Tuesday, January 17, 2006

a Race war?

So I've been watching the news these last couple of days and I am beginning to wonder if pretty soon we aren't going to have another war to worry about-a new race war. It is a new world living down here in the south, and I'll be honest, it was a bit of a shock when I saw that Alabama celebrates a dual holiday on MLK day...they also celebrate the legacy of Robert E Lee and his birthday...now that was a new one for this yankee. In addition to that I turn on the news and I see Hillary Clinton running her mouth as always about how the House is run like a "plantation" good marketing move on her part to say it in an all black church service. Then they show good ole Ray Nagin...gotta love the man and what does he say? New Orleans is going to be rebuilt as a "chocolate city." I just wonder and I get a little nervous when I see and here stuff like this if we aren't on the verge of another race war like what was fought during the Civil rights days of the 60's. I don't know, what do you think, but living here in Pensacola (Or lower Alabama-being as close as we are) I can definitely see some riffs between people of different races and I just wonder...time will tell I guess

Sunday, January 15, 2006

I need help

Okay to some of you that is an understatement...see Olmstead I already knew what you were going to say before you said it. Anyway, something is driving me nuts. I know how to add pictures to my blog, but for the life of me I cannot get a picture added to my profile. Can someone walk me through how to do it? I know I can take a picture from a posting and use that, but if I need to resiz it to fit how do I do that? Someone please help, I want to put a picture of us up on my profile page. thanks! I'll write more later on what is going on these last few days!

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

How would you answer this one?

Since every once in awhile I throw something youth ministry related up on here I thought I would toss this one out to see what those few of you who read this might have to say on this topic...Here's the scenario, while I was home I ran into a student who was from one of the youth groups that I used to speak at often when I was in Ohio (no John S. This is not you). I asked him how he was doing and how things were going in his ministry. He kind of hesitated and gave me the typical youth pastor answer, but I could tell there was more to the story. There were a couple of people around, so when I got him alone I asked him what was really going on. He was sharing with me how he is really struggling in his ministry right now. He went on to explain how things were really tough. After asking a little bit more he shared how he is really wrestling with whether or not he should stay at this church and he doesn't seem to be getting any real direction from the Lord (no clear answer). To give you a little more background this is the church he took right out of college, he served there for a year and then got married to a girl from his school that he had been dating for some time. The two of them are now serving in this church together. She is really having a tough time since it is 600 miles from anything familiar and she has yet to find a job...Basically she hates it there and is really struggling with being there. This has caused him to struggle since things are not going as well as he would like them to be at the church either. He said he doesn't want to be a youth ministry "statistic" (under 18 months) and really cares for his kids, but is just having a tough time seeing the Lord in all of this since his wife is having such a tough time. He asked me if he should resign and start over somewhere new (closer to home) or stay put and stick with it. I told him that I really couldn't give him a definite answer, but to pray with him and walk with him through whatever decision he made. So how do you answer a question like that? Our roles in ministry and the Christian faith are in this order-God, family, church right? There is a big part of me that wanted to tell him to uproot and go with his feeling so he could better minister to and "with" his wife (if she isn't happy he can't give his all to his ministry-believe me I've been there), but there is also the part of me that says if God calls you to a place then you need to be faithful there. What are your thoughts on this? How would you have answered him? I guess I copped out on him by not giving him my opinion, but I didn't feel like I could do anything but pray for him. I'm going to be following up with him so any thoughts?
Until next time...
-Matt