2006

This year has just flown by. I cannot believe that this Friday is Thanksgiving! It is incredible how fast time goes as you move on in life. Growing up....specifically in school...time seemed to crawl like a snail. Now, there is never enough time. Or is it that there is still enough time but we have found ways to fill up the "down time" of the past?

I know that I am busy most every day with something...either personal, church related or the everyday interruptions of life. So...just in case life becomes too busy between now and Thursday...here's my Top 10 list of things that I am most thankful for:

10. My church. I was telling Sarah the other day that Shiloh just feels like home. It feels that I have not missed a beat being at Shiloh. Sure, every church has it's problems...but the people at Shiloh are incredible!

9. My youth group. Around my junior year at IWU, I felt like God was leading me into youth ministry. I didn't take a ton of classes on ym but I knew that was were God wanted me. It wasn't a "stepping stone" to get to, what most people consider a real pastor job, it was and is my place in ministry. The youth group here has challenged me and changed me nearly as much as I have done for them. What an ecclectic group of kids! I will never forget them as long as I live.

8. The youth sponsors. When I came here I didnt know what to expect. I was quickly surprised to find that there were people in place that made my life a lot easier. Janet with her skill in graphic design is any youth pastor's dream and Dave, with his ability to relate to pretty much any teen are both gifts from God. Dave has been the person that I go to when I need to blow off some steam. I couldn't do this without their help.

7. Indiana basketball. Everyone needs an out. Something that just gets you away from everything and something that you really enjoy. For me, this is it. I love it and it loves me! I love sports in general and am thankful that God gave someone somewhere the knowledge to invent such sports.


6. The future. I am thankful that I know what my future holds. I know that if Christ doesn't return in the next few years that I will be a father. I know that if he does, I will be in Heaven. So I am very thankful about both futures...either way it is a win win situation!


5. My health. I know...I know...if you ask Sarah she will tell you that I am not that healthy. I weigh too much and ...either way...I am thankful that God has given me health up to this point and I have faith in him that he will continue to watch over me and help me to make better choices in the future.



4. My mom. We hold a special bond because of what we have been through together. We have been the ringer and back through a couple times! I wouldn't trade our relationship for anything and what we went through defines us and is still defining who we are today. I love you mom.



3. My family all of them...the Christian side...the Jellison side...the Ellenberger side and the Thrasher side. I have been absolutely blessed to have an amazing group of family members that have stood by me through every thing and continue to do so.


2.My faith. Being a christian at times is smooth...at times it is hard and at times it is even harder. Still, I am so thankful that God sent Jesus to die on the cross so that there would be no condemnation for the mistakes I've made!


1. My wife. She will never know just how much she means to me. She makes me laugh, snarl and above all...content in the fact that I married the most amazing woman on planet earth!

It's all about Jesus

This morning on my way to work, after having been on vacation from all things ministry for four days, I felt that slight twinge of dryness and spiritual emptiness that has dogged me for the past few months. I was hoping that getting away and taking some time off would refresh me and the waters of christendom would once again wash over me and saturate me for the upcoming busy-crazy-insane holiday season. When that didn't happen with the hot tub and cozy rooms and good food and time with my wife, I sat there in my truck on the same drive that I take every morning, dejected. Then, I started singing this song out of the blue. It was as if God had sent an angel into my truck and it had opened my mouth and shoved the words in and they were now coming out without me even knowing it. I was thinking before I left for the trip that maybe I wasn't cut out for ministry and the drain it takes on you spiritually. Maybe I wasn't strong enough as a Christian myself because I was having such a dry season and couldn't for the life of me feel refreshed and good. This morning, that refreshing came quick and swift and just in time. I let church get in the way of my relationship with Jesus. I let order of worships, criticism, pastoral prayers, messages, themes, meetings, driving the vans, essentially everything come before the real reason I live...Jesus! We can do nothing if he is not in it. I can plan the biggest event, get the most students here and have the biggest bands around but if Jesus isn't in it, it is all as Paul called it, poo!

I hope this means something to someone else. If you are dry and thirsty, don't look for something to refresh you...look for someONE...JESUS!

Heart of Worship by Matt Redman

When the music fades, All is stripped away, And I simply come; Longing just to bring something that´s of worth That will bless Your heart. I´ll bring You more than a song, For a song in itself Is not what You have required. You search much deeper within Through the way things appear; You´re looking into my heart.

I´m coming back to the heart of worship, And it´s all about You, All about You, Jesus. I´m sorry, Lord, for the thing I´ve made it, When its all about You, All about You, Jesus.(Matt Redman, Kingsway´s Thankyou Music)

Ten things I have learned during my almost one year of marriage...

