It Must Be June

June is always one of the busiest months in my year. The only second place is probably a toss up between May and December, but June is always the busiest with graduations, graduation parties, VBS prep and execution, preparation and beginning camp, plus all the other events that June is perfect for, like weddings, first picnics, birthday parties, end of school year picnics, and the like. It is directly as a result of this that it is June 8th before I post my first June blog post. :) I want to share a couple of highlights of the last week. Although it was saddening to lose Patricia Ellsworth last Sunday, her memorial service on Thursday was a wonderful affirmation of her life and love. It was great to meet her family, including three wonderful adult children who were obviously raised in an atmosphere of love. Their care for Ralph and each other was so affirming. The number of people who turned out for the service was a great testimony to the lives this quiet lady touched. Speaking at Jay's Baccalaureate and Oxford Hills Christian Academy's Graduation were great times. It was wonderful to see people and share with the grads. The relationship God has given me with the kids at OHCA is especially meaningful to me and I was very humbled by their love, calling me another dad. I am coming to accept and embrace more and more that God has called me to be a Dad to those who need a spiritual dad, or at least one more spiritual dad. Every time I turn around he seems to place more "daughters" in my path. It is a great responsibility but an honor as well. I know I have expended plenty of electronic ink on this subject already, but I want to comment again on working with Nate. This last week we got together for a quick meeting at his request because he needed a little input on his sermon for Sunday. We had a great time of studying the Word together and he got excited as he saw things coming together. Sunday I eagerly awaited hearing what God and Nate had prepared for us and I wasn't disappointed. Another strong and well formed sermon. I cannot express how proud I am of the work Nate is doing and how he is growing in the ministry. I have always enjoyed Nate's preaching but the maturity and depth that he has and is developing are awesome! I want to add an additional note on our working relationship. I will probably put this into a newsletter when I finally get one ready. :) My goal in working with Nate is to prepare him and promote him. God has called me to make disciples. Nate has been called to our church to be a pastor, and as the older pastor in residence, it is my job to disciple him and make him into a senior pastor. I can't do that by being protective and defensive about my position. He needs plenty of preaching time, exposure to all the aspects of the pastor job, and training in how to do such a busy schedule without neglecting the all-important family time. The only way to truly teach this is to have him do it, not just see me do it. This is one of the reasons that Nate preaches as often as he does on Sundays. He shares the radio show with me. We share youth group. Anything I am doing in the ministry I need to make him able to take over for me. If I worry about my position, if I forget that my job is not to do everything but to equip others, then I will begin to fail. To be effective in this job requires me to set aside self protection and pride and be open and honest with Nate about my failures, my struggles, my challenges. It is in the areas where I am weak that I can be most effective as a teacher as I show him how to deal with his own weaknesses. Pastors tend to hide their weaknesses, deny their weaknesses, or cover them up. I have watched first hand how incredibly destructive that can be and how that tendency leads to a front and performance rather than authenticity. I want to make sure that Nate does not follow that path. I am glad that he has repeatedly shared from the pulpit his areas of weakness and struggle in authentic ways. I am so proud of him. Well, I am waxing long here. I still have lots of other stray thoughts, but I guess I should save them for another day to keep the blog posts from being too long.