Freeing Words

I met with my Youth Pastor in training today.  She spoke, as she often does about her love for the girls she has been privileged to lead.  While talking she seemed a bit overwhelmed.  She has such love and compassion for the girls.  While talking I felt like God was telling me to tell her, "God didn't call us to fix them, He called us to love them."  Her face showed that it was exactly what she needed to hear in that moment.  We talked a bit about how freeing of a thought it was.
As I drove home from the coffee shop I began to think that it is an excellent word for all of us.

I think that there are times we feel overwhelmed by the world's need for Jesus.  We see the need but we often feel unqualified to meet it.  News flash of the day, we are unqualified.  But here's the really cool part, we know the One who is.  When we realize that God hasn't called us to fix them but to just love them everything changes.  Some times we feel unprepared.  Maybe we don't have the Bible memorized.  We might not be able to quote scripture at a moment's notice.  Or we might be inexperienced.  That's fine!  We are simply called to love them.  This means that the best way to be prepared, equipped, and ready is by growing in our relationship with God.  When we learn what His love is, we learn how to love like He does.  His love is perfect.
As I wrote this I was reminded of this passage:

1 Corinthians 13 New Living Translation (NLT)

Love Is the Greatest

13 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

I pray this word blesses you.

Jimmy

Hats and Stuff

This January I begin my third year as a pastor at The Journey. In the past two years I've worn many pastoral hats.  I think I have tried many to see which would be exactly the right fit.  Then God showed me the one He had waiting for me to wear.

This past August I spoke at middle school camp in Iowa.  In the months leading up to camp I spent hour after hour in prayer.  I sought God for guidance and direction.  One of the things he told me when I was praying was "Just be who I made you to be and I'll do the rest."  And boy did He!  That week we saw about half the kids make first time decisions to give their lives to God or to rededicate themselves to Him.

So when I got home from camp and met with the lead pastors of the church, and they asked me to start a youth ministry, I couldn't possibly refuse. I approached the assignment in the same way I had with camp.  PRAYER.  I asked for guidance and direction.  And this time I asked for one more thing, HELP!  A couple weeks, while still praying for help, I learned that someone I sort of, kind of knew was moving back to Madison.  I really felt God prompting me to contact her and ask her to be part of the youth ministry.  It just so happened that, ten minutes before I had contacted her she had been praying about The Journey and asking God how she could minister to the youth of Madison!  I love when God does cool stuff like that!
So we started with two kids and a lot of prayer.  She is now leading the girls in a weekly Bible study that has an average of about eight!  I'll be leading one for the boys after the first of the year.  And in January we will be kicking off Sunday Youth Night!  Please excuse all of the exclamation points, I'm just super-excited

We are even have even taken on two more great leaders.
Our goal is pretty simple.  We want kids to facilitate them in a relationship with God.  We believe that by doing so lives will change!  Heck, Madison will change!  Not because of how cool we are, but because of how awesome God is.  He is the one that can bring salvation, not only in the eternal (which is amazing in and of itself.) But through Him, comes healing, forgiveness, and love that is such a great need in the lives of kids today.  

I am stoked!  I love my "Youth pastor hat" and am honored to wear it.

I can't wait to see what God has in store!  

And I ask that you pray.

Please pray for the kids.

Please pray for the leaders.

And please pray for me as I lead this great team of leaders.

God bless y'all!