Defined

So I spent a majority of my day today preparing to apply for internships.  Specifically with Compassion International .  I felt during the day like I had accomplished nothing.  This lead to a succession of thoughts for the rest of the evening.  (Just so you know once I finally submitted three applications, I felt that I had accomplished something).

What we do defines us.  We have heard it a thousand times (or at least I have).  I know that I am a person who enjoys ministry, the outdoors and being with people.  So when I am doing things that are the opposite of that, I feel like I am accomplishing nothing.  I feel this way because it's not who I am.  If we allow busy work (school, jobs, ect) to be all that we focus on and do, then that is what we become; Students, workers ect.

So what does this mean.  Well first as Christians, this should mean that we are Christ like; in everything. However, a majority of the time we settle, at least that's what I do.  We do what is convenient for us, (based on the worlds standards of course).  If we were followers of Christ first in our lives (which is what should be our first definer)  then the rest of our life will follow suit, in accordance to what God wants.

I think this is why I enjoy ministry so much (for as much as it frustrates me).  I believe that if I wasn't so excited about ministry, I would not be excited about Christ, and vise versa.  This would in turn cause me to be the work and school focused person, that is no longer defined as anything.

Friends?

So occasionally I will remark to someone "I have no friends" to which they will reply, "but I'm your friend."

The thing though is, I have many acquaintances, I have many of friends, however close, deep friendships I lack.  This is what I mean when I say "I have no friends"  This is one of those times when a word has more than one meaning.

There are two things that I believe have brought me to the point that I'm at.  Both of which I will present and then discuss some.

Being busy.  I'm constantly on go.  Most people would say that being busy would cause you to lose friends.  However when you only have a few close friends in the first place I don't believe you can lose friends or not be able to gain friends because of being too busy.  You just have to be willing to work with your friends in your schedule.  I say this with confidence because just recently I have begun having new people in my life and I believe that we are becoming friends and everything is working out even though I am extremely busy.  Which means any people I have been friends with before, have moved on either for their own reasons or because they no longer wish to try in our friendship.

The second thing would be because I'm in ministry.  This is another thing that I believe is a myth.  However everyone I know says that when you are in ministry you have few friends.  They say that people don't want to be your friend because they view you as better than them, or more nicely put, not on the same level as you.  They feel that you are no longer to relate. I believe these are things that aren't true because we are all overall considered to be ministers.

Which brings me to question whether it might just be me that's the problem

Think Strategy not Programs, Small Group Philosphy

So tonight for Freshman Leadership we are moving into working from two books and not just "7 Practices of Effective Ministry" by Andy Stanley. From 7 Practices we will be talking about strategy not programs. What organizations have a tendency to do is to create programs to fill a need instead of a strategy to move past that need. Once a strategy is in place, not only will a need be filled but there will be room for growth instead of the same thing taught repeatedly. This helps an organization grow and realize their full potential. From our second book "Leading Life Changing Small Groups" by Bill Donahue we will be talking about Small Group Philosophy, within this topic we will talk about vision as well as structure. Essentially with the students we will line out what they want the purpose of our freshlife groups to be and then we will talk about how to set up a structure to have a thriving small group that will help produce students who are growing spiritually as well as being prepared to be leaders themselves, or as the book calls them "apprentice leaders."