A time for everything...

I haven't been blogging as much lately. Mainly because most of my thoughts are going into my private journal and the stuff going on in my head wasn't for public consumption.
Here is what I want to say...
It is time for me now to move on.
Yes, after spending the last 23 years of my life working with high school students, it in now time for the sun to set on that part of my career (I started working at Son City playing in the band in October of 1985, first song I played was "Never" by Heart). I am a little saddened to be leaving the student ministry at Calvary but very excited about what I am going to do next. I am not leaving Muscatine or Calvary, just slowly transitioning to another position in the church.
Here is the email I sent out to many on my team yesterday:

This email is also to inform you of some impending transitions in our ministry coming in the near future. The church (Calvary) and I have been talking for a while about the next phase of my ministry life and what exactly that means. I guess what I am getting at is that we are going to start the process of phasing me out as the high school pastor at Calvary. This is a decision that has been made by both the church and myself which brings sadness and excitement for my life and hopefully the life of Nexus. Calvary has asked me to take the lead at our “3rd base” position in the church, helping people get involved in ministry. I think all of you know how much I love helping people get involved in ministry, so this seems like a perfect fit. This transition will not happen overnight, so for the time being you probably won’t notice anything different, however, subtle differences will probably be noticed in the amount of time I spend with Nexus. I am anticipating being involved with Nexus for at least the 2007-8 school year, but beyond that, I think it is unlikely that I will be directly involved. Understand that I will probably always be aware in some way of what goes on in Student Ministry, just not at the level I am now.

I know this may be creating some questions for you like: who will the next high school pastor be? Is Ernie going to step in? Will Scott now grow his hair out? Unfortunately, these are questions that have been asked but not answered. I am not keeping you in the dark, we (church management team) just haven’t discussed these issues at any length. I will keep you informed as everything transpires.

If you have any questions, please ask ME. No speculations need to happen as this is a natural part of ministry life. Like I said, I doubt you will notice any difference initially. We will have a great time together at Xcursion (hint, hint) and spending our summer together, planning on getting back into the swing of our fall schedules. After that.. who knows.

Again, if you have questions, please ask. This is not confidential information.

This has been brewing for some time and people would like to have some solid reasons why. Here are a few:

1. I am going to be 42 years old in September. (nuff said)
2. I have spent considerable time developing strategies for ministry in my head. The strategy we use at Calvary is something I heavily developed (and as a staff we refined), I want to expand my capabilities to the whole church and not keep them just in student ministries. In other words, I don't want to be defined as just a Youth Pastor (and I know I am not, but it is time to move on...)
3. My kids. As they get older, their extracurricular schedule begins to conflict with the schedule of my high schooler's. Given the choice between my daughters band concert and a high school baseball game, I will choose the concert. In some ways I don't think that is fair to my high school students.
4. My kids, part II. I never wanted to be my kids youth pastor. Sadie loves me being the youth pastor because of the special privilege she gets. However when I broke the news to her, I reminded her that her friends at times complain about how ministry is. I told her that I didn't want to put her in a position where it is her dad they are complaining about. I don't know if her and Emma's heart could take it.
5. Its time.

Now this isn't a conclusive list, but simply things I have been mulling over for a few years (yes years) now. I look forward to this coming year and the ways in which God will use me to help more people get involved in ministry. I love seeing people find their potential by building into the kingdom and connecting others with God.

Now is the time....