As many of you know, back in September I left my home church of the last 26 years. While the decision to leave was an easy one, it was still difficult leaving behind my ministry and leaving under the circumstances I did. I still care about that church and I hope and pray things change there soon.
When I left, I really wanted to take my time and seek out what I am supposed to do next, with an open heart and mind, but I did want to have some answers by the end of the year. Obviously the end of the year is here, and to my surprise I believe I have some. Just two weeks ago, I was still just as clueless as I was when I started. There were plenty of options, and I could see myself doing any or all of them. While I felt excited and liberated by the possibilities, the task of choosing one was daunting, and only in the last two weeks did things become clear.
First of all, I visited five churches in the past few months, four of which I could easily see myself attending. I learned a lot during this process and I'll be sharing some of it in the coming months. It really came down to two very different churches that both had a lot of appeal to me. For now, I'm going to attend New Life Assembly of God in Wellington. It's a small church that feels like it's 500 miles away instead of 15 minutes from my house. As far as how I get involved at New Life, that remains to be seen. Having been in church all my life, I can practically guarantee that opportunities to serve in church always present themselves.
Ministry is something different entirely. I have decided to start a young adult ministry specifically geared for guys ages 18-24. I believe this is the most under-reached demographic by the Church, and tragically so. The goal of this ministry would not be to replace the church, but to reach young men, help them grow and find their purpose in life and pursue the callings the Lord has placed on their lives. Young men of this generation can be highly skeptical of church, some for valid reasons depending on their experiences with it. We've always heard youth pastors state that the high schools are a missions field, and senior pastors declare that America is now a missions field. Both are absolutely right, but I'm not sure the Church has adjusted to this yet. The trend in ministry in America is clearly relational, and I believe that more and more outreach ministry is going to start taking place outside of the church walls. If this ministry succeeds in reaching guys the church can't and integrating them into the church to pursue their callings, it will be of great service to the Church and the Kingdom. I believe this ministry will accomplish both evangelism and discipleship. I do know that time is short, and something has to be done. Too many have been left behind already.
I have a structure for this new ministry in place that I'm pretty excited about, but I'll share those details later. I believe it can be effective and should be a blast. We'll start at the beginning of the year and take it one week at a time and see what the Lord does.
As far as a future career goes, I'm starting to learn towards investing in Power Ball tickets.
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