Hello Everyone!
I hope that you are doing well. I am trying to be more consistent with my blogs. I was going to do it weekly, but I will just have to do it when I remember (or when I feel I have something to say). I wanted to talk about something that was discussed at church yesterday. There were two messages I heard on Sunday. One was from our Pastor and the other was from someone I co-teach 1st graders with every Sunday. Pastor Mike talked about growing and equipping leaders. The person I co-teach with taught on Joseph with an emphasis on Romans 8:28 (We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose").
Pastor Mike started off saying, "I don't work with volunteers. I work with people that are called. No one at church volunteers, they are called." That made me feel great and it also made me feel guilty because I have been wanting to quit the Parking Lot team for months now. There is no good reason why other than I just don't want to do it anymore. Yet when I look at it, it has been a great jumping board for a lot of conversations. I see people outside the church who are like, "Do you go to Brentwood Baptist?" or they'll be like, "Aren't you in the parking lot?" Then there are people inside the church who know me or know my name because I was in the Parking Lot and when I introduce myself they would be like, "You're the guy that directs traffic!" I do enjoy doing it. It just gets tiresome and there are several people who don't listen or directly ignore you. I know other ministers get this reaction, but it just seems it is more visible out there. When it comes down to it though, I didn't volunteer for this. I remember when I was in High School someone came into my Bible study to ask for people to help. He told us, "Just write, 'I want to be part of the Parking Lot Ministry'" I was 14-15 then. I didn't know how to drive. I didn't own a car. I've only been part of the church for a couple of months and at that moment I remember thinking, "I could do that." I made a note in the church connection pad, was called on the phone that week, and my first Sunday was Easter. I have been doing it ever since...which is almost 10 years now! If you look at me, you wouldn't think Parking Lot Ministry. I am 5 foot 4, not a very loud person, not a very forceful person, and I am HORRIBLE with directions. Yet God has worked through me. If he can use a talking donkey, than he can use me (for those of you that don't get that reference...check out Numbers 22:21-41)!
Ms. Melva, the person with whom I co-teach 1st grade, gave me a great reminder this past Sunday about how God works. She was teaching to 1st graders, but this lesson applies to everybody. She quoted Romans 8:28 and asked the kid, "Does it say that only good things will happen if we love God? No. It doesn't say that. It does say that all things work together for the good of those that Love God. Sometimes bad things happen in life and we get upset. We don't know why it's happening. What we need to remember is that even though that bad stuff is happening, all things work together for the good of those who love God." I know that I tend to forget that. It's easy to get caught up in what is going wrong, the bad stuff that happens, or why things are the way they are. That's when we should remember that as long as we Love God and put our faith and trust in him, that all things will work together for the good of those who love Him.
Overall, lots of things to think about this week. I even have more, but I will wait until later to post my thoughts on the Proverbs study and also this book I'm reading.
Have a great rest of the day!
Monday, October 24, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
I'm still here!
Hey Everyone!
I haven’t really updated my blog in a while. A lot of the time it’s because I feel like I don’t have anything to say. It could also be the fact that I have a lot to say, and I can’t put it down all in a few paragraphs. I’ll try to be better about blogging though for those of you who have been reading but haven’t seen anything recently.
Work is going well. I guess with every job you have periods where you have a lot of work, some work, and then little work. You can never really tell when that is going to be. Typically I’ll have more work on Mondays and Thursdays/Fridays. Then again that is not always the case. It depends on what checks come in the mail, if I need to set up anything, help with anything, or do some filing/catch up work. Either way, it’s good because it’s steady and there are several things I can do/help with and I am given a little more responsibility which is good.
The two classes that I teach or co-teach are going well. The first grade class I’m helping with this year is almost all boys. We have 1 or 2 girls that have come, but they don’t come every week. I enjoy this class though. We have some really smart kids in there and we don’t have any kids that really misbehave. The teaching this year is pretty cool too because we’re teaching through the Bible chronologically. The past three weeks we have been teaching on the Patriarchs. We taught on Abram, Isaac, and Jacob and next week we teach about Joseph. There’s a song we sing that goes with it and it just got stuck in my head as I wrote this paragraph! As for the 6th grade Lifegroup, it’s going well. It took a while for all of us to adjust and we are still getting there. They are getting used to being in the youth group, the way that classes are put together, and also just having a new leader and being with some new kids. I have to think differently when I teach now because I was used to teaching a group knowing they knew certain things and I can’t assume that with this group. It is kind of exciting though because I can be the one to teach them about those new things. It’s still a learning process though and I feel like even though I’ve done this for a while, it’s pretty new.
