I Was A Youth Worker Faust

Well, I and my former intern now youth pastor interim (still very weird to think about) took our own church students to our camp this past week. I had to do double duty this year between being boys dean and co camp corordinator. I hate it because I don't get to spend as much time with students.

It was a hard week starting out. Seemed that we had two camps within our own group going. One group wanted to participate in the competition element the others were comfotable with the canoes and swimming. It was hard this year as compared to others. It was my first summer not as full time youth pastor, we had older students which made it easy, several 18 year olds and a 19 year old. It was also a sort of disconnect where I had these peer like students, even though I am still 20 years older than them. I lacked influence and authority in some ways.

It took until about Wednesday until I felt like we gelled but it all worked out.

I am currently working on a series of devotions and small group materials based on my D-Project core disciple values. It will be five books each with 5 days as devotions per topic. The five core values of a disciple are Sacrifice, Surrender, Separation (holiness), Study, and The Spirit (fruits and gifts). You can check out more on www.thediscipleproject.net. I have some friends of mine helping me out with structure and content so pray we get the heart of God on this.

I applied for a part time job today. As I said before this whole "start your own ministry" thing is hjarder than it looks. Even when you have a well laid plan, a safety net, and a support system there are still no guarantees. The hounds of heaven are committed to stay on my trail no matter how hard I run or how well insulated I make myself from mistakes. They dog me like a prisoner who just broke out of of a maximum security prison. I can see why some speakers/evangelists rely on manipulation. When their back is against the wall and the speaking gigs are not coning through they resort to fear mongering or some other tactic to increase finances.

Ok, sorry for the bunny trail. Anyway, I applied for a job today. It was at a local Christian bookstore. I could not help but feel I was signing a deal with the devil. I thought I could do this without having to get a part time job. It was a moment of surrender. A reality that said in an eerie Lee Corso voice, "Not so fast my friend". God is both working something out of me and something into me at the same time. It is easy to get discouraged but this is what I asked for, a life of faith. To trust God for the best. God has his own plan. He failed to clue me in.

Oh, a Faust? Sorry, the word comes from "the chief character of a medieval legend, represented as selling his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power". Hope the new boss acts nothing like the contract holder in these plays writtn by Goethe.

later all,

Paul Turner