Why I love ministry

Well....my last post was on the negative side. I would have to say I was really impressed/challenged by a comment left to that blog. It was on the lines of...first you need to change yourself, then your community, then the world...that was a really big challenge that I agree with and is also part of changing the church. Good words Matt Ward.

So today i spent the majority of the day at The Hub working on video stuff some KB some grad video for the church and working on my disc golf skills. It was just a great day of fun and fellowship and reminded me about some of the great things church brings and how much despite its faults its worth it and why its worth trying to change. So I thought I would post a few things on why I love ministry or rather good times had through it.

-Friday Fun Days?
-Watching people grow
-Helping people come to know Jesus
-Looking back and seeing how the experience last year changed me
-Seeing people come out of there shell
-Australia 2004
-Seeing my own faith change
-Inside Jokes "Trevor Joel Kaufman" "Sin is good" "Just Chill" "Ya know when he gets all red and isn't even laughing but his whole body shakes" "Here's what you do you put your shoulder in er' and ya push" "I love you man"
-Tears
-Hearing swear words on Friday nights
-CAP team thinking Kevin (j) was dealing me drugs
-Laughing so hard at a red light 3 youth pastors and I couldn't get a word out to say the light was green and to drive
-Thinking I was going to see the DYP get arrested for trying to get food at McDonalds.
-Seeing that one student you never thought would end up in church come
-Authentic faith and relationships
-"I don't want to fight anymore"
-Bubble Hockey/Foosball (and the noises made during)
-Empowering others and being empowered
-Marshmallows on the gym carpet
-The old youth office
-Seeing a youth pastor realize his dream is reality
-Late night talks at camp
-The many more and many other memories like this that are going to/have happened.

Its not an exhaustive list but hey it works

Yeah :)

Well...today was amazing. These next couple of weeks are going to be really exciting for me thats for sure.

Well, yesterday I said good-bye for a month to one of my best friends on Campus. She is going to Costa Rica for mayterm. Tear. Last night we hung out in typical fashion of drinking IBC and just chilling. I love people that you can just hang out with and be yourself. I guess thats what my friends are like now that I think about it other wise we wouldn't hang out! haha.

Today was pretty amazing. I don't actually know who reads this but if any of you know Gary Schnepp you will appreciate this. So I was filming today on campus and had to go into the CC for something, low and behold there Gary is with his back to me. I called him and he turned with a huge Schnepp smile and it was just great. A hug from Gary makes the world seem like a good place to be. Okay thats exaggerating. If you don't know Gary tho he is just a great guy and easily has 3 feet on me. He is our district youth pastor and is one of the most relational people I know. The 5 minutes I spent with him today made my day.

"The Lords message rang out from you...your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it." ~Mark 15

When Gary saw me today. He did not need to say anything to me and I knew he was happy to see me. I think this is really significant because faith should be like that. Just this demeanor where people know, the whole actions speak louder than words. I want to have a faith like that.

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Okay for starters I created another blog that is just for my tech talk. It will follow my progress through my video projects, mainly the video I am helping with this Mayterm at Houghton. If you interested check it out:

The Video Project I'm working on

Wow, so recently I have had the most amazing conversations with great people about the church and ministry. From Chris, Walker, Ashley, Chris, Kevin, Kevin and Dr. Case. The majority with the theme that the church is in a really sad state. (much other conversation was had) I am scared to death to go into ministry because I have had a glimpse into what it is like. (That is not taking away from the great and joyful times that the experience of ministry can bring. Dr. Case was quick to mention cynicism is the easiest way to deal with things but it isn't always the right way.) I don't even know what the point of this post was but one thing comes quickly to mind. When I was talking to Kevin J he said something on the lines of... It makes him sick the way the church is going and he wonders if Jesus would even be part of "church" today. Ya know I think he's right and that scares me. Jesus would rather hang out with sinners and tax collectors than the church leaders that condemned and accuse. Is that what the majority of the church is doing?

It took me untill this year in my Intro to Christianity class to understand that Catholic doesn't even mean the R.C. Church but the over arching church. For the longest time I would cringe while saying the apostles creed. Sometimes the ignorance is just astounding to me. I was talking to my mom today and she was condemning my Pastor for teaching a series about the DaVinci Code because its a fake book. That killed me. I was like yeah but we are trying to reach people. Its not for people that think the book is fake. People are coming to church to hear him speak about this that wouldn't and a lot of people think its true. Its a good thing. Its good that the church isn't just ignoring it. Walker and Chris and I and maybe Ashley were talking about how the church sometimes just doesn't deal with things and that makes the situation worse (example: the Apocrypha, people think the bible is false because some books weren't included. Why doesn't the church just explain why? Why don't more people know why?). Oh-and about the article in Christianity Today. Those of you that read it. Please look beyond the ink and see how shallow it is. Please.

Well that was a interesting rant. The End

"I think what people really mean when they say they are against organized religion is that they're against hypocritical religion, misguided religion, blind or unthinking religion, religion of rules and laws rather then love, religion that comes diced and pre processed and shrink-wrapped like ground beef."