One of my heroes, a 19th century British pastor named Charles Haddon Spurgeon, once said the following:

If you can do anything else do it. If you can stay out of the ministry, stay out of the ministry.

I’m living the flip side of that quote. I first felt the call to the ministry as an intern in the summer of 2003, and have served as a bi-vocational pastor since fall 2006. However, my passion to preach Jesus has steadily continued to grow. I now have an insatiable desire to fill my time with ministry. I can no longer do anything else.

That is why I am leaving my job at Samaritan Medical Center. This morning I submitted my resignation and notice of intent to terminate my employment next Friday. I have worked in the Medical Education Department for over three years, coordinating clinical rotations and educational lectures, and providing technical support to the graduate and postgraduate physician education programs. Overall it was a decent job with good pay, and I’m thankful to have had it; it allowed me to start and provide for my young family. I am especially thankful for the personal relationships I developed with my two bosses, and I pray that they continue.

However, God has made it clear that this is the time for me to exit. Why?

On Sunday, September 7th, I will transition into full time pastoral ministry at North Country Fellowship Church.

Through many months of prayer and private conversation, God has given both Pastor Mike and myself a unified vision for the church. We believe that in order to see this vision realized, Pastor Mike needs to shift his focus to discipleship ministries and administrative work. I need to assume additional responsibilities, including a large portion of the preaching, teaching, and counseling in the church. In order to provide me with a full time salary, Pastor Mike will be going bi-vocational, taking a position in the printing company he co-owns.

This is a major shift, but one that God burdened both of us with separately. After a series of independent confirmations, we believe this is the best way to be faithful to the mission of the church and to use our gifts and talents for God’s glory.

With that said, I’m excited. I’m truly looking forward to being shaped, molded, and used by God in this new role. Please be praying for the church, our families, and ourselves as we seek to follow His will.

Well, I’ve got a new brain: an iPod touch. How does this little device do with blogging? I’m using the WordPress application found on the Apple Application Store.  Not bad so far.

I’ve also added Twitterific and the Facebook and MySpace applications to the iPod, as well as some other random things.  With the exception of my church’s building and my car, I have Wi-Fi access pretty much wherever I go, so this will be nice.  I’m using the iPod as a PDA more than as an MP3 player, but it’s been awesome, and synchs with just about everything else on my MacBook, which includes our web-based church calendar and contact management system.  Sweetness!

Hi folks.  Just a quick note to let you know that I’m still alive and kicking.  

This summer has been busy.  Since my last post, my family moved into a new house (Yeah, a house, not an apartment.  Woohoo!), my son had a minor surgery, and we’ve said goodbye to a number of friends who have moved away due to deployments and other things.

For the past three weeks I’ve been serving as a solo pastor at church, while Pastor Mike and family has been in Germany.  I’ll be finishing a month-long sermon series on the person and work of Jesus next weekend.

I’ll probably fall off the face of the planet again for the next few weeks, but I anticipate making some personal changes in the next few weeks that will allow my blogging actively to increase again shortly.  We’ll see.

Blessings!