I’ll be laying low for a few days. My 2 year old, Molly, is having surgery tomorrow morning (9am) to remove a tumor in her neck. We’re freaking out a little..so all the prayers we can get are greatly appreciated. I’ll keep you all posted.
Love you!
Amanda

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post from Hosanna

I’d love to know if there are women out there whose youth pastor husbands serve in a church where the senior pastor is either person’s parent. We deal with a whole slew of criticism ranging from my husband being shown favoritism to people stirring up conversations about whether or not my husband is called and/or qualified for this job or if he just has it because of his father.?

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It’s discouraging because lately, I feel like I don’t know who our friends are. We’ve been burned in the past few weeks finding out that people we thought we were close to are those who turn around and “murmer discontentedly” to others.?

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We truly feel like this is where we’re supposed to be and I think my husband is a fantastic youth pastor (and not just because I’m his wife!) but some days, it’s hard to remember that because of someone saying that we’re just here “because of his dad”.?

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Anyone been here before? I’d love to hear from you.

A lot of you have been experiencing transition and change with this crazy economy, not only in your households, but ministry/church jobs. It is such a confusing place to be. I know I find myself wrestling with the questions…”Isn’t this God’s calling for our family?” “How will He provide?”.

Courtney Laib had such a great post about transitions and their journey of faith in this changing world…

My husband and I have been going through a church transition for the last few months, that we never expected. Our church in Illinois (like many all over the country) is going through some tough financial times, which is resulting in a staff down-size. In order for our church to continue to be obedient to God through finances, and not go broke,? we have to down-size. My husband has been the Pastor of Student Ministries here for almost 7 years and he really loves it. To make a long story short, after much praying we decided that God was clearly telling us both that it was time for us to move on to something new. So rather than forcing the lead pastors to have to ‘fire’ people, my husband relinquished his position. After a few months of searching , my husband was hired last week by a church in Chino, CA (Inland Hills Church) to be their High School Pastor. We are super excited for this new adventure even though it will be hard to leave many friends and family members behind in Illinois. We are leaving our current church with no regrets, no hard feelings, and no broken relationships. We have total support from all of the staff and other people my husband has worked along side for the last 7 years. So… my question is this: Have any of you ever been through a transition like this? What was it like for you? Any certain things we should expect or not expect? I’d really like to hear some of your stories!

Post by Ashley Christian
My birthday was this week and all I really wanted was to have my husband home and if we had done the calendar thing (Cathy talked about how she’s not a calendar person but her and Doug really have to keep one to thrive.? They start with the family calendar then finalize ministry events around it and purposefully leave open spaces and protect those) instead of just taking things as they come I could of had my wish!? Planning could also help us live with more purpose, it’s a lot easier to say no to something “good” if you have that family/ministry rhythm in writing.? It’s also convinced me that I need to schedule? in some vacation time with just our immediate family,? even if we just stay home.
As far as the week goes, Cathy also said it’s important to decide how many ministry nights a week your family can thrive on, I think she said it’s 4 a week for them, for us it’s 3, how about everyone else?

Date’s with your spouse are so important too.? For us what’s worked is Friday night dates at home after the kids are in bed and a monthly date night co-op with 2 other families where we take turns and one couple watches all the kids while the other 2 go out for two hours.

I would love to explore Amanda’s post about vacations and talk about schedules more.

I would love to take this blog to another level by including YOU more. I would love for you guys to write what you feel and be able to connect through the published posts. In my very limited ability with this sort of technology so far I think I still will have to be the middle-man. But you can either write in a comment box that you want to write something and I can get back to you (because all comments go directly to my home email). And then you and I can go from there. But I know you all have such great insight and relatable stories, struggles and fun stuff to share. So please….let’s get some more voices on this blog.

Let me know what you are thinking!

Amanda

Ding Dongs!! Of course, my computer didn’t work one tiny bit at the entire conference! My dreams and visions of all of us staying connected through the week via technology…not so much. Sorry everyone. We did have a great time. It was super fun to meet all of you and put some faces with names from the blog comments. Lots of good discussions and many great connections with other women in our shoes.

Some of you that went, maybe you could post some break through or “ahh-ha” moments you had.

I really was struck by 2 things Cathy said that will be my new filter for ministry and balancing my family: #1: Saying No to ministry is NOT saying No to God. #2: I will not sacrifice my family for the ministry. I just can’t stop thinking about what that will mean to my kids and husband. Something I will continue to chew on long after the conference.

You guys…facebook! I love it. I’m ridiculous.

Anyway, I am SO excited for the upcoming conference! So glad so many of you are going to be there. I am going to be leading an affinity group in the evenings (or whenever they meet) called, “Married to a Youth Pastor”- so original. Please come find me! Let’s hang out. We are going to talk about the things YOU want to talk about. The stuff you asked for on the blog. Any more ideas? I’m open…..

Also, a very good friend Carol Timmons, mentor, gifted, loving, caring, amazing counselor from God will be with us for some of the tough stuff we might be going through. (Group thought of everything).

I think it will be fun to post stuff as we meet for those that can’t come. I even think there a few podcasts this year, so you could still watch a few things.? I’ll look into it if anyone is interested.

Just some random thoughts as I am trying to get my head together for this weekend.

See you soon!

I just glanced at my post the other day of when my son caught the grasshopper. Just a point of clarification- For whatever reason he is named after Scotch tape, not the hard liquor drink.?

Thanks.

I’ve been in a fog lately, I don’t know if its still lack of sleep, or all the little things that have been adding up on my plate. You know I signed up, and was going, to my cute pi-yo class, but haven’t been able to go because of all the stuff (good and bad) that has crept up on me during those mornings. I’m just go-go-go lately.

BUT next week everything comes to a head (side note: is that phrase “comes to a head” referring to a zit?).? Either way…here comes THE CONFERENCE!

SOo I am leaving my own personal fog here in sunny 65* California to go to a real fog in -45* Columbus, OH.

I can’t wait to meet some of you and refuel. It’s gonna be GREAT!

Who gets to go? Any of you?

My son caught a big huge grasshopper in our backyard today. It was so cute and he was so proud, he named him Scotch and can’t wait to show dad when he gets home. He and the bug jumped around the yard until it was nap time. Dylan so badly wanted to take Scotch inside with him for a nap, but no way! We gently laid Scotch on the picnic table outside and I told Dylan that he would probably be somewhere in the backyard when he woke up, and it would be like a Scotch hide and seek game. He’s all excited! When I came downstairs from putting the kids down, I took a peek out the window to see if Scotch was still on the table…he was. I noticed that as the wind was blowing he was also blowing to and fro a bit…dead. Dumb ol’ dead bug. So as I’m rehearsing the life and death talk to my son, in my head, a bird swoops down and gobbles up Scotch in one quick peck! Soooo, do I skip the talk and just let my kid play hide and seek? Oh, the circle of life!