New jobs and such

I began a new job this week.  As of yesterday, I am the Volunteer Coordinator for Accolade Hospice here in Lubbock.  This will be my first non-church career, so it's been quite an adjustment already.  Like any job in the medical field, most of this week will be training videos and reading, which makes for thrilling days.  But I love the organization that I am working for and get the sense that they believe that I'm the right person for the job, so I'm excited about where this may be going.  I really feel like I'm working with a great team of people.

In addition to watching the standard training videos this week, there is also a national volunteer conference for people in my position.  So, I have watched a couple of these conference webinars in an attempt to better understand what it is that I am supposed to be doing.  Yesterday I watched a seminar on how to approach faith communities about volunteering with a hospice organization.  While the webinar is going on, there is a chat window where people can interact and ask questions based on what the speaker was covering.

It was pretty astounding to watch what people's perceptions of churches are.  Comments like, "I approached one pastor who asked me why he would let me try to drum up volunteers for my organization when they won't even volunteer for children's ministry." Or "Pastors don't want anyone that can't help out their church."  Or "One pastor asked me how much money I wanted.  When I said I didn't want any, he told me that they couldn't help me."  Over and over again the comments painted a church that was only concerned about itself and what was needed to keep the machine of church running.

It really saddened me, because I think the vision that Jesus had (and has) for his church is so much larger.  You can argue with me if you would like (that's what the comment section below is for), but I believe that Jesus expects no less from his church than the redemption of the world.  Pretty major vision.  Or, as my Twitter friend Bob Goff says it, "God's plan for the world is as simple as it is inexplicable: It's us."  When all the world sees in us is that we only care for ourselves, our people, our programs, something has gone terribly wrong.

Something has gone terribly wrong.

softball ministry

This past weekend I got the opportunity to spend a bunch of time with my 9-year-old, Faith, at a softball All-Star tournament.  We got up early on Thursday morning and drove three hours south to San Angelo for a weekend of softball.  It seemed like all of West Texas and part of New Mexico descended on the town for a softball extravaganza.  Every hotel room in the town was booked and they were even housing people at Angelo State University.  It was crazy!

As far as softball goes, it was a good weekend.  We had a great team of 12 girls, ages 7-9, and an amazing group of parents!  We ended up going 3-3 on the weekend and got eliminated in a game where the ball just didn't bounce our way.  It was a great introduction to competitive softball for both Faith as a player and for me as a coach.

It was also a good opportunity for me to spend some quality time with my 9-year-old.  We ate junk food and watched Disney Channel and hung out all weekend.  Wendy (my wife) and I decided that this summer would be a good opportunity for me to spend some one-on-one time with each of the girls before their little brother comes next month, so this was my time with Faith.  And we had a blast!

But I think that my favorite time of the weekend was a 2-hour late lunch with the team's head coach and his wife.  After our elimination game, we hung around the complex and watched a great game between two of the other Lubbock teams.  Then we went to lunch at Schlotzsky's and really had our first chance to have an in-depth conversation.

I've been coaching with this guy for two years now and have a great respect for him -- the way he looks at softball and the way he looks at life.  He is in the process of raising three young ladies, all of whom play softball and all of whom are pretty amazing girls.  In these two years, we've never really had a chance to just sit and chat.  In this lunch convo, we talked about Jesus and church, softball and coaching, parenting and broken homes.  I got a chance to get to know who he is on a different level.  It really was a blessed conversation.

What struck me most about the conversation was the affirmation of what has been going on in my heart recently -- the notion that ministry is all around us if we only have the eyes to see the possibilities.  Every girl that I coach in softball or basketball, every parent that I interact with, every opposing team that I talk to and play against is a chance to show the love of Christ.  For some of these girls that played on this All-Star team, this will be my only interaction that I have with her and her parents.  Have I made a positive contribution to who they are as unique children of God or has my contribution been less than it should be?

I may never again bear the title of Pastor, but that doesn't get me off the hook of shepherding people.  As a matter of fact, it looks like I'll have MORE opportunities to pastor now that I've lost that title.

reflections from a long break

It has been two months since I wrote anything in this blog.  Apologies.  Life has been hectic and confusing and out-of-round.  But people with lives much more hectic find the mindspace to contribute to the conversation in their "spare time", so I thought I should probably try my hand at it again.

I think one of my primary problems with faithful blogging is that I feel like I have to have something profound and verbose to say.  The reality is that a lot of the people that I follow on blogs and twitter and the like just post some thoughts or even just link to others' thoughts.

I have had a couple of days to reflect on life and church and family and employment and kingdom and I think I'm even more confused than when I started.  Those reflections are probably better left for another time and another place (3 pm in a Market Street coffeeshop seems a little too impersonal for some old-fashioned soul baring).

But as I look at the little community that God has entrusted to me and I balance that with the person that God has created me to be, I feel like I have abdicated some of my responsibilities to them.  I'm not sure exactly what I mean by that, but I can't help feeling that I need some more intentionality and discipline in order to lead in the way I have been gifted.  So, while blogging is a small thing, maybe it's the gateway drug to deeper discipline.

Since there's very little profound or verbose in my blogging today, I thought I could introduce some of you to one of my mentors, a theologian named Alan Hirsch, author of several books on missional church and one of the foremost thinkers in this missional conversation.  Here is one of his recent blog posts.  Enjoy!

http://www.thehousestudio.com/2012/christ-must-be-everything/