New Adventures

It’s happened.  Seriously.  If you haven’t already heard: I’m officially the new Worship and Family Ministries Pastor at First Baptist Church Port Orchard!  The interview process actually started several months ago – I just had to keep it under wraps until very recently.  I was hired on Oct 2^nd, and I’ve been setting up camp in my – very own – office, putting my books on shelves, hanging certificates on the walls, and decorating the room with wall art and pictures.  I finally got to pull out my religion textbooks and Greek New Testament from college and crack open their dusty spines.  It’s been so nice getting to start a career in the field I love so much – not to mention what God called me to do all those years ago.  Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for the Lord to open a door for me – your prayers have definitely been answered.

Lots of you guys have asked me what I actually do, and I figure it’s easiest to post it here than answer each question individually.  My position has two distinct facets to it: worship ministry and family ministry.  In the Bible belt, my position is kind of the equivalent of a Music and Education Minister. 

The first facet is worship ministry.  Our church has two services on Sunday mornings.  The first service is more traditional, mostly hymn singing.  The second service is more contemporary, mostly praise and worship choruses.  We have several different worship teams who lead the different services.  For example, I am in a praise team with Chewie and one of our close friends, and we lead worship a couple of times a month during the second service (commonly referred to as the deuce service).  Some of my responsibilities for this part of my position include scheduling which worship teams lead on which Sundays.  I also provide leadership to the teams, answering questions and making sure they have the resources they need for the Sunday services.  I’ll also be intimately involved with the worship planning team which kind of creates a general template for the Sunday worship services and makes decisions regarding different aspects of the services (like what responsive readings to do.

The other facet of my position is family ministries.  This mainly pertains to the preschool, children’s, and youth ministries at our church.  I provide leadership to the teachers of those classes and will hopefully get the ministries to a point where they flow naturally into one another.  For instance, I would like for the 4s and 5s class to be taught in a way that prepares them for the 1^st-3^rd grade class, which is being prepared for the 4^th-6^th grade class, and them for the youth group (and the youth for an adult class).  I’ll also take a more active role in planning events for these age groups, including overseeing VBS during the summer.  In the more immediate future, I’ll be taking more responsibility in the youth group because our youth pastor’s husband just accepted a position as associate pastor at a church in Oregon and will be moving there in the coming months.

This is by no means an all-inclusive list of my responsibilities at the church, but it hopefully gives a better feel for what I’m doing now. 

I’m incredibly excited about being here.  I really feel like God has been preparing me for this position for a long time.  I had no way of knowing this is what he had in store, but I believe this has been his plan all along.  It’s cool how he sometimes gives us a glimpse of his bigger picture.  For so long I questioned why God brought me here to the NW without giving me clear direction about my career and ministry here.  And now I can see and understand a bit more why he brought me through the stuff he brought me through to this point.  All the trials and tribulations and doubts and uncertainties make a little more sense. 

Other things in my life are really great right now.  Chewie and I are doing especially well.  I’m probably going to buy a ticket to visit home in the near future.  My small group is thriving right now – we just started a new Bible study and changed the time of week that we meet, and I think it’s a definite move in the right direction.  There really isn’t much else going on other than starting the new job.  It’s kind of the biggest thing happening right now. 

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods, wherever you are.  Be blessed this week in the knowledge that Jesus paid it all for you!