The Frustrations and Joys of Ministry

I joke with friends about how much I loved my dam job before I took my last church job.? In case you don’t get the reference; I worked for an industrial construction crew that repaired a dam in Three Rivers, TX, therefore it was and will forever be referred to as my dam job.

It wasn’t an easy job. I was a grunt construction worker and most of my days consisted of waking up at 4:44am, driving to the job site, starting to work around 7am, handling a 90lb jackhammer for 4-6 hours and getting home around 6:30 at night.

I loved one aspect of that job though and even seriously considered becoming a foreman and maybe even a site manager over several crews.? The part I loved was it was easy to know when the job was done and at the end of the day, I didn’t go home thinking about the job.

Ministry is different because even though you can be a GTD Ninja and destroy your daily to-do list, you’re never done.? Also since most of us have a pastoral bent and it involves people, it’s hard to turn thinking about the ministry off.

It’s the nature of what we do and we have to find the balance.? If you didn’t think about the people you serve when you weren’t “on the job” , I might question your being in ministry but we can’t lose? focus on life with our families and life outside of ministry.

The part that’s frustrating about what I’m doing now is, so much of my time is and has to be focused on gathering the financial and prayer support.? I don’t mind it actually because it’s not begging for money, it’s sharing what God is doing and inviting people to join him in that work.? It’s a stressful privilege as the foundation is being formed but the frustrating part is so much time goes into it, I feel like not much else gets done some days.? Also I can be busy all day, doing the right things and there isn’t much to show for it at the end of the day.

Yesterday was not a frustrating day. *No, nobody decided to give us a $10K year end gift but there’s still time in case that’s on your to do list.? * It was a very joyful day despite not having anything tangible to show. I gained? new friendships and the joy of beginning to help a couple of youth workers.

I went into the Market Street to work in the the corner of Peet’s Coffee and I saw two guys sit down and one man called the other man “pastor” so I thought, I need to stop and introduce myself before I leave.

Thirty minutes later as I was walking by I stopped at their table, told them I had overheard the word “pastor” and introduced myself.? As outgoing as I am, there’s still an awkwardness to doing this but I overcame that and even asked if I could sit down.? That’s probably not? a shock to you but sometimes I catch myself by surprise.? We talked, I found out where their church is and I explained what I do for the National Network of Youth Ministries.? As I left I gave the pastor my card and got his card and the card of the other man before I went to my next appointment.

On my way back from that lunch with friends I drove by a church and thought,? “I wonder if they have a youth pastor, only one way to find out.” and I pulled into their parking lot.? Again, I know I’m outgoing but “cold calls” are really not my style but I walked in anyways and asked if they had a youth pastor and if he was in.

I met him and introduced myself and who I work for and what? I do.? Not surprising, he wasn’t familiar with the NNYM, so I had the joy of explaining that we exist to help youth workers be stronger because we believe “If the youth minister is stronger, the youth ministry will be stronger.”? I also got to wave my favorite flag, “God is more glorified when churches and believers are more unified.”

I learned a good bit about him in our brief time.? He’d been there around a year, felt called into youth ministry in the middle of an architecture class, was engaged and had been so busy he wasn’t connected yet to other youth workers in the area.

I tweeted about our meeting in the parking lot and then went home.

Later that afternoon I noticed that a facebook friend had “Liked” that status. I clicked the link to his profile and saw that he’s a youth pastor in Albuquerque, NM. I’m planning a trip to Albuquerque in February so I wrote him a message letting him know I was going to be in town and I’d like to connect.?? I also gave him the name of the friend who runs the Albuquerque youth workers network. He wrote back and he’s been at his church for under a year and wasn’t connected yet with any other youth workers in his area but wanted to and was going to be in touch with my friend.

I finally put the business cards from my morning encounter into my trusty Palm and I noticed that the friend of the pastor that I met had a radically cool title -? “Leadership Development Specialist” for a local company.

I live by the motto “It never hurts to ask” so while out driving that night I called him and left him a message.? A few minutes later he called back and I reintroduced myself to him and honestly said, “When I put your info into my Palm, I noticed your job title and I’d love to meet with you at your convenience and pick your brain over some things.? Because I believe a lot of what you do would be tranfserable to what I do with youth workers.”

He said he’d love to meet and actually that was part of the reason he was meeting with his pastor that morning.? He wanted to begin looking at how he could use the knowledge and skills he has for his job to help build the Kingdom.?? So we are hoping to get together sometime soon and talk.? I also shared with him that one of my strengths is being able connect things and share principles with others in understandable ways. So I’m hoping that I might be able to help him, also.

So yesterday was full of various joys of connecting with people but also because there was a very strong sense of God being at work in things I didn’t plan or couldn’t have planned.

I am confident that what I’m doing will not just help youth workers but help churches and advance God’s agenda for teenagers throughout Texas and New Mexico for now and more states later.? My confidence is based not on my work but so far I’ve been able to catch the wave of God moving me to various places and to make connections that allow me to serve people in accordance to my wiring and strengths.

It’s a a crazy adventure to be on but one that I wouldn’t trade for the world.? Thanks for being a part of this adventure through your encouragement, prayers and financial support.

The starting line for 2010 is almost here and? I can’t wait to begin 2010!