Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Maybe the Next Youth Pastor? The Church Office - Episode #1

Personal Church Shopper for the busy family

   

BUSY FAMILY HIRES PERSONAL CHURCH SHOPPER

DECEMBER 2006 --- Growing bored with the outdated programs at their present church, the Henman family of Peoria, IL, recently hired Lucy Ditmer, a personal shopper, to find them a new church home to meet their spiritual needs. "Between my boy's hockey games and my girl's dance classes, I really don't have the time to go church shopping," said Helen Henman. "It's a great relief to know that Lucy can take care of all that. The last thing Phil and I want to do right now is spend every Sunday morning going to strange churches just to see if they have cushioned seating and a proper food court."

Ditmer, who has over five years experience as a personal shopper at Macy's, began advertising her church shopping services when she saw a need for busy families who find it difficult to squeeze a religious life into their hectic schedules. "Most churches nowadays have sermons that last from ten minutes to an excruciating half hour," Lucy explained. "My clients just don't want to put themselves through that kind of ordeal when all they really want to know is whether the youth program has a Playstation 3. With my service, the clients just give me a checklist of all their felt needs and I do all the dirty work while they're sleeping in on Sunday morning."

One of Ditmer's recent success stories comes from Judith and Bob Nickerson, a pair of sports enthusiasts who were looking for a church that provided for their physical needs as well as their spiritual ones. "Coming from a Methodist background, we were really surprised when Lucy recommended the Beth Israel Synagogue on Fifth Street," Judith said. "But we had to admit that it had the state-of-the-art exercise facility we were looking for. After a couple visits, we knew it was the place for us. In fact, we like it so much, Bob is getting circumcised next Thursday."

As for the Henman family, they are anxious to see what Lucy finds for them. "Being without a church home these past few weeks has really taken a toll on our family," Mrs. Henman admitted. "Just the other day Phil was dealing with a lot of stress at work and he needed a pastor to show him how Jesus dealt with project deadlines. If Lucy doesn't hurry up and find us a church soon, we may be forced to open a Bible and look for the answer ourselves."

 


 

Hit To Josh

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Sometimes ministry is hard

Sometime days no matter how long you do ministry, it is just hard. In youth ministry trying to keep youth, parents and church leaders happy and staying true to ones calling of God Ministry is not at all possible. Some nights I feel the kingdom is not happy with the direction of the ministry and I am falling to face the elephant in the room and deal with issues head on. I let people be happy, but that may not be best of the ministry. Usually when I have those days, I then see God and the small little signs of success of ministry, Hopefully today that will happen.

The good news is Chris Tomlin is in town and I will get to hear him in concert on Friday night. Which will be a short night of sleep, as I then leave for a meeting at camp around 6:45 in the morning.

Well off to shower and waiting for signs of God being a wonderful maker today.