This Sunday will mark the one year anniversary of my marriage to the beautiful Sarah. It has been a year marked with joy, newness, happiness on one side and sorrow, emptiness and sadness on the other. I suppose most years will be like that huh? So here is my Top Ten list for my first year of marriage and the things that happened:

10. It is amazing to have someone with you, beside you and behind you in everything that you do. Going through the divorce of two of our good friends with Sarah really solidified just how important it was to simply be there for each other. This situation marks most of the bad things that have happened over this past year.

9. Sarah loves details and stories. She could tell you the shirt someone had on and if it was wrinkled. She loves giving out too much info and loves to do it often! It makes me laugh when we are somewhere and she starts going on and on about little things that this person has no earthly need of knowing! It's all in the little stuff!

8. Marriage is give and take. There were expectations coming into the marriage that have been missed and some that have been exceeded. Part of marriage is just learning that you do have expectations and when they are met it isn't always the other persons fault.

7. Sarah is a fierce animal (wolverine, badger, etc) when someone messes with me. It even scares me a little. She so "has my back" that after I talk with her about something that someone has done I usually have to calm her down! Arrrgggghhh!

6. Men and women are more different than what I had already known. I will just never understand things like the Oxygen network, Hallmark movies, Lifetime network or why women are so fixated on what other people are doing! Almost every time we go through a checkout line, I am putting the food on the belt while my wife is reading about this celeb and what they did and whose gown they wore! This leaves me scratching my head...

5. True love is about how you feel, it is about how you make the other person feel. I have felt no greater love for Sarah than after I had done something that just made her day. I absolutely love making her smile and seeing her happy. That is true love.

4. I couldn't have married any other woman in the world. Without a doubt, I know that God put us together and let me tell ya...he knew what he was doing! Sarah is amazing, beautiful, compassionate, caring, understanding, hardworking, and did I mention beautiful?!

3. I wouldn't be half the Youth Pastor I am today without Sarah. She has done so much in this respect that I can't choose just a few things to talk about. The conversations about how I felt and my insecurities and how she has built me up truly is a God thing.

2. Married life is busy. Having what,...5-6 different families to try and get to their events and spend time with them is a havoc especially around hte holidays. On top of that, ministry is a constant thing. Sarah has so graciously adapted to this over this year and we are still trying to put this in balance as we look ahead over the next few years and the possibility of children. Not soon, but over the next few years, and stop asking! :)

The number one thing I've learned over my first year of marriage...

1. Communication is the key to any relationship. Included in this is: tone of voice, saying things a certain way, not saying things, and the ability to state a problem you have without starting an argument. Communication is something that every couple needs to work on. I think that for the most part we do a good job of communicating with each other and it has gotten better over the last 4-6 months.

I love my wife. My wife loves me. Here's to 50 more years of love and marriage!

Criticism

Off the top, just let me say...I don't do well with criticism. If you have been around me for very long, you know this. I hate being wrong. Being a pastor, the line between right and wrong is sometimes shaded. I don't mean that I don't know the difference between the two...I mean that people, sometimes other than myself and sometimes myself, view right and wrong differently. The expectations of a pastor at my church are different from those at a larger church say of 200 or even 500. I am expected to different things. People think that they know things and sometimes have no clue as to what is going on. Still, they like to be right and so that is the way it is. For instance, worship. I heard a person say that the new songs that we are singing are, and I quote, "Bringing devil music into the church"! Another person I overheard recently thought that our youth group doesn't do anything relating to God...we only have fun and they didnt want someone in their family coming to the youth group because they just smoke and have fun out there. See what I mean? People have a different scale of right and wrong when it comes to the church. People have left churches because of the lights, carpets, or how they built the church.

If you have read my recent posts, you would know that I had been critized a little recently and I admittedly don't and haven't done well with it. I have yet to find the place where you don't take it personally. After all, it is something that I put my heart and soul into and then only to have someone bash it into the ground. This past weekend our district had a youth pastor and sponsor event at which the speaker spoke about this very thing. He really gave me the needed release valve for the pressure that I was feeling. I will leave you with the two simple things he told us:

1. Every youth pastor/ sponsor will get criticized, and it will happen often.

2. Jesus was criticized for pretty much everything he did and by whom? The religious leaders of his day. I think that is what hurts the most is that the criticism comes from the people who I am trying to help and their families!

If Jesus had it done to him, that means that he knows what I am going through and that right there makes me feel much better!

SMYG