Pray for our Schools

Today we had quite the experience.  Jackson’s school went into lockdown after a gun was found in the bathroom.  In the last month, Huntsville has seen its share of violence in our schools.  A young student was killed by another during class change.  The next week, we experienced a professor shoot and kill some of her fellow professors at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. And now this today.  Jill and I have spent the morning in prayer and worry about our son.  This is certainly a different world from the one that I grew up in and at times it seems like a war-zone in the schools.

I’ve asked myself what can we do to make our schools safer and have only two thoughts.  We MUST be in constant prayer for our schools, teachers, students and the parents of the students.  I believe that prayer may be the only way we can find protection for our children and they must be bathed in it each day.  Churches should form teams who go and pray over each desk that children sit in at least once a week.  There are 7 churches on the same side of the road as my son’s school who could adopt that school and pray for it each day.  Or prayer teams could pray for specific teachers each day.  Prayer is the answer to this problem and the issue is NOT going away just because we wish it was like it was when we were in school.

I also believe that as parents we must be willing to be involved in our children’s lives.  We must get involved in any way possible in their lives at school and be a presence in their schools.  As a pastor, I’ve had multiple principles ask me to come and read with the students (they are opening the door to a pastor to come in and interact with the children).  I know this is going to take our most valuable resource (time) but it will be time well spent.  Our greatest privilege and responsiblity is the raising of our children.  Way too many children are raising themselves.  As parents and concerned adults, we need to be active and present in the schools.

I would love to read your thoughts regarding this subject.  Feel free to leave them in the comment section.

Big Day Today! BOOM Interviews are OVER

In 2000, I began a journey to become an Ordained United Methodist Minister. It was the beginning of a long, long road which has been filled with  excitement, sadness, and a great deal of hard work.  However, it has been worth it!  It has been an amazing adventure and today was (hopefully) the last hurdle that must be cleared.  Let me give you a timeline of how this worked:

2000  Informed my pastor (Jerry Sims) that I was interested in the ministry.  After meeting with the District Superintendent, I was assigned a mentor (Dallas Culver) who helped me explore my call.  This process can take anywhere from 6 months to two years depending on the individual.  As I was working for State Farm full time, I took my time doing this.

2002  In February, I went to License School at Camp Sumatanga to receive my license to preach.  It was there that I first met Robert Mercer.  Robert has become one of my best friends and I think he is one of the finest people I know.  We would later be roommates in seminary.

In June 2002, I was appointed as a Student Local Pastor to Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in Decatur.  The people of Chapel Hill are some of the best people in the whole world.  They gave me the ability to grow as a pastor.  I listen to some of my Chapel Hill sermons and think, “Those poor people had to sit through this horrible sermon.”  Their encouragement  and support helped me become the pastor that I am today.

In August 2002, I began Memphis Theological Seminary. I did not want to go  and hated the fact that I had to go back to school.  However, this became one of the highlights of ministry career.  Being in this environment truly helped me grow in my spiritual walk like never before.  It was some of the best years of my life.

In January of 2005, I was appointed Latham United Methodist Church in Huntsville.

In May of 2006, I graduated from MTS.

In February of 2007, I went before the Board of Ordained Ministry (BOOM) for interviews in regards to being Commissioned.  The three main areas of focus are Theology and Doctrine, Called and Disciplined LIfe, and Practice of Ministry.  My total paperwork for this was close to 70 pages.  Then went to Camp Sumatanga for the interviews in each of the three main focus areas.  I was commissioned a Resident in Ministry.

In the Fall of 2007, I completed Level 1 of Clinical Pastoral Education at Huntsville Hospital.

In the  Fall of 2007, I also began work on starting a new church called The Bridge.

Late summer and early Fall of 2009, I began working on the paperwork for the BOOM in regards to Ordination and turned this paperwork in to the Office of Ordained Ministry in November.

The final step of this long process (hopefully, explain more about that in a moment) happened today when I met for interviews with teams having the same focus as the teams for commissioning.  This was different though.  Now they were looking not as much at my theology, but how do I apply it in the course of my ministry. I found this to be a very affirming process and one that while stressful was very rewarding.

Once you reach this point, there are several options the BOOM can take.

1. Vote to ordain you.
2. Not approve you and give you another year to be brought back for the same process next year.
3. Completely reject the Resident
4. The BOOM also has other things that can be done such as elaborating on answers contained within you paperwork.

This is the end (hopefully) of ten long years in this process and if all goes well, I will be ordained an Elder in the Methodist church during Annual Conference in June.