Year #2 for me is wrapping up at Crown this weekend. Just wanted to jot down some quick personal reflection points to remember:
1. I admit this post is a bit self-indulged (ok… a lot). Ergo, you don't have to read it. 🙂 This is more for me… A measurement of my heart and head at this current moment.
2. I'm starting to not think to highy of myself (maybe). Having said that, I realize I need to let some air out of my head again. As soon as "humility" becomes a focus it has already been lost. The truth, though, is that entering the education realm of life has been humbling to me. Each day I've been encountering students who are smarter and more gifted than me, peers in the field that I can't believe would give me a moment's notice, coworkers who put up with my naivete, and a family that has been patient with me as I've labored to learn the task of equipping students for ministry in an academic setting (translation: grading). All in all, this has been a remarkably ego-pummeling two years.
3. I don't know very much (except that).
4. I love equipping students (really). I've known this since I was 16 years old (translation, 25 years ago!)… but until the last few years I think I've been striving to meet many other expectations and aspirations (whether self-produced or other-projected). Hopefully my life is becoming more about the pursuit of proactively giving young people opportunity to practice faith and ministry by equipping scores of young people to proactively give young people opportunity to practice faith and ministry by equipping… (translation: ever expansive pattern!).
5. I'm in this for good (unless I'm not). It wasn't until my final months in Parksville and then the 3.5 years in Calgary and now in Minneapolis that things have started to truly resonate in ministry. I am thankful, 25 years into this ministry gig, that I can identify an emerging correlation between passion + gifting + experience + dreaming. In a way, the amount of time (translation: years+years+) it has taken for me to affirm this is personally encouraging simply because it is now time-tested and no longer an ideal. I've seen it, breathed it, worked it, watered it, and watched it grow to produce fruit. And that reality is a satisfying and catalytic encouragement. Part of me can't wait to see the harvest of another 25 years. Since my first "job" (unpaid, btw) helping lead a YFC summer events during high school I have wanted my vocation to focus on the faith & leadership development of the next generations. I've lived and practiced long enough now to see this is true (translation: thank you, Jesus, for the opportunity).
6. There is long-lasting momentum to the idea of Generational Transference (not mine, but God's). This has been perhaps the most affirming aspect of teaching the last two years. In order to be a decent instructor, I've had to further nail down the foundations of equipping a strong faith in God among successive generations… and this process has been incredibly rewarding. Students resonate with the concept… hungry for continuity between the vibrancy of faith they experienced in their youth groups and the unsettling segregational trends of our generational culture… and they have been champions in the development and practice of these theories. Perhaps what I've learned most is that Generational Transference is simply a good way of articulating what God's pattern and praxis of ministry must always be… one generation focused upon proclaiming faith & ministry to the next for all of history.
Cheri, your comment means so much to me. Thank you for these thoughtful words! And praise God for Nev!! 🙂 So glad he was able to visit Texas!! I would have loved to have seen that!
These reflections touch my heart deeply.
One reason is that I help people do this kind of reflection and encourage them as God takes them to the places they most want to be. Places where they do with Him and for Him and it makes their heart sing. I never ever ever get tired of this process in God’s people. I love being with them no matter where they are at in the process… pained, confused, inspired or leaping in faith.
The second reason is that I just started doing the job that I’ve been dreaming of and God has been shaping me for, humbling me through the process and loving on me to get me here. It’s true that you never know until you are in the midst of the dream if it will be as good as you hoped or not and when it is… well… its just awesome and awe inspiring.
The third reason is Nev was just here from Northern Ireland. We had these conversations you are talking about it. He does eat it up. I love that God places us in partnerships that allow the transference to happen.
Blessings on the summer, prayers for the reflections to sink deeply and for year three to be more than you can even imagine today! Grateful for you!