Updates

Well, now is the time to rest and grieve. I have been running hard and fast ever since I was asked to resign and never really took the time to rest, pray and work through my issues. This week the students and adults that I love are at Summer Camp and it has been hard.

For starters, I was a part of Summer Camp for the last 9 years. Started as a scrub college kid who led games, grew into a speaking role, became one of the big 4 who ran camp, decided to focus on leading my local church youth ministry and now I am on the sidelines. So missing Summer Camp is hard. Especially when I had numerous chances to come and be a part of the event from other churches. But what is best for the kids that I left is for them to move on, to be reminded that God is bigger than who their leader is and have a good week of camp. But it is tempting to sneak down there on Thursday night...

I have had a ton on interviews and still have more on the schedule. I learned a couple of things:
1. At least one church has no business whatsoever being involved in youth ministry. Their idea of youth ministry is to hire someone, underpay them and offer absolutely no support in terms of volunteers. I need to get better at asking some upfront questions so I don't waste my time driving 3.5 hours to places like this one.
2. There are some fantastic places doing great youth ministry. This past weekend I visited a church that is really amazing and has a fantastic youth ministry. It is large but also very dedicated to producing depth in the hearts and lives of students. My typical complaint is that large usually means shallow and I have been blessed to see that in this church, that is far from the truth. It would be a honor to work there and help the ministry grow.
3. I interviewed with a church that would bring me home yesterday. It would be a great joy to be close to some of my family and do ministry in a place that has some fantastic facilities, a great senior pastor and a desire for long term stability in youth ministry. Could be cool but I am trying to be low key about it in case it doesn't work out.

So keep praying.