Lay Ministry Results

I always either have nothing in my thought box or EVERYTHING.  Right now it's the latter, but I'll try to stick to one topic, which is the Lay Ministry Weekend.

It's all about discovering your gifts and figuring out how you can minister in the church and outside the church.  But ironically, what I've decided after tonight's sessions is that I will be giving up a ministry.  I over-committed when I returned to Woodland, and this year I have steadily lost fire and drive and passion.  So I'm going to tell Mark that if someone else wants to teach the college Bible study on Sunday nights, I'm out.  I won't just quit and abandon them while they are a fledgling group, but if someone else feels led to teach (and I think someone does), then I'm out.

And that sucks.  I love eating with the people in GASS--all my friends are either in high school, college, or teach GASS.  I love studying the minor prophets with a group of people who mostly contribute and start meaningful conversations about theology and life and God.

But what giving up a ministry really means is this:  I want to commit more fully to being the junior high girl's Sunday School teacher.  I want to do more outside of class with them, and I want to be more available to talk to them and minister to them.  I would rather give 100% of my energy to them rather than divide it in half to two groups. 

I was also reminded that counseling is something I need to keep in my brain.  I feel like I'm good at learning, and I'm learning to be good at teaching, and I've always been very non-judgmental.  Combining that with my interest in orphanages (and especially working with victims of sexual slavery), um, there's kind of a huge need for counseling.  So while I'm not jumping to go back to school right now, this was a little nudge to help me remember that ability.