Got some criticism for the length on that last entry...sorry. So here are some quick thoughts that I am having. The first is I had a view of what ministry was about. I remember a mentor of mine telling me when I was interning for him, "Mike, we plan things/events so that God has the space to move (in our community)." Then I went to seminary and got another idea of what ministry was about, especially pastoral ministry...preaching the word. Now I am realizing in my current position I cannot afford to merely teach or preach or do the 'serious' work of the pastor only for the church will fail. Especially considering that I am a number two pastor, that there is someone here who has much more wisdom and experience in leading an orthodox church. So now I am wrestling with how to pastor a church and not merely exist to uphold the 'organization' of the church. We need to have more 'contact' events with our church. We need to show our community that we know how to celebrate with the best of them and that we have good reason to celebrate. I think part of not merely being a cog in the machine of the organization has to do with relationships? I don't know still thinking about this one.

I loved this quote I found last week. "Many people think of organized religion the way the do party politics, that the goal is more about winning rather than doing the correct thing."