New seasons, new challenges…just faith

I have been absent from the blogsphere for a while now. Our family has had some big decisions to make the past few months, that will overall effect my ministry to children and families. My husband has been the youth pastor at our church, Dutch Fork Christian Church, for the past 7 years – where I have currently served as Children’s Minister. We are going to enter a new season in our life as he has accepted a position with North Point Community Church to plant a Strategic Partner location here in Columbia, SC. His last day at our home church was actually today and as of tomorrow he is full-time lead pastor of Columbia Church. We are first and foremost humbled by what God is doing in our loves. NEVER did we think we would be leading a church, let alone one with the name “North Point” connected to it. We are excited about what God is going to do in our city and through us. This means that I will be stepping down from my current position at Dutch Fork as Children’s Minister prior to launch. We’re looking to launch Sept. 2009 and I will resign effective June. At the same time as this we are adding a new blessing to our family, baby Richards #3, who is due the beginning of June. 

So as we step into this new season of our life we are excited and full of anticipation and faith with what God is going to do. I will no longer be posting on this blog as I will be eventually leaving the ministry world to simply serve my husband and the church God has called us to and to minister to our growing family. If you’re still interested in following our journey as a family, this wild adventure we’re starting on, and my personal ramblings, you can follow my other blog: Mommy Needs Coffee. (http://www.mommyneedscoffee.wordpress.com)

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Hello, I’m Michelle. I’m a …

church planter’s wife. 

That’s right, as of January 11th, I will be a full-time church planter’s wife. JD announced his resignation to our church today as we open this new chapter in our lives. 

So that also anserws a bit as to why I haven’t been blogging the past few months. God has been moving us in this direction, starting this past February. When there’s something so BIG and heavy, and God-ordained, yet you cannot speak of it outside certain circles, it became difficult to blog. Over the course of the next few days, I’ll share some more information regarding what’s going on, what we’re doing, what this means for my children’s ministry, info on the pregnancy, and just an update to our lives. 

Stay tuned. 

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messy spirituality

God is rocking my world right now and I love it! I am craving his Word more than I crave Starbucks! It seems like daily I am reading the Bible at every opportunity I have and I can’t get enough. At the same time I am reading an awesome book, “Messy Spirituality” by Michael Yaconelli. If you haven’t read this book, run, don’t walk to the bookstore and BUY it!!! It is hitting me right where I am at — God loves us because of the messy, unperfect lives we live. A few points fro the book:

Spirituality is not a formula; it is not a test. It is a relationship. Spirituality is not about competency; itis about intimacy. Spirituality is not about perfection; it is about connection. The way of a spiritual life begins where we are now in the mess of our lives. Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws but because we let go of seeking perfection and, instead, seek God, the one who is present in the tangledness of our lives. Spirituality is not aboutbeing fixed; it is about God’s being present in the mess of our unfixedness.

 

Messy Spirituality has the audacity to suggest that messiness is the workshop of authentic spirituality, the greenhouse of faith, the place where the real Jesus meets the real us. 

I LOVE it! Stay tuned for more snippets from the book and if you’ve read it — comment and let me know your thoughts! 

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lyrics speaking to me…

This song, Whatever You’re Doing, by Sanctus Real has just been speaking to my heart. It’s amazing that we have a God who know at all times what is best for us and continually moves within us. I love thinking of the illustration of being clay with God being the potter –

Isaiah 64:8

8 Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.

Just remembering that we are the work of His hand. We were created to glorify God, praise God, and to reflect God’s love. He wants to renew us daily to being us closer to Him and closer to looking like Him.

Whatever You’re Doing - Sanctus Real

It’s time for healing time to move on
It’s time to fix what’s been broken too long
Time make right what has been wrong
It’s time to find my way to where I belong
There’s a wave that’s crashing over me
All I can do is surrender

[Chorus]
Whatever you’re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos somehow there’s peace
It’s hard to surrender to what I can’t see
but I’m giving in to something heavenly

Time for a milestone
Time to begin again
Revaluate who I really am
Am I doing everything to follow your will
or just climbing aimlessly over these hills
So show me what it is you want from me
I give everything I surrender…
To…

[Chorus]

Time to face up
Clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out
That I’ve wanted to say for so many years
Time to to release all my held back tears

Whatever you’re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but I believe
You’re up to something bigger than me
Larger than life something heavenly

Whatever you’re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but now I can see
This something bigger than me
Larger than life something heavenly
Something heavenly

It’s time to face up
Clean this old house
Time breathe in and let everything out

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Lessons from my 4 year old…

Cade, my 4 year old, wanted to color a picture. That’s cool, kids love to color right? So I got him a piece of construction paper and some markers and away he went. A basic task like coloring should be predictable, right? Paper, markers, and a 4 year old = scribbled mess and mommy’s masterpiece, right? That is what I expected, but Cade soon diverted from the plan.

Cade got a hold of a post-it note pad with stars printed on it and thought to decorate his paper with the post-it notes. After precisely applying every note he wanted to display his art in his room. He asked for some tape and Igave him the scotch tape. The pictures below are what resulted.

