I'm a Real Adult now...

I've started my first post-college job. And get this... the job is at the very place I started out at before I left for Harding.

I am the Youth Minister at my home congregation. The main reason that's crazy incredible is because this church has never, in its history, had a female on the ministry staff. Now, two females (my best friend Sandy and I) are co-youth ministers here... in the very place we grew up and found our personal faiths all those years ago.

This has been uncomfortable and hard for a few reasons. As Christ said himself, "a prophet is without honor in his hometown." At first, I felt underappreciated and lost when I arrived here to work, but after yesterday's events, I can truly see God's control in my life. How could this have happened? How did I end up working at the same church that raised me to believe that women could not and should not be ministers in the church? How? Well, I don't really know the answer. I do know that I am once again amazed by the renewing Spirit of my God. The people at my church are people who have doctrines that are sometimes offensive and completely wrong in my opinion, attitudes that are sometimes surely uninviting, beliefs that are traditional. The thing is... these are God's people and I love them. They are trying to live their lives for the kingdom in the best way they know how, and far be it from me to put them down because they see a different interpretation of the scriptures then I see. The moment I let myself start fighting with flesh is the moment I loose my focus. The point of a church is not to be better than everyone else in the world or always right. To me, the point is to gather together before we fall apart, and praise the healer of our broken lives. We don't have the right answers most of the time, lets face it. But like my youth minister use to say, God loves us just the way we are, but he loves us enough to not let us stay there. If we, as the church, don't start LOVING eachother unconditionally... looking past our disagreements, then we will never be the church Christ desired us to be. A church who serves the dirty and low as if they were the rich and mighty. A church who is unified in Love because of devotion and trust in God's Spirit. A church who see men and women as equals, no jew or gentile, slave nor free, prep or freak, straight or gay. A church that is devoted to one another in brotherly love. I believe in that church, and I will give my life working for that church.

One goal I have this summer, as a minister to the youth here, is to show this youth group that church is not about being righteous and better than others for the sake of being right. The point of church is to praise the God that saves us, and take care of eachother while we share the redemption we have found with those who are still without hope. I want them to see their real NEED for God's love and guidance and desire a better life. I want to give my life to them so that they see Christ.

"Love never fails." 1 Corinthians 13:8