New Passion for Ministry

My personal goal was to write about something once a week for my blog. The past month or so has been very busy and I just haven’t had much of a chance to write. I want to try and do better.

Starting in February, I began teaching a Sunday School class on the gospel of John. It has been a wonderful experience for me. God has used this class as a reaffirmation to me personally… but he has also reminded me of the richness of scripture and its’ ability to change, challenge, and renew.

The past few months, I have been thinking about God’s plan for my life as it applies to my ministry choices in the future. I am currently in a position that I love… but have recently been reminded in several ways that I have deep passions for specific ministries... but this church does not have need of my help in those areas. So I’ve been kind of trying to figure out where my passions lie in my current ministry context.

I do much of the administration work… for which I am gifted and wired. I do this type of work pretty quickly and pretty efficiently. I am highly organized and am a good steward of my office time. That said, administrative work is not inspiring or challenging to me. I can do that stuff in my sleep. I’m glad that I can do much of that kind of work here, but it’s not something that stirs my heart at a deep level.

I think God is starting to show me a new area of passion in my life that I never knew or identified was there: teaching. Maybe even more specifically: organizing and writing curriculum. I have had such a good time with this Sunday school class! One of the things that my brother-in-law, Kevin, inspired me to do while I worked with him last summer is to learn how to use computer programming that would give a more ‘polished’ look to the things I create. I am thankful for Microsoft Publisher!

So here I am, being challenged to look deeper at God’s word… but also using my ‘administrative’ gifts to help sift and organize that information into an hour long class that will help other people gain access to scripture. I remember one afternoon… my lead pastor walked into my office and expressed his desire to use the stuff that I am putting together for this class in the future for a church plant that we are considering. That was really motivating and encouraging to me!

Next fall, for the second time, I am going to offer a class called ‘Foundations’ which is a class for new Christians. Basically a Christianity 101 class. My dad has taught this class for years at my home church, Heritage Wesleyan. He sent me the curriculum they use. I have been thinking about ‘updating’ it with Microsoft Publisher. Basically, I want take the information that is already there and make it look a little more polished. I also want to make it easy enough for any future teachers to use.

I have so many ideas kicking around in my head for other classes that I would like to do: Theology 101, Church History 101, History of Christian Thought, the other three gospels, Hebrews, Romans… the list goes on and on. God has lit a fire in my heart for another area of the church… for which I am very, very excited!