The Call Me The Wanderer....

Well we made it through, Last week was our final week of youth ministry at Cross Walk Chapel. Wednesday night the kids were really awesome,,, I never counted but there was ALOT of folks upstairs to show their love and support to our family, It was a great time. Then Sunday morning we finished off our last Sunday Morning at Cross Walk which was strange and surreal. Since I have explained to the board of the church our intentions I see no wrong in telling you all that we are going to visit new churches.

So this is a new and exciting time for me, my church experience has been pretty routine. I started going to Praise when I was 3, went there until I was 17 when I began attending New Canaan. At New Canaan began working in Student ministry, At 20 took a Middle School Pastor Job at Trinity Fellowship, stayed heir until 2002 when I went back home to Praise where I stayed until 2005 when I went to Cross Walk. Although while it looks like a lot of moves, going from one church to another due to new opportunities as a minister is quite different from just finding a new church. For instance we didn't shop around, one Sunday i am getting a goodbye from one group then the next Sunday I am being welcomed to a new one. It is just a different kind of experience.

So now I hope you kind of understand why we are excited at the opportunity to visit around, not excited so much  to leave one but excited at the possibilities involved with all the others. If you have had negative experiences looking for a church PLEASE do not respond and tell me how horrible your experience was. I am sure there will be certain down sides to this transitional time but we choose to focus on only the great possibilities right now, so don't be a Debbie Downer. Also a few people have hinted at us visiting their church... and while we appreciate the offers and may just come visit to spend a Sunday with friends, we are actually looking for a church in Dallas, Villa Rica or Rockmart. We want to get closer to home but if you go to a church around there let us know!

Okay so today I wanted to really pose my first question to you, my loyal followers, This question is to just get an idea of how you feel about the subject, not to create a great debate on the comment page. I will not respond to questions basically just because the question will be the subject of a future Blog.

Brewer's Question of the Week

Place in order from  1 to 5 (1 most important, 5 least important)  the personal importance of these specific parts of a church experience( I know there are more, let's just focus here for now). If you would like to explain why that would be great...if you just want to list'em you can do that as well.

Your choices in no specific order:

Fellowship (Sunday school, small groups, events (although i am aware there is more than fellowship in these things... you get the idea))

Music (Style, Skill)

Message (Pastors presentation of the word, style, personal growth or conviction through preached word )

Denominational Ties (government and system of beliefs)

The Tots (children's, youth, nursery)

The amazing love of the amazing people who love me... amazingly!

This decision to move away from youth ministry was a very hard decision to make, the process looking back took about a year. For that year this decision felt much like a disease just wearing at my brain and heart. On one hand I KNEW my time was up, that I needed to move on not only for myself but for my students as well. On the other hand was fear, fear that I would regret it, fear of what came next and most of all a fear of the reactions of the people I love. In my time as a youth guy I have worked at three churches and have had terrible experiences leaving. One in particular where I still hear rumblings of disdain toward me. I did not want this at Cross Walk, I love these people and have spent the best 5 years of my time in youth with them. But like Blind Melon says, "Life is hard, you have to change. MhMMMM M-MM- M- MMMMM" (that is Shannon Hoon humming).

So I finally came to grips with it and told everyone, fully expecting a few angry folks, some judgemental looks or just a little cold shoulder... instead I get hugs, uplifting words and understanding. Now at this point we had not fully made up our minds on what was next, we felt pretty strong we wanted to visit around but wasn't sure. So then comes the day (2 weeks later) where I have to tell them we decided will be leaving Cross Walk to visit around... Here comes the frustration, the cold shoulder and silent treatment. WRONG, once again hugs, understanding words and even Chicken and Rice (Thanks Vicky!). Even the emotionally charged hormone machines also known as teens seem to understand and was more than loving and supportive Wednesday night.

The church board also voted to allow Jamie (a friend who has been helping me for a few years now) to take over the youth which is a big worry off of me, knowing that those guys have a leader who cares and will be faithful is awesome. In the end I find the love and support of the awesome people in my life incredible. The love and support of family and friends has been evident and abundant. The understanding and love of the folks at Cross Walk has been amazing and truly unbelievable. The chin up attitude and love and support of the youth has been a blessing and their hugs and kind words are the medicine for what is ailing me now. I have seen the true measure of Godly love in this rough patch of my life... Thank You all for loving me (for some reason beyond me).

After the last blog... thought I would stay on the sunny side!

No better place to start...

There is a lot of truth to the old saying, "There is no better place to start than the beginning" which is basically where we will start this journey. Well I say we... I don't really know why anyone would sit and read this but I think it is a good idea and a positive way to chronicle this time in my life. So in this blog I will speak of two sets of we. First will of course be my family we, my wife Rachel and Daughter Lily and shortly my baby boy Justus Eugene. The second we I will speak of is myself and the probably fictional readers of this blog.

Anyway back to the start, Effective February I will no longer wear the title of youth guy or pastor or leader or whatever you like. Instead I will become title less which sounds like titleist which is my favorite kind of golf ball. I will become church goer guy which is a title that I am actually looking forward to. Since I am 12 years in Youth Ministry at 30 that means I pretty much went from sitting in youth to leading it. I have never gone to an adult class, Sunday school get together or a small group. My church experience has never really left the youth room which is why church goer guy sounds pretty good.

That is not to say that my time as youth guy hasn't been awesome... it has been incredible and the memories made are too awesome to ever forget. I loved being youth guy, I really did! But like most seasons of life it had to pass. Now with a few weeks left I face the bitter sting of change as I spend time with those I am making a decision to leave. I hope they understand but kind of get it if they don't, hopefully in time the years of love and my life I gave them will help them to remember me fondly when they are older.

So this is it... I wish I could tell you more about what will be discussed on this blog, I figure it will be filled with my thoughts on church and other spiritual matters as well as questions posed to you to see how my loyal blog followers (no one) feel about the current topic of the day. Overall this will be a place that I will discuss the spiritual part of my life so if you were here to know my favorite band or movie... well it is The Beatles and Cool Hand Luke... but from here on spiritual.

So in the words of a beer commercial... Here WE Go!