I really was inspired to think. What I had expected was not at all what Cade produced. It was awesome! He secured his portrait to the wall beside his bed with an entire roll of tape.

As a church leader we need to be inspired to step outside the confines of what is expected, and lead creatively. Too many churches are exactly the same as they were 20 or even 50 years ago. How are you creatively doing and being the church?

Second, always over do it. Over plan, over execute, over communicate, always over do it. In church world there is a tendency to do just enough instead of our very best. Maybe we would see God move if we actually planned for it instead of simply complaining when we didn’t see it. This is especially true when a church or organization wants to create momentum. If you don’t anticipate and plan for the unseen growth you will never see it. If you don’t plan for and create space for people that are not a part of your church you will never see them, and if you do, they won’t be back next week.

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What’s on the horizon for Children’s Ministry?

So it seems as if the most current trend for Children’s Ministry has been this shift to “Family Ministry” with a large emphasis put upon “family production” for those who are in churches with the resources to do one. I am an advocate of family ministry, although I have found it difficult to fully integrate our church into an “Orange” type model without a family production. We simply do not have the resources at this time to execute one with quality.

But I was thinking yesterday as I heard of another church in our area starting a family service…what is on the horizon as the next trend in ministry for families and children? I wish I could have a looking glass into the future to catch a glimpse of it. It’s difficult to be one step ahead of innovation rather than recreating what someone else is doing. I know not to recreate the wheel…there are so many resources out there….but for some things it seems like once you get it, and implement it, we’re onto the next big thing.

Some hot growing topics that could inspire the next trend — technology, social networking, even more production-based learning, etc. What do you think???

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pride.

I’ll admit that something I struggle with is pride. So often I’ll go through the day, crossing things off my mental to-do list, patting myself on the back for making it through certain situations or accomplishing things, that I forget to really give credit where credit is due. Without Him, my Savior, I am nothing. I can do nothing. I would be nothing. I tend to get caught up in the day to day living that I so often make it through the day and try to remember if I even prayed before I ate lunch. I’ll get greedy over “my time” and not spend time reading my Bible or talking to God, the creator of time. I forget that He’s the one who makes the minutes happen and gives me another hour to live. Something great will happen in my ministry – a child who “got it” or good attendance at an event and quickly I will think that “I did good or worked hard for it.” I forget that God gives me ths talents and resources to do what I can accomplish. He moves in the hearts of individuals. I am nothing without Him. My prayer is “God make me less and help me to see You more.” I want to daily know that I am nothing without the grace and life of my Savior.

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Rough ministry patch

It’s been kind of a rough ministry patch the past month or so. I’ve been totally swamped busy, but today I was realizing that even more so than busy with a to-do list a mile long, I’ve been heavy with the hurts of those close to me.

Within the past month we’ve had a wonderful ministry friends suffer a miscarriage, a dear friend lose his youth ministry job, and close ministry friends deliver a baby 7 weeks prematurely that has been in ICU for a week (so far). Today I was actually questioning God, seeing that all these friends are in ministry, as to why it was happening.

I am a great believer that when adversity strikes, it usually means that God is gearing up to do something BIG and Satan is trying to attack. I have felt it in my own life, I have seen it in the lives of others. But this type of pain I’m seeing is a movement of God, trying to show something, grow us, teach us, mold us, and to bring us to Him through it. It could be Satan attacking too – trying to test the resolve, the steadfastness.

Whatever the reason for the suffering in the lives of these closest to us, it has made for a few rough ministry weeks. Ever just feel so heavy and burdened for those you love? I do. But its a feeling I don’t want to lose either – compassion, love, concern. I want my heart broken with the things that break God’s and I know that these things do.

I don’t even know the point of this post! But just felt the rambling thoughts… 

 

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running a million directions

Currently I am running a million directions trying to meet deadlines for many things. We have huge transitions this week with our classes, ages, and classrooms. New teachers starting. New large group environment starting. Our weekday preschool program is finishing up its second school year and we have record enrollment for the summer program we’re offering with 10 new teachers being hired and orientation next week. Not to mention I am deaning a week at our state’s Christian camp for elementary age in 3 weeks and writing curriculum for it.

Honestly, I am feeling slightly overwhelmed. I need to delegate better. Does anyone else struggle with that? I have some key individuals who are awesome at helping where needed, but it is a weakness of mine. But that aside, what do you do when you feel overwhelmed and your to-do list keeps growing??

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blog changes…

Part of my problem with lack of posting is that I never seem to know which direction to post in. Call it a blog identity crisis if you will. After attending a workshop on blogging this past week, I realized that the contents of my Children’s Ministry blog were too broad. It started as professional development, but I have friends and family that follow it as well. To keep this blog more church leadership focused, I started another one as a way of communicating with my friends and family. You’ll be kept updated on family happenings, interesting things I am passionate about, parenting, my spiritual journey, and of course boy fluff! If you want to visit there and enjoy that side of me visit “Mommy Needs Coffee.”

This blog will continue as a professional, leadership & ministry focused blog with possibly some family ancedotes thrown in here and there!

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