As you network with other people involved in ministry, what is your first impression? Is it that they must serve full-time in ministry somewhere? Many people have thought that about me as I have served in ministry and maintained resource web sites offering guidance to many in ministry. As I served in the local church, there were members who thought that I was a full-time pastor.
The truth is…. I am bi. Continue reading
W
hen people ask me how I’m doing, I have to admit that I usually say “things are well, I’m just busy.” While that is true, I may actually be inadvertently driving them away with that answer. For example, I generally try to make time to watch children in their various activities, school, sports, and whatever else. The hardest thing for me to do is get schedules, and I have had parents tell me that they didn’t want to bother me because they know I’m busy. This, despite the fact that I try to stress that I really do want to see their kids in their activities. The parents’ perceived level of my busyness actually keeps me from being able to do the thing I really want to do. Regardless of how busy I actually am, or what I tell them about what I want to do, in the end, it is their perception of my level of busyness which is most important. Continue reading
There may be some people who just view the nursery as a place to put infants so they are not disruptive and so adults can focus on the worship service and the message. I’m sure that there are those who opt not to serve because they see the nursery as a place that contains crying children and possibly messy diapers. In fact, you may have heard about a sign that is posted in church nurseries which reads, “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51, NIV). Of course using the verse in this context is incorrect as the passage is referring to the rapture. I encourage you to read it in context, but it shows the view many hold of the church nursery implying that it is not a ministry, but a service the church provides. It saddens me when those in the church view the nursery in such a way.
Building a foundation of faith
So when does God begin to work in the life of an individual? In Scripture we see that God knows us in the womb, even before He forms us in the womb! (Isaiah 44:2, Jeremiah 1:5) Continue reading