Accelerate Slowly

Well, I’m officially back in the office after a 3 month sabbatical. As I continue to reflect on what happened over that time I’ll post some “Take-A-Way’s”. My first day back was Friday of this Fourth of July weekend. What a great way to get back into the swing of things. Pretty much everyone on the office was gone for the weekend (or just that day for vacation) so I had little distraction. Also, it gave me plenty of time to tackle my 745 emails sitting in my inbox. Only about 6 of them actually needed a response. After that, I had to put my office back together. I returned to a newly carpeted office. My office hadn’t been re-carpeted in about 20+ years. It had orange shag carpet. You might think, “sweet!” but I don’t even want to begin to think what all was stuck in it.

It was interesting, I was actually a little nervous going in. You never know what to expect when you’re gone that long. Sure, many things may still come up (hey, it’s ministry), but I like the timing of my return. Slow and steady getting ready for the ‘Full Speed Ahead’ which is just around the corner. Why? I have the next school year to plan out. This part is fun for me so I’m pretty excited. So here we go…

The “C” Word

If you’ve been in youth ministry long enough (more than 1 month), you’ve probably experienced criticism at some point. I don’t know of anyone who enjoys receiving it, either. Recently, I enjoyed youthministry.com‘s series by Doug and Matt on criticism. It was sort of ironic because a few days after their 4 articles were written is when I received my share of criticism. Here’s one statement they shared that stuck and helped me react is a way that is better that I usually do…

“Here’s what we know to be true for both of us: criticism hurts, but the pain is multiplied when we handle it poorly.”

Click here for the rest of the article.

Thanks to Doug and Matt for preparing me for that experience.

May Flowers? No, May Stress!

This month has been one of THE most stressful months I’ve had in a LONG time! 3 things happened this month (Technically 4).

1. (and 2.) – Spring retreats! I had 2 retreats to plan. This year was a different year. A family in our church let us use their summer cabin so we could have an affordable retreat. Rather than the usual $100 retreat, we did a $35 retreat. The stress? All the cooking, cleaning, and speaking. The nice part? I have a great volunteer staff who did all the teaching! I love it! It was still stressful for me, but less than it could have been.
2. Preaching. I agreed to preach one Sunday this month because our Sr. Pastor was going to be out of town at a conference. I love preaching, but the prep and the stress on my wife adds to the stress on me.
3. My personal 2008 taxes were audited! Anything dealing with the government and IRS is not easy and fun. I received the notice that I was being audited about a month ago. The earliest they could get me in for the actual audit was this past week! Having that looming over my head was NOT pleasant at all.

With all that over, life can resume as normal. WAIT! I’m in full time youth ministry…is there ever anything normal?