Circuit Writer Blog

I have less than six hours left here in Iowa before we welcome in 2012.  So I thought I’d squeeze in one last 2011 blog post.

As I’ve shared in the past, this has been an eventful year.  Today marks my being the appointed Associate Pastor of First UMC in Cedar Falls for a year and a half.  The time has gone by fast.  The church is busy with renovation and construction.  We moved our contemporary worship to Scott Hall (our fellowship hall), built a new stage, and revitalized the service and chose a new name “Transformation Worship.”   First UMC has also been working on a vision plan for the future through the “TEAM Christ” committee.

Starting January 1 the church has hired Lesley Toma to work part time for the church with our Young Adults.  This year Christina Keller also was hired to serve as our Youth Ministry Coordinator following our former Associate for Youth and College ministry heading off to seminary.

Besides all that has gone on at church I’ve eventful year in my process of becoming a United Methodist pastor.  After preparing materials and examination by the BOM my orders were recognized and I was commissioned as a Provisional Member of the Iowa Conference of the UMC.   Before the Advent Season I finished a course in United Methodist History and just received the packet of material this past week from the GBHEM for the UMC Doctrine class.  My intention is to finish it and the Polity Class in the next six months.

A New Year is in many ways like a blank slate.  People make resolutions in which they strive to do better in some area of their life, make a life change, lose weight, exercise, eat right etc.   I feel quite good about the change I’ve experienced in my life in the last two years.  It is not that resolutions in some other area of my life would not be a good thing for me.  But I have felt blessed and empowered by embracing change in my life.

Happy New Year!

A few weeks back I finished my United Methodist history class having turned in the required study/essay questions.  So this week I sent off the for the next GBHEM course on UMC Doctrine.  This is the next step in working towards full membership in the Iowa Annual Conference.  I was granted Provisional Membership this past June and will be a Provisional Member for at least two years.  During that time I am required to complete courses in UMC history, doctrine, and polity.  I am working to complete the course work as soon as I can.

As part of being a Provisional Member  of the Conference I will be meeting with the Board of Ordained Ministry again in February for a check in meeting.  This is an annual requirement as long as one holds Provisional Membership.

I’ve found the continued conversations with the BOM and the course work to be very informative and formational as I’ve been learning more every day about being a United Methodist.  I also continue to have a great time working at First UMC in Cedar Falls.

In a week I will celebrate the 21st anniversary of my ordination.  If there is anything I’ve learned in the past 21 years of ministry it is that faith is a journey, a pilgrimage in which we seek to learn and grow closer to to God by God’s grace.  When I look back I see a lot of road behind me.  But when I look ahead it is exciting to see plenty of travel ahead of me!

I’ve been in my office today packing boxes of books.  No, I’ve not receive a new appointment.  I’m packing up my office because all of us at First UMC are getting ready to move out of our offices so that our offices can be renovated as part of our building program.  We will gather in the Parlor as the new church office and scatter about the building as we need to do our work.   But it is a good thing!  I’m reminded how often packing boxes is a good thing.  It was a real blessing in my life in July of 2010 to move here to serve at First UMC.  As a Pastor I’ve packed up my office many times as God has moved us into a new ministry, a new church, and a new community.

All the change that goes with moving, be it to a new church or just down the hall to a new office, involve some work and some patience.  Our Senior Pastor, Steve Williams, has regular talked about being positive, patient, and prayerful as our church moves forward in our building program and as we move forward as a church with new ministries and new opportunities of service to the Lord.

Some of those new opportunities I’m excited about include upcoming mission trips with members of First UMC.  In January three of us will be part of a group of twenty-four United Methodists traveling to Puerto Rico to spend two weeks work in the town of Comerio helping two Methodist Churches with renovation projects.  I just seems right that as God has blessed us to be able to renovation our own church building we respond to the opportunity to do the same for another church.

Also this summer a group will be traveling to Red Bird Mission in Kentucky to work there.  Red Bird serves in the Appalachian mountains with needy people in that part of our nation as a mission of the United Methodist Church.  I believe right now we have over twenty members of First UMC going on this trip.

This time of year is my favorite time as we look forward to Thanksgiving and the Advent and Christmas Seasons.  We have so much to be grateful as God keeps blessing us with the Good things that are coming!

I am excited share with you that the Academy of Parish Clergy is moving forward with a new and exciting venture.  The Academy will be publishing a book series titled “Conversations in Ministry” which will focus on important issues facing clergy today.  You can find information about the new series at http://energionpubs.com/academy-of-parish-clergy-conversations-in-ministry-series/

I have been honored to be asked to be part of the editorial board for the series and I am looking forward to having the opportunity to read great manuscripts for upcoming books!

Also if you are clergy and have not checked out the APC, it is a wonderful ecumenical organization of clergy who support each other and also promote high standards of excellence in ministry and service.  Check out the Academy website at http://www.apclergy.org/ for more details.

With the proliferation of Social Media sites I am starting to wonder how many are enough, or how many are too many to keep up with.  I’ve noticed Tweetdeck will now follow Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Buzz (which is going to be discontinued by Google), Linkedin, and Foursquare.  So far Google Plus is not supported.

But with so many Social Media sites I find that I have looked for means to cross post and read more than one site at a time with something like Seesmic or Tweekdeck to name two.  But I have begun to wonder which of these sites I intend to keep following.
Some already are no longer getting much attention from me.  I find that while I was initially excited about Google Plus I just can’t get that excited about it now.  It seems like a poor cousin of Facebook and most of my friends are there.

I certainly find following Facebook and Twitter have been good means of communicating with colleagues.  Twitter has worked well for conversations about events I’ve attended with fellow attendees.  But I’m finding less use for the others.  What do you think?

How many social media sites do you try to follow?