By the time Marilyn and I made the long drive from Tampa to Atlanta in January 2006 for my interview with Peachtree City UMC, an offer from Trinity UMC- Waycross was already on the table. Our plan was to do the interview, then drive back through Waycross and attend worship so Marilyn could get a feel for the place. I was excited about meeting the folks at PCUMC, because it was a large church and because I had already developed a good relationship with a couple of staff members through e-mails and instant messages. In the interview itself it became quite obvious that the parents on the search committee were obsessed with my age rather than my experience. I left feeling very good about the interview and very bad about my chances of being offered the position. I was right.
We pulled into Trinity UMC just a short time before the start of worship, and we were greeted warmly. One couple told us that they had moved to Waycross from Miami and that while it was quite a change, they loved it. We would discover later that there was more to their story than we were hearing at the time. We enjoyed worshiping with the TUMC family, but we also understood how different this church was from what were accustomed to at this point in our lives. The service was beyond traditional. It was quite liturgical; the order of worship was printed in the bulletin and followed to the letter each week, complete with creed and doxology. The music was very much old school hymns with organ. There was no contemporary service. And the preaching was quite dry. But the people were wonderful, and the youth surrounded us after the service and made us feel quite loved. In fact, one of the 6th grade girls told us that we had to accept the position, because the other guy they had considered was "just awful!" Plus she wanted to meet Will... :)
After much prayer and debate, I took the position as Director of Student Ministries at Trinity UMC- Waycross, with plans to start on February 15th. This was not going to be easy. I would move up and live in a tiny house (The Skittles House- more on that later) that the church owned until Marilyn and Will moved up in July, after school was out and the lease on our apartment was up. I would be myself until then. I would have to learn the ins and outs of a new church, a new city and lots of new families. I was breaking one of my own personal rules right from the beginning. I have always asked myself this question: If I didn't work for this church, would I attend it? I knew going in that in this case the answer was probably no. But still...there was something about the place that had captured part of my heart, and I was really looking forward to doing youth ministry in a town with one high school and two middle schools. I would be great to be in a place where the entire community gathered every Friday night for the high school football game at a stadium located not on campus, but in the center of town (Go Gators!). I was very excited about working with Associate Pastor David White, who was clearly the heart of the church's ministry. I felt like God was ready to do big things at TUMC, and that He had called me to come join Him there. Of course, as is always true with God's plans, He knew what the next year had is store for me- but I was clueless. It was going to be a wild ride that would start with a gigantic hurdle and end with a thud. But in between there were some amazing stories of ministry. All of that is still to come...
Because of Jesus,
In mid December 0f 2005 I found myself driving back up to Waycross, GA for a second interview, this time with some of the parents and youth. At that point I had also committed to interview with a huge United Methodist church in the Atlanta suburbs, but I had a serious interest in Trinity UMC. I was excited to meet some of the students and hear what their hopes and dreams for the ministry were. We sat down to a pizza dinner together and I sat beside a high school girl who told me she had quit coming a year or so earlier. When I asked her why, she talked about all of the games and activities had been tilted towards things guys liked, and that most of the older girls did not attend. Right away I had picked up some valuable information. Another girl (her name was Alyssa) sat across from me with her boyfriend and they chatted my ears off about what they wished the future of the youth ministry might be like. Several of the middle school kids also came and sat with me, talking about how much the youth group meant to them and how they hoped it could be exciting again. When the interview finally began, I was psyched!
The entire evening took place in an house (The Vine) located on the church property, and the interview took place in the living room, which was also used for youth meetings. The inside of the house was a dump, and didn't look like any effort had been made to make it feel like a "home" for students. We sat in a giant circle on dilapidated couches and chairs, and after some introductions the questions began. They didn't know it, but at this point in my career they were actually the ones being interviewed. They wanted to know all about trips I had led, how I would change the Sunday evening meetings, and what new things I might bring to Waycross. As I answered their questions, I asked my own right back at them. I wanted to know what had been working and what some of the issues had been over previous years. The student who was most vocal and encouraging during the evening was Alyssa, and what made that funny is that she didn't even attend all that often- her boyfriend was actually the youth group member! There was also a couple present that clearly saw the student ministry as "their baby," and they seemed uncomfortable with my experience and leadership style. I made it clear that if they brought me in, there would be changes. This excited almost everyone...all but two. They seemed to focus on my age and the fact that Trinity UMC was smaller than many of my previous stops. There attitudes were the biggest negatives of the night.
I drove home to Tampa after the meeting- 4 hours alone with my thoughts. I still wasn't sure what to make of the place, but I did love the kids I had met. There was still a bit of uncertainty in my mind about how and why the previous youth pastor had left. There were some strengths, including David White, their outstanding Associate Pastor. I was less sure about Pastor Don. But I just wasn't clear on a calling at all. I knew that just moving to Waycross would be a huge step. Will had only lived in Kissimmee/Orlando, Chicago and Tampa. This would be quite a change. By the time I got home, I knew that I needed Marilyn to see the church and meet the people, so we decided to make an unscheduled visit to Sunday worship on our way back from the interview in Atlanta. The end of this saga is coming Monday. Have a blessed weekend.
Because of Jesus,
If you are a regular reader you may recall that in December of 2005 I was unemployed, living in Tampa and looking for a new position in student ministry. I sent resumes all over the place, but I had a few things working against me. First of all, I couldn't exactly count on a glowing recommendation from the Rev. Not-Appearing-in-this-Blog, since he had removed me from my previous ministry a few months earlier. Secondly, I was 46 years old, and many churches seemed to feel I was closer to retirement than I was to another youth ministry position. And finally, after 27 years of ministry and more than a little success, many churches just assumed they couldn't afford me. Offers to come interview were not flying in. The churches that did contact me were a mess. I didn't need another situation that needed a hero. So I waited.
Sometime in December Trinity UMC of Waycross, Georgia saw my resume online and made contact with me. After a few e-mails and a phone conversation with their Associate Pastor, I was invited to come interview. I have to admit I had no idea where Waycross was- I am guessing most of you don't either. It is located about an hour northwest of Jacksonville, Florida. If you are travelling up I-95, it's about an hour to your west. If you are on I-75, it's about an hour to the east. In other words, if you aren't looking for Waycross there is no real reason you should know where it is! I was expecting a small town, but I was somewhat surprised. Arriving from the south, it felt like I had driven 50 miles without seeing a building (not true, but it felt that way) when suddenly I arrived at the Waycross city limits. Immediately there were restaurants, car dealerships and motels. The church was downtown, which seemed to be an mix of very old and very new buildings. I had lunch with Pastor Don (the senior pastor) at Wendy's, and then met with the search committee that evening. Along the way I discovered something very interesting. The previous youth pastor at TUMC had been Chad Deetz. Chad had been my intern at FUMC-Kissimmee in 1999, and I had served as a reference for him when he got he job in Waycross, spending a great deal of time on the phone with someone. It was an odd connection. In any case, the interview went well and I returned to Tampa feeling good about my chances. I had a couple of other interviews lined up, and it looked like God might have something in mind for me yet. That feeling was reinforced when TUMC called me back to interview with parents and students. That unusual story continues on Friday...
Because of Jesus,
The Spring and Summer of 2001 found me exploring many different possibilities for life after the Union Church of Hinsdale. Marilyn and I were seeking a new ministry, and our preference was to head back to Florida. My resume had been online for quite a while by then, but I had deflected most of the offers for interviews up until that point. Over those next few months I would spend lots of time on the computer and the phone, sorting through the churches who had an interest in me. After prayerful consideration (and Marilyn telling me, once again, that we were not going to Las Vegas or Texas!) I began to set up a few interviews. When it comes to employment, trying to deal with churches can be frustrating. Witness the following accounts...
One of the first places that flew me in for a weekend was a United Methodist Church on Florida's Space Coast. It was a fairly large church with a very active student ministry in need of a leader. I had a great interview with their search committee, and then a dinner with the Senior Pastor. I was very excited about the possibilities. I then spent an evening with some of the student leaders of the group. We had a great dinner together, and afterwards a number of those youth came to me and told me that of all of the candidates they had met so far, the felt I was the best fit. The whole weekend seemed like a huge success. I returned home to find my in-box full of encouraging e-mails from staff and students telling how much they hoped I would be coming back to Titusville to join them. And then I never heard from anyone at that church ever again. It was like the interview never happened. I called the pastor later on and was only told the position had been filled. I found out later they had decided to go with a specific model of ministry and hired someone who had been trained in that method. Ouch.
The weirdness was only beginning. Another UMC in Florida called and did an extensive phone interview. They were very positive and liked what they heard from me. We planned for me to fly down and spend a weekend. In the meantime, I heard from some old friends from FUMC-K who had moved and attended the church. They too were very excited. On the evening before I was to fly to Orlando on a Friday, they called to tell me not to come. The position had been filled by their current Assistant Youth Pastor. I have never quite figured out why they didn't know that before they bought me a plane ticket. I flew down anyway to visit my parents.
Yet another UMC, this one in southwest Florida (We wanted to come back to FL, but clearly God was trying to tell me something and I wasn't listening!) flew me in for an interview with the church staff, the search committee and some of the youth & parents- all in one evening. I knew immediately this place was different. The Associate Pastor was clearly the one in charge. The Senior Pastor didn't seem to have much going on. The student ministry was fairy active, but it had one very serious drawback. Someone had decided to run a youth-friendly nightclub out of their youth building on weekends. They had been doing it for about 6 months at the time I interviewed. They were drawing in almost no one from outside of the church, and the entire student ministry budget was tied up in the enterprise. There was also almost no money to pay a youth pastor. I was not looking for anything near what I was making in Hinsdale, but this would have taken me back to a 1993 pay level. It was another no-go, but at least this time I got to be the one saying no!
God still was opening doors for me, and I continued to walk through them. The final two churches I would interview with before accepting a new position in August of 2001 were both quite interesting in their own ways. Wednesday I will tell you about my weekend in Baton Rouge, LA, where nothing- and I do mean nothing- was as it seems. Tomorrow the Jesus Revolution continues!
Because of Jesus,
