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!

As some of you know, a few months back, I took some of the kids from the student ministry at NCF on an overnight trip to a concert featuring a number of Christian musicians. We had a great time at the concert, and the trip itself was a great time of fellowship and edification.

Like many people who come into contact with musicians, athletes, and other celebrity heroes, some of the kids at the concert (both from my church and others) wanted autographs from tobyMac, Jeremy Camp, and Matthew West. However, instead of signing glossy photos, ticket stubs, CDs, or whatever common things one might get signed, apparently it is somewhat of a custom at Christian events for the artists to sign the person’s Bible.

I had never seen that before, and honestly, it didn’t sit well with me. 

Now, to be clear, I’m not the kind of person who thinks that your personal Bible is a special book that must be kept perfectly pristine. If anything, the best Bible is a well-read one, and use results in wear and tear. The Word of God is inspired and holy, but the physical book you buy from Barnes and Noble isn’t divine. I have no problem writing in a Bible, and have notes all over the text of the Bible that I use to preach and teach from. My main Bible for the first few years of my Christian walk was covered in duct tape, and I only got rid of that when I switched to the ESV in 2004, so for me, it isn’t an issue of presentation or thinking that the book is sacred. And I’m certainly not a goofball who thinks that having tobyMac sign a Bible is a violation of the scripture in Revelation which says adding to scripture is sinful.

That said, I don’t know, maybe I’m just a legalist…but I just don’t like some random person signing the Bible. I’m not dogmatic about it, and I’m not going to scream at someone who gets his or her Bible signed by some Christilebrity. It just seems like there are better items to use for that. Am I the only who thinks this way?

2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV):

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

I am a graduate of Davis College in Johnson City, NY. I earned an Associate of Applied Science degree in Bible (while the school was called Practical Bible College) and a Bachelor of Religious Education degree in Theology and Church Ministries. Since graduating in 2005, I have continued to study independently, always seeking to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. In some ways, I have grown more during this period of non-matriculated study than I did in the years I spent in college.

However, like many pastors, I do truly value formal education. I originally planned to attend seminary about a year after I graduated from college, but that plan didn’t mesh up with what God had in store for my family and I.

God has given my wife and I two incredible blessings in the form of our kids, Elijah and Moriah. He has also chosen to use me as a pastor at North Country Fellowship Church, and I currently split my work time between the church and a secular job in the healthcare field.

I still very much want to complete an MDiv, but if I do so, I don’t think it would be possible for me to do so as a full time resident student given my family responsibilities. Also, since God has called me to service at NCF, I doubt I’ll be able to enroll in a regular residential program. As far as I can tell, that leaves the following options:

The first option is to find a commuter program. There are a handful of seminaries within a couple hundred miles of my location. MidAmerica Baptist (Northeast Branch), Nyack, Northeastern, and Rochester Colgate are all here in NY. Baptist Bible Seminary is just over the border in Clarks Summit, PA. Theoretically, I could commute to one of those schools if they had an appropriate commuter study program (such as MidAmerica and Northeastern do). However, depending on the school, I may not be a good cultural or theological fit. Also, with the hazardous travel conditions of our harsh winters and the rising cost of gasoline up here, it may not be feasible.

The second option is a distance-learning program. There are a number of online seminary programs, however many are simply unaccredited degree-mills. Liberty has an online MDiv program that looks interesting, however, Ergun Caner’s rhetoric does bother me, and I am still concerned with the degree being perceived as less quality than a more traditional degree. Regardless, it’s an accessible and affordable option.

The third option is a hybrid program. Bethel and Western both offer InMinistry programs for pastors who are just that: in ministry. Both are ATS accredited, and involve online and in-person coursework, generally completed through on-campus intensives. Western looks especially interesting, as it is missional in its approach, is affiliated with CBAmerica (offering scholarships to CB pastors like myself), and recently graduated one of my heroes, Mark Driscoll, with an MA in Exegetical Theology.

So, the question is, given my circumstances, do I put off (or perhaps never engage in) traditional seminary education, or do I get further equipped by availing myself of some of these atypical options? 

Better yet, does anyone know of a conservative missional seminary campus or extension site opening up in Syracuse in the next few years?