in Life Together. We strongly desire to simply sit back and enjoy this blessing from God that is life with other believers.
From his chapter on Community in Life Together I am both encouraged and humbled by Bonhoeffer’s words: “It is easily forgotten," he writes, "that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed” but, “The believer feels no shame, as though he were still living too much in the flesh, when he yearns for the physical presence of other Christians. Man was created a body, the Son of God appeared on earth in the body, he was raised in the body, in the sacrament the believer receives the Lord Christ in the body, and the resurrection of the dead will bring about the perfected fellowship of God’s spiritual-physical creatures. The believer therefore lauds the Creator, the Redeemer, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for the bodily presence of a brother” (pages 20 and 19 respectively).
Again, don’t misunderstand me, we’ve lived among believers and have felt their love and care for the past 3 years, but we’ve also missed our deeper connection of community that we enjoyed and were blessed with in Jackson. Whether or not we ever move back there again, I pray that we find similar community before our time on earth is done.
With that all said, I do want to let you know (mostly to keep me accountable to continue posting) of a few things I’ll try to highlight over the next few posts. I will try and discuss our past year and a half serving the youth, but those posts may be spaced between other posts. I did have the opportunity to preach at the end of June and I want to discuss that some (and hopefully post the video footage). Regarding some fun stuff, Sharon and I went to our first con back in May! So I’ll touch on that as well. Also, the never ending, always fun book reviews. I’m currently reading about 4 books, but I just picked up Scott Hahn’s “Consuming the Word” that I’m looking forward to diving into.
So sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and pack your pipe with me as we, hopefully, move forward with more regular updates and discuss some fun topics, exchange ideas, and share life with one another here, on the Back Porch.
Grace and Peace to you,
Nick
