Welcome

Just what the world needed…..another blog! To give you some feel for why I am starting this blog, let me give you some information about me.
I am an associate/youth pastor that is trying hard to impact the lives of those who I come in contact with, whether at church or in the community. I am trying to live a missional life for Jesus Christ. What is missional? The best definition I have seen is taken from “The Contexting Blog” and it goes like this:

“Missional is a word that describes an incarnational approach to Christian life and ministry. Modern Christianity is very attractional- it focuses on inviting people to church, inviting them to faith. A lot of effort is put into making Christianity attractive. Megachurches with lots of programs are designed to attract people to maturity in Christ.

Attractional is the opposite of missional.

There's an alternative to attractional Christianity. It's a little more difficult than the attractional kind, but it will change your life. Being missional means engaging people where they are in redeeming personal relationships. Instead of inviting people to hang out with us Christians in the "safe" places we construct. Missional believers hang out with people on their turf, even if it means that we might be exposed to ungodliness. It means living among the people in our communities and looking for relevant ways to live out our faith.
In short, being missional is applying biblical missiology to our everyday existence.”

What’s different about this “Christian blog"? Well, I’m a pastor…..and sometimes I get it right, and sometimes fall flat on my face, and I’m willing to share it with you so hopefully we can grow together and not make some of the same mistakes. I’m trying to live out missionally in this culture while at the same time, trying to reconcile my life with my faith, my witