wedding

 My final assignment for my pastoral ministry class was to perform a fucntion of the church from a list of three events that might happen during an extended stay working at a church.The three things to choose from were perform a baby dedication, a funeral, and a wedding. Neil was the first to pick and he picked the baby dedication. The next to pick was Larry who choose the funeral, who by the way did a great job and if I go be with the Lord before Larry I just might get him to do my funeral. I got the last one, which was the wedding. After studying and praying about how I should do it. I asked a couple from my home group if they woul participate and they said yes. The ceremony went from doing a wedding to a renewal of vows. Charlie and madi had been married a number of years and were excited to be doing it. The morning of my class, when I was to present my wedding Charlie’s wife called me six oclock in the morning from the hospital to tell me that her husband was in the hospital with what turned out to be a very bad viral infection. Once I learned this I had to scramble to fill in with somone else so I was going to use my son’s friends as standins. That night at class, I was waiting for Tom to arrive at class. Tom came into class and asked about my couple. I went on to explain the situation and Tom began to smile. Not more then two seconds later his wife Sherry walked in the classroom. I perform the renewal of vows on Tom and Sherry and even though a little nervous I did my duty. Looking back, I thought about Issac and Abraham when he was aked to sacrifice his son. The angel stopped his hand and to show God goodness he gave Abraham a sacrifice, a ram in the thicket, well Tom and Sherry were my ram in the thicket so to speak. My God is faithful even in the little details of my life that other people might not see as important, but I do. Thank you God for being my supplier, my caretaker and my friend.

visitation#4

Visitation#4

Today my visits were not to one place but to three different places in the city of Lebanon, PA.My fist visit of the day was at Good Samaritan hospital to a woman from our church that had just had knee replacement surgury. Mae Zimmerman was on the ICU when I arrived because an irregular heart beat. Carl and Mae have been regulars at tri- County for years. I was not worried much for her for the fact that when she is healthy she works in the same ICU floor as a head RN. My wife and I prayed for her husband and her. From there I headed to my next visit at the Lebanon rescue mission. There I meet Clay who is in charge of the rehab program that works out of the mission. I encouraged the guys and dropped off supplies to Clay.Clay asked when my friends and I were coming back to do another service. From there I went to the prison and did a bible study for the guys. One person stuck out to me who because his upcoming case was troubling him But through God’s word and prayer I felt in my spirit that we brought the situation before the Lord.

Visitation#3

 Today others and I went over the mountain to Pine Grove. A woman from my church had approached me about leading an evangelistic team to pine grove for the fact that the drug problems in that area have reached the point as she felt it was time for people to interceed for that town. I invited teen challenge students who were members of what they call the street team to come with us. The day brought many blessings to my heart, reaching out and loving people is not only our commision but also our joy. Many people shared their hearts and concerns about their community. In turn, we got to share Christ with them in a personal and loving way. As the teen challenge, men came to see what I have come to know that when we share our faith it encourages our spirit even more into the things of God. I thank God for the day we had because in reality we were blessed because of what he has done in our lives to begin with.

Pastor Bill

 Speaking from a leadership summit at willow creek Bill Hybel spoke about inspirational leadership. Bill said this message had been on his mind for a while and the Holy Spirit told him now is the time for it to be shared. He opened up with the question how much does inspiration matter. Whose job is it to inspire a leader?  Bill started talking about stats that motivated workers made productivity better compared to their unmotivated partners. He also shared about his times when he played different sports and how motivation or inspiration changed the dynamic of the game. Bill shared that when inspiration is absent that he caught himself assigning blame on others. The question in his life came up how are leaders encouraged. He looked at scripture and said that during a difficult time David encouraged himself in God. Soon after Bill never found himself putting blame on others, but he shared that, it took him several years until he laerned how to inspire himself. He went on to say when things become unclear the goal becomes vauge. Our thinking need to be clear about what God wants us to do. When those at the summit came to bill about this subject, he shared that somtimes we need to quiet ourselves to hear from God. For leadership to be effective we need to be near God’s heart. This in translation means we must be in his word, in prayer, and using our spiritual gifts for the betterment of those around us. Kepping ourselves away fron de-motivating people must also be addressed. Staying involved with events that inspire him he said is key such as a fishing tournament at his church for disabled kids. Being aware of others, acts of kindness can also be inspirational. He remembered speaking at a church with no heat and how they collected an offering for him and how that selflessness touched him. He also shared that although he speaks at large events it is small groups with one on one interaction that inspires him the most. Bill shared that we need to tend to our selves from time to time to keep ourselves inspiried. Finally, he shared that keeping yourself motivated in the things of God is key to staying inspiried.

