Our next step
Shari and I spent 21 days in January fasting solid food and caffeine, along with a few other odds and ends. We had to reasons for this. One was to join our church family in seeking the Lord for vision and direction for the church body. The other was more personal, but the same - to seek God for vision and direction for us. January marked six months of living at my parents' home w/o a full-time job, or any hope of one, and we were really getting frustrated and wanting to here from Him. It was an amazing experience. I chose not to blog during that time because I wanted to honor the heart of Jesus' direction on how to fast that He gave in Matthew 6. However, now that we're half-way through Feb., I thought the time had come to share what Shari and I believe God gave to us.
Yesterday I blogged about some passages God spoke to me through Isaiah. One of those was Isaiah 50:10:
We were certainly there in darkness, and God was saying very clearly to us (He spoke to Shari in different ways, but the same message) that we needed to simply trust Him through this time, even when He was silent during the fast. That was the major message - Trust Him! Even when we couldn't see any light at the end of the tunnel, and we wanted some clear direction, not just a vague hope. We continued to fast and pray.
The week following the end of our fast, we believe God gave us a clear direction, significantly different than we anticipated, yet exciting to us as well. We have accepted a volunteer position at our church (Wenatchee Valley Praise Center) with the youth program. We will be serving the youth pastor in a variety of ways that includes praying for and with parents and helping to mentor and train leaders in the jr. high program (adults and high school-aged mentors of jr. highers). God has not given us a time frame for how long we'll be here, but this is to be our primary ministry for the next section of our lives - pouring into leaders here at the church while they reach and disciple jr. highers.
In the mean time, we continue to pray for a full-time job that will not only pay the bills, but be something that I can enjoy and look forward to. I'm currently applying for several administrative assistant positions, as well as a supervisor position. I am also substituting as a para-professional (teacher's aide, secretary - anything that's not a teacher or administrator, really) in a couple of school districts, which I've really enjoyed. However, we really need something full-time with health benefits.
In saying this is the direction we believe God's leading, we are NOT saying that we are leaving youth ministry, or pastoring in general. In fact, we are convinced that God is using both the volunteering and whatever paid job I receive to prepare us for the next phase of pastoring. However, we believe that God has spoken to us to quit striving after a paid pastoring position, and to trust Him to provide in his time. In fact, when we first left LCC, Shari was convinced that God had told her that He would provide as He always had - by handing a ministry position to us in His time, and it would be obvious it was from Him. In a sense, that's what He has done with the opportunity at WVPC, and we are looking for Him to do it again when He's ready for us to move back into full-time pastoring.
So, if you hear of a pastoring position that you believe would be a good fit for us, please don't hesitate to mention our name, or send us a link telling us about it. We are simply waiting on God to send us that connection in His time. In the meantime, we believe God's got us here to minister in this church, and we are very excited about it - because it's clearly from Him, because we are in unity about it, and because we love this church and the leadership here.
Yesterday I blogged about some passages God spoke to me through Isaiah. One of those was Isaiah 50:10:
"Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of His servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God."
We were certainly there in darkness, and God was saying very clearly to us (He spoke to Shari in different ways, but the same message) that we needed to simply trust Him through this time, even when He was silent during the fast. That was the major message - Trust Him! Even when we couldn't see any light at the end of the tunnel, and we wanted some clear direction, not just a vague hope. We continued to fast and pray.
The week following the end of our fast, we believe God gave us a clear direction, significantly different than we anticipated, yet exciting to us as well. We have accepted a volunteer position at our church (Wenatchee Valley Praise Center) with the youth program. We will be serving the youth pastor in a variety of ways that includes praying for and with parents and helping to mentor and train leaders in the jr. high program (adults and high school-aged mentors of jr. highers). God has not given us a time frame for how long we'll be here, but this is to be our primary ministry for the next section of our lives - pouring into leaders here at the church while they reach and disciple jr. highers.
In the mean time, we continue to pray for a full-time job that will not only pay the bills, but be something that I can enjoy and look forward to. I'm currently applying for several administrative assistant positions, as well as a supervisor position. I am also substituting as a para-professional (teacher's aide, secretary - anything that's not a teacher or administrator, really) in a couple of school districts, which I've really enjoyed. However, we really need something full-time with health benefits.
In saying this is the direction we believe God's leading, we are NOT saying that we are leaving youth ministry, or pastoring in general. In fact, we are convinced that God is using both the volunteering and whatever paid job I receive to prepare us for the next phase of pastoring. However, we believe that God has spoken to us to quit striving after a paid pastoring position, and to trust Him to provide in his time. In fact, when we first left LCC, Shari was convinced that God had told her that He would provide as He always had - by handing a ministry position to us in His time, and it would be obvious it was from Him. In a sense, that's what He has done with the opportunity at WVPC, and we are looking for Him to do it again when He's ready for us to move back into full-time pastoring.
So, if you hear of a pastoring position that you believe would be a good fit for us, please don't hesitate to mention our name, or send us a link telling us about it. We are simply waiting on God to send us that connection in His time. In the meantime, we believe God's got us here to minister in this church, and we are very excited about it - because it's clearly from Him, because we are in unity about it, and because we love this church and the leadership here.
Labels: Church, Family, Job Hunt, Personal, Youth Ministry
posted by Pastor Paul at
7:20 AM
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