a letter i wrote to the youth sponsors
i am not sure how many of you will actually read this before youth tonight but i did want to send out a little greeting and to tall you what is in store for this evening.
if weather allows tonight will be an outdoor night with a campfire, roast some marshmellows, sing some songs and talk about life. this past week as all of you know has been a crazy one. it started with a visit to st joes and see the baby of shane and maria, 10lbs, all i said was i am sorry for your pain. it was a good visit as i saw where life started. then that evening came a spur of the moment trip to cleveland with bud to be with darcy and the rest of the hiltons. i was in cleveland when i received a call on thursday about my grandfather fading fast. so i hopped back in bud's car and drove home. while i driving back to pulaski i received a call of darcy's death. you never know when death will come. darci all though sick for a while just went to cleveland for a routine checkup. while there they put her under for a procedure and she never woke up from coma.friday i left pulaski for northern maine and arrived at the nursing home about 9:30pm. i couldnt believe that the man lying in the bed was my grandather. he had lost about 50 lbs and was very frail. i stayed the night there and woke up every now and then and could tell he was still breathing. the next morning we had breakfast and could tell that he was fading. his complexion started turning almost green and his breaths getting farther apart. as i held his hand he passed away. this was the first time i had ever been in the same room when someone had died. what now layed infront of me was someone mortal but i knew everything immortal about my grandfather was rejoicing up in heaven.tonight i am going to address all three people read ecclesiastes 3 as well as 1 corinthians 13:5 and tells you to examine yourself to see if your life is where it should be.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Monday, June 05, 2006
ministry in the small town
i am going to try and write this blog in a way that tries not to be judgmental and to say that one church is better then another. i am going to attempt to show that ministry in the small town while not for everyone is fitting for jenny and myself.
as soon as we arrived here 10 months ago i noticed that people knew about our church already. our church is known for a few different areas.
1. tlc-this is the preschool that our church offers. there are about 50 3-4 year olds that run around here being taught by 5 teachers. many of these families do not attend church here but many have enrolled there kids in tlc and have started to attend because of this event.
2. care-n-share-the weekend before thanksgiving we have a free thrift store. almost all that attend this are not from our church.
3. barn bash- music festival that attracted 1500 this past year
these are just three things that we are known for in our community. now in the city, even in a small city like greenville sc there are a multitude of churches (granted it is in the bible belt) so it is harder to distinguish one church from the other. with having churches on every corner it is a little harder to convince someone to come to yours. in pulaski we do not have that problem. with as much outreach as we do. more people come here from word of mouth.
small town ministry in a way is like cheers; everybody knows your name. it is easier to run into someone that you know in a small town.
as for youth ministry, i doubt there there is a teen at pulaski high school that does not know my face and maybe possibly my name. with about 500 students 7-12 grade. it is easier for me to distinguish them as well. in greenville each high school i went into had about 2000 students 9-12. therefore in pulaski it is easier to pick out a face, establish a relationship with this student and see him on a regular basis even though he does not attend church.
small town does not take away the ministry possibilities. there is a community food bank. we as a church have partnered with it rather then having a pantry of our own because people in our area are more apt to go to the food bank anyway. same idea with clothing. we even though not in the inner city still have many people living in poverty right here. the job market here is not the best, and the jobs that are available are minimum wage.
so while one might think that the small town is an exciting place to be in ministry, it suits me perfectly.
as soon as we arrived here 10 months ago i noticed that people knew about our church already. our church is known for a few different areas.
1. tlc-this is the preschool that our church offers. there are about 50 3-4 year olds that run around here being taught by 5 teachers. many of these families do not attend church here but many have enrolled there kids in tlc and have started to attend because of this event.
2. care-n-share-the weekend before thanksgiving we have a free thrift store. almost all that attend this are not from our church.
3. barn bash- music festival that attracted 1500 this past year
these are just three things that we are known for in our community. now in the city, even in a small city like greenville sc there are a multitude of churches (granted it is in the bible belt) so it is harder to distinguish one church from the other. with having churches on every corner it is a little harder to convince someone to come to yours. in pulaski we do not have that problem. with as much outreach as we do. more people come here from word of mouth.
small town ministry in a way is like cheers; everybody knows your name. it is easier to run into someone that you know in a small town.
as for youth ministry, i doubt there there is a teen at pulaski high school that does not know my face and maybe possibly my name. with about 500 students 7-12 grade. it is easier for me to distinguish them as well. in greenville each high school i went into had about 2000 students 9-12. therefore in pulaski it is easier to pick out a face, establish a relationship with this student and see him on a regular basis even though he does not attend church.
small town does not take away the ministry possibilities. there is a community food bank. we as a church have partnered with it rather then having a pantry of our own because people in our area are more apt to go to the food bank anyway. same idea with clothing. we even though not in the inner city still have many people living in poverty right here. the job market here is not the best, and the jobs that are available are minimum wage.
so while one might think that the small town is an exciting place to be in ministry, it suits me perfectly.
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