I am also in a Bible study called, “Men in Training” and we are going over Proverbs using a commentary book written by Warren Wiersbe. It’s been very good. I was one of those people who never really wanted to study through proverbs. I knew it had practical wisdom and was important to read, but I like the narratives better and I also wanted to be sure I knew the NT well enough. Digging into this study though has really taught me some cool things though and I have enjoyed doing it. It is a little more difficult than previous studies. I’m taking notes throughout the chapters because there is so much there. Weirsbe doesn’t even go through every verse but he goes through sections and themes. The group I’m in is good too. It has some of the guys that were there in previous years, but we got a lot of newer guys (or some that have returned) to the group. I’m the youngest in the group. It is an intergenerational study, so there are lots of benefits to it.
My friend Tom just graduated from the Navy a couple of days ago! I watched the dogs and house for his parents while they went to see him. He’s going to Charleston now for school, but hopefully he will be able to visit soon or vice versa. I’m very happy and proud of him, it’s just a little weird for me because he was one of my friends that I would hang out with and now we have to make an extra effort to keep in touch. It’s no big deal. We were writing letters back and forth while he was in boot camp, and now he has e-mail and phone so it shouldn’t be too much harder.
Well, I should be going. I will be sure to blog more. Have a great rest of the day!
I haven’t really updated my blog in a while. A lot of the time it’s because I feel like I don’t have anything to say. It could also be the fact that I have a lot to say, and I can’t put it down all in a few paragraphs. I’ll try to be better about blogging though for those of you who have been reading but haven’t seen anything recently.
Work is going well. I guess with every job you have periods where you have a lot of work, some work, and then little work. You can never really tell when that is going to be. Typically I’ll have more work on Mondays and Thursdays/Fridays. Then again that is not always the case. It depends on what checks come in the mail, if I need to set up anything, help with anything, or do some filing/catch up work. Either way, it’s good because it’s steady and there are several things I can do/help with and I am given a little more responsibility which is good.
The two classes that I teach or co-teach are going well. The first grade class I’m helping with this year is almost all boys. We have 1 or 2 girls that have come, but they don’t come every week. I enjoy this class though. We have some really smart kids in there and we don’t have any kids that really misbehave. The teaching this year is pretty cool too because we’re teaching through the Bible chronologically. The past three weeks we have been teaching on the Patriarchs. We taught on Abram, Isaac, and Jacob and next week we teach about Joseph. There’s a song we sing that goes with it and it just got stuck in my head as I wrote this paragraph! As for the 6th grade Lifegroup, it’s going well. It took a while for all of us to adjust and we are still getting there. They are getting used to being in the youth group, the way that classes are put together, and also just having a new leader and being with some new kids. I have to think differently when I teach now because I was used to teaching a group knowing they knew certain things and I can’t assume that with this group. It is kind of exciting though because I can be the one to teach them about those new things. It’s still a learning process though and I feel like even though I’ve done this for a while, it’s pretty new.
I am also in a Bible study called, “Men in Training” and we are going over Proverbs using a commentary book written by Warren Wiersbe. It’s been very good. I was one of those people who never really wanted to study through proverbs. I knew it had practical wisdom and was important to read, but I like the narratives better and I also wanted to be sure I knew the NT well enough. Digging into this study though has really taught me some cool things though and I have enjoyed doing it. It is a little more difficult than previous studies. I’m taking notes throughout the chapters because there is so much there. Weirsbe doesn’t even go through every verse but he goes through sections and themes. The group I’m in is good too. It has some of the guys that were there in previous years, but we got a lot of newer guys (or some that have returned) to the group. I’m the youngest in the group. It is an intergenerational study, so there are lots of benefits to it.
My friend Tom just graduated from the Navy a couple of days ago! I watched the dogs and house for his parents while they went to see him. He’s going to Charleston now for school, but hopefully he will be able to visit soon or vice versa. I’m very happy and proud of him, it’s just a little weird for me because he was one of my friends that I would hang out with and now we have to make an extra effort to keep in touch. It’s no big deal. We were writing letters back and forth while he was in boot camp, and now he has e-mail and phone so it shouldn’t be too much harder.
Well, I should be going. I will be sure to blog more. Have a great rest of the day!
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