Dear Lord, Please Close Your Church

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Josh

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This post may come across as odd (especially to those of you who might think that pastors are supposed to love the church all the time), but here goes nothing…

There are times that I wish God would step down out of heaven to do something that I wish I more pastors had the courage to do: close down and disband a congregation. In my mind I picture it as paying homage to Genesis Chapter 3 where God posts not just a “no trespassing” sign but also a cherubim with a flaming sword at the door. Overdramatic? I honestly don’t think so. Here’s why:

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Spiritual Autobiography – Part 3 of 3

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Josh

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Here is the third part of an assignment that I completed toward my M.A. in Theological Studies. It provides another small window into who I am and how I got here. Enjoy:

PART 3 of 3:

As I have journeyed to hone and shape my sense of call into a particular direction or outlet, I have had the incredible opportunity to serve in ministry with four congregations. In three of these, I have served primarily as minister to middle school and high school students, and at the other, I served as the senior pastor of the congregation. As a pastor to students (the vocation in which I now find myself), I have had the privilege of seeing young people come to a new understanding of God, much like I did when I was in college. In my high school years, I often found myself struggling to bridge the growing disconnect between the “God” I grew up with and the world in which I was living. As a pastor to students in the similar positions, I have had the blessing of helping students navigate these now familiar waters. I have never experienced anything that gives me such joy as seeing someone make the connection between God the Creator and the created world around him or her.

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Spiritual Autobiography – Part 2 of 3

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Josh

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Here is the second part of an assignment that I completed toward my M.A. in Theological Studies. It provides another small window into who I am and how I got here. Enjoy:

PART 2 of 3:

I first made a proclamation of my faith in Jesus Christ when I was eleven years old. I also did the same with I was twelve, thirteen, and fourteen. I distinctly remember being eleven years old, sitting in the congregation at South Lakeland Church of God. Our pastor, a man who I still look to for guidance and encouragement, was preaching on sexual purity. I had no idea what it meant to be sexually impure, but I knew that Jesus had the ability to make me pure again. At the end of the service, I along with a few others twice my age, made a public proclamation of faith by going to the altar at the front of the sanctuary to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Looking back, the commitment I made that day was real, but I certainly didn’t have a clear understanding of what that commitment was nor how it would play out in my life.

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Spiritual Autobiography – Part 1 of 3

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Josh

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Here is part of an assignment that I completed toward my M.A. in Theological Studies. It provides another small window into who I am and how I got here. Enjoy:

PART 1 of 3:

I grew up in a Christian home where I was taught that my faith in God was to be regarded above all other relationships and earthly attachments. From an early age, I recall being taught by my parents that my actions had consequences and that I was accountable for those actions, both to them and to God. As early as kindergarten I distinctly remember making choices as early as kindergarten that were based purely upon the answer to the question, “What would God think if He saw me doing this?” though I had little idea of who or what God was.

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One Year Ago Today

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Josh

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One year ago today, my world fell apart. I remember it vividly.

Earlier in the day, I had preached what I would then come to know as my last sermon as the Senior Pastor at a small church in South-West Missouri. I preached about our church’s need to reassert God’s purposes for the congregation and our need to commit to overcome the struggles associated with breaking out of the in-grown state into which the congregation had been settled for the majority of its 100 year existence. I knew it would be a difficult message for the congregation to hear, but I had little notion that it would cause the leadership of the church to call for my resignation.

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In 30 Minutes I Will Officially Be A Seminarian

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Josh

I’m sitting in the common room, waiting for my class to start. I’ve got right about 30 minutes until my first class, Kingdom, Church, & World, starts. It’s part of a weekend intensive program that has me in class for 3 weekends over the course of the semester. Today’s marathon class is exactly 8 1/2 hours long. In preparation, I had to read 3 whole books before I even stepped foot in the door. All in all, I’ve done a pretty good job of preparing for today, but one thing still feels a little weird:

In about 30 minutes, I will officially be starting a journey that will take about three years to complete and will have an effect on the the entirety of my life from this point forward. That’s big stuff to say the least. Anyway, I’m excited, and I’d appreciate your prayers and encouragement.

Blessings to anyone that might read this. May your day be filled with things that you didn’t expect and may those things have a lasting impact on your life.

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Recap Thursday: Connection with a Purpose

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Josh

Recap Thursday: Every Wednesday night, I have the awesome privilege of sharing the Word of God with the Middle School and High School students of our church and community, so each Thursday, I’ll attempt to post an update giving my thoughts on the message from the previous night.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been teaching our students about what it looks like for us to live in “Christian Community” in an age where most people have more facebook friends than actual friends. This has been an interesting topic considering the incredible rate at which facebook has proliferated our culture.

In a quick poll, we learned that most of our student have over 500 facebook friends. Personally, I have somewhere in the 300 range. But what does that mean? What does that number actually reflect? Does someone that has 500 facebook friends actually have a better quality of relationships than someone with only 300 facebook friends? Of course not, but this does cause us to ask some fairly self-reflective questions about the nature of these online relationships:

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Recap Thursday: Created to Connect

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Josh

Recap Thursday: Every Wednesday night, I have the awesome privilege of sharing the Word of God with the Middle School and High School students of our church and community, so each Thursday, I’ll attempt to post an update giving my thoughts on the message from the previous night.

From the very beginning, we were created with the express purpose of having a sincere, palpable relationship with God the Father. In Genesis, we see this in the Garden, and throughout Scripture, we see it as something lost, only to be reclaimed upon Christ’s return as foretold in the Gospels and the Revelation of John. Seeing that we live in a world that is post-fall and we are not yet in Eternity with Christ, that leaves us in a sort of in-between state of being that both leaves us yearning for what was lost and striving for what is promised.

Throughout history, God has made attempts to reclaim that lost relationship, though (mostly) due to the selfishness of man, that relationship has yet to be re-established. Some shining examples of God’s reaching out to mankind:

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How I Saved My Family $60 & How You Can Too

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Josh

Today, in about 35 minutes, I saved my family roughly $60. And all it took was:

  • Amazon.com
  • A philips head screwdriver
  • Some patience
  • The ability to say, “No, I’ll do it myself.”

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Uncle Sam, Healing, and Playing the Waiting Game

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Josh

I has now been almost a full year since my beautiful wife, my hilarious little boy, and I retreated from what we only six months previous had considered to be a calling from God to pastor a small church in Southwest Missouri. Before I get started on this story, let me just go ahead and throw out a few disclaimers so that we can get them out of the way:

  • Yes, I know that every church has its issues and that this one was no different.
  • Yes, I still believe that it was God’s will for us to pastor that congregation.
  • No, I don’t believe that it was God’s will to see us hurt, but I do think that God has used this pain in a great way to show us His grace.
  • Yes, I am still pissed.

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