pastor mark

Tonight in class we meet with pastor Mark , an associate pastor from the assembly of God church in Shrewsberry, PA. After opening up in prayer Tom introduced Mark and found out that Mark was Tom’s brother in law. The interview began with tom introducing us to Mark and he had us share a little about ourselves. Mark’s church borders on the PA, Maryland border and come to find out it was the same church that Mark had attended since his birth. This filled me with wonder of the goodness of God seeing how God held Mark around the same body his whole life. Mark did admit that when he was young he had sensitivity to the ministry, but not a calling. He went on to speak of his education at Penn state and how he had become an engineer. Mark continued to serve at that church until the Head pastor, who by the way is still there at age 79, urged him to come into full time ministry. He started out as a youth leader. Mark shared that the change came into his heart at a tent meeting in 1986. He said he had a full surrender of his heart to God. Mark said the next milestone in his life was meeting his wife. He meet her in the parking lot of a Chritian book store. Mark and his wife to be Joell were married three months later. Mark went on to say that, marriage is better when two whole people get married.  I think what he was saying is that they were mature Christians.  Mark soon found out that ministry is a 60-70 hour workweek. He went on to say that his joy is working with couples and face to face is best. As he talked, you could see the passion he had for people and this encouraged me even more towards ministry. The more I heard him speak the more I saw that he had been with Jesus and it was a joy for me to see Christ alive and active in people's lives. 

visitation#2

 Last Friday I visited tha Lebanon prison and met with three men for a bible study. Lance, Art, and Edward.  I asked how they were doing and then we opened up in prayer. Most of my bible studys at the prison are interactive with questions being asked to challenge the men on whatever topic we are covering. This time we talked about Issac’s wells and how he faced difficulty once the wells were dug, but contiued until God gave him room. I shared that somtimes in life we need to keep digging because  It was one of them  wells that Issac’s son Jacob had that a person’s life was touched when Jesus showed up. The men said they were encouraged by it and that also encouraged me because somtimes when we sow seeds we don’t see the effect, but I learned that day when he shows up in men's heart while you are present it is a blessing.

Church planter assessment

  The time i have spent in the pastoral ministry class has not only been educational, but fun too. This last assignment was what I was looking forward too more then the others because it was an evaluation of myself. The class assignment I picked for this class was church planter pre-assesment. This one stuck out to me because it measures your strengths and weaknesses in ministry, aleast in regards to church planting.  This evaluation was made up of one hundred and two questions that measure a person’s ability to be a church planter. Once the questions are answered a print out is givin with a comparison chart or a grading system as I call it. The four breakdowns are as followed church planting, entepreneurial leadership, ministry expierience, and relational evangelism. Church planting I came in at forty percent out of one hundred. Tom, my teacher and a church planter also; said that the knock out questions in which he pointed out to me is where I was lacking. This is what I have been waiting to hear. I believe that any Christian will not always enjoy but accept comments about areas that growth is needed.  Personally, I find this process benificial. The time I stop evaluating my own strengths and fault is when I am taking my eye off the ball so to speak. Enterpreneuial leadersip was next in which I got a sixty-six percent only for the fact that I own a small buisness in the past. Ministry was next in which I got a fifty-five percent and after being faced with this i had to admit that there are many situations in ministry that I had not come across yet and more growth in that area is needed. The final section is relational evagelism. In this section, I scored an eighty-four percent. I was not suprised since this is one of my passions in ministry and for many years, I have reached out with Christ love to others. Over all this was a great assignment for the simple fact that I get a transparent look at where I am in certain areas of ministry. I believe self-examination is the best kind of exam because when I am honest about the areas in my life where the Holy Spirit needs to work on that is when freedom comes.