Divine Intervention

It’s been a while since I wrote on the blog.  The last several posts here were a journey through the Psalms that I was using as a means to maintain a devotional life in the midst of some significant struggles with my relationship to the local church.  The posts came to an end because I found a new local church and became heavily involved in the ministry there.

First, some quick background to this story.  After 8 years at North Webster, we felt that the time had come to leave.  We weren’t sure where we were going to land, but we felt like it would be a good idea to take a break from ministry.  That was last spring.  We spent most of the summer bouncing around to different churches or sometimes skipping church altogether.  It took most of the summer, but we finally felt like we had sort of found a place to call home while we figured out the rest of our lives.

And then God decided to intervene.

Let me just say that life gets really fun when God decides to redirect your path.  Last August, I got an email from my sister regarding a local UMC church that was looking for someone to lead and revitalize their music on Sunday mornings.  I’ve had a strong desire to lead a worship team for a few years, but always felt like my ego would be a problem and so it was best if I stayed in the back.  It’s harder for my ego to grow too large when I’m not the front man.  However, we weren’t really keen on being involved in church ministry, let alone leading a team, but it couldn’t hurt to talk with the pastor right?   

Renee and I met with the pastor and liked what we heard.  The church was a small church that wanted to grow.  The church was working on a process to grow and music was a key area for them.  The person leading worship wanted to move into a different area of ministry for a time and they needed someone else to lead.  After meeting with the pastor, we decided to attend service that Sunday.  We weren’t real convinced yet, but it couldn’t hurt right?

The first thing Renee said to me after we left that first Sunday: “I feel like I’m home.”  For me, I didn’t need to hear anything else.  I knew this was where God was calling us.  That is how we came to land at Leesburg UMC.

Once we made LUMC our home, I quickly joined the Disciple Bible Study.  They were only a few weeks in and so I could easily catch up.  Disciple is an intense study that covers roughly 85% of the bible through weekly lessons and daily readings.  This is not a casual bible study.  It is designed to help lead people into a deeper relationship with Christ, to become Disciples of Christ.  The study runs 34 weeks.  The first half covers the Old Testament and then the second half covers the New Testament.  If you haven't done this particular study, I highly recommend it.

Needless to say, between bible study and working into my new role leading worship, I didn’t have much time for anything else.  Disciple ended the other week and so I find myself with a little free time to return to the blog.  During the summer, church moves out to the lake and so I have a break from planning Sunday morning.  I still have practice each week so that the worship team can grow each week.

There are a whole host of things I could write about here ranging from personal topics to worship to the relationship between religion, politics, and popular culture.  I’ll probably explore all of them at various points.  I won’t promise a regular posting pattern, but I hope to put something up weekly, maybe even twice a week.  We’ll see…