I am not claiming to have prophetic dreams.  However, the other night I had a dream that woke me up a bit shaken.  I was outside in my back yard with my girls and a large storm came in.  In the distance I saw 4 small tornadoes dropping down.  In an effort to protect my family I jumped in the truck and we went racing AWAY from the little tornadoes.  Feeling proud of my abilities to protect my family we took a right turn out of some woods only to come head first into a MAJOR tornado.  Our truck collided with the funnel, screams and I wake up.

Now, at first I just chocked it up as me watching too much weather channel.  Then, the Spirit wouldn’t allow me to let it go so I asked God to reveal to me any meaning.  This is what I came up with.  Now, admittedly it isn’t all that ground breaking but hey, neither am I.

I spend my life as a pastor putting out a lot of small storms.  A lot of little things occupy most of my energy.  However, the BIG thing is the thing that will kill me.  I allow myself to get stressed if the graphics for my sermon series isn’t the way I want them to be.  I allow myself to get stressed if there is any disruption to my schedule (which is laughable because we should all acknowledge it is God’s time not our own).  I allow myself to get stressed at the tiniest little things.  Then that stress keeps me from being sharp in my prayer life, Bible study life and doing the things of GOD not necessarily CHURCH.

What happens is I let the little storms decide where I go and it is the BIG storm that got me.  The BIG storms like lust, pride, laziness, greed and anger…those things should direct me.  Those are the things I should be watching out for.  Those are the things that will not only affect my life but can destroy it.

I need to do a better job of keeping the Main thing the Main thing.  I need to do a better job of keeping an eye out for the BIG storms and managing the LITTLE storms…not the other way around.

I am not an easy follower.  I have a hard time with authority.  It is not natural for me to follow.  I have heard the sermons and read the books on spiritual authority and I get it in my head but like so many things, it has a tough time dropping 12 inches into my heart.  These last few weeks God has been dealing with me in this area…when I say dealing with me I mean he has been kicking my butt all over the place.  That is the thing with shifting personality or perspective it takes time and often times is tough.  However, God is stretching me and in a way it is releasing me from some of the things that I have burdened myself with.  I serve with great pastors but I am simply ONE of them.  I answer to an Executive Pastor, Steve Stahl who oversees staff relations and volunteer coordination and ultimately I answer to Cal Woods, our senior pastor.  This church is a vision given by God to him and he in turn guides my vision for the youth ministry.  Now, where my issue is when I think I know everything or even simply more than that of those who lead me…I tend to get snippy and disrespectful.  That is something God is purging from my soul.  I answer to the staff and to God for what I have been called to do.

Cal is leading this church into some really special but significant changes in the coming months and I am behind him in prayer, vision but most importantly in followship.  I will follow him because he is my pastor and I am his associate.

I encourage all you youth pastors out there to pray and seek God’s heart in this issue because failure to do so will only lead to bitterness, anger and job changes every 2-4 years.

I am beginning a new series of blogs describing the many hats I wear as a youth pastor.  I am doing this for a few reasons…some cathartic others to encourage ministers that have to do so much with a finite amount of time.  As we unpack this hopefully it will help us honor God with our deeds, time and heart.  I think it will be fun.

Some of the hats I wear are….

son, dad, husband, friend, employee, employer, pastor, teacher, mentor, big brother, counselor, co-worker, citizen, civic leader, encourager, student, leader and follower of Christ.

Brad Cooper, the student pastor at Newspring Church in Anderson  blogged not too long ago about sending out evals to your volunteer team giving them freedom to critique you and your ministry.  WOW, I took that challenge and it was sobering.  It is amazing no matter how good you think you are doing, how many holes there are to fill that you can’t see.  So, as a result of the ones I got back…here are some adjustments I am making.

1) I am reclaiming my schedule to make better use of my time, use my assistant better and stay on task. This will allow me to be more focused on Wednesday nights, free me back up to hit campuses on Wednesdays and keep me from burnout.

2) Improve and increase my training of volunteers bimonthly meetings/bimonthly audio training/invite to preservice meetings.

3) Develop a discipline policy with a 3 strike rule…we have some students who consistently disrupt and disobey

Hopefully this will allow me to become a better pastor, friend and leader…we will see.

There is an encounter in the bible where Jesus visits the home of Mary and Martha.  Mary sat at the feet of Jesus listening to the teachings while Martha was running around tending to the urgent needs of dinner and turning the TV on to the football game (ok, I made that part up).  After Martha pitches a nutty, Jesus rebukes her and encourages her to focus on the important things, in short…people.

I just had a heartbreaking meeting of a dear friend whose heart was broken because no one has noticed their lives were falling apart.  As driven pastors often we focus on the urgent.  The next sermon, meeting or event coming on the ever so full calendar.  However, what Jesus teaches is that what matters is people.  A balance to be made for sure but in the end it IS about people.  I stink at that…meetings, programs and sermons are easier to handle than people.

Tough.  That is the gig!  Think about what people you need to invest in this week and then break out your Blackberry and make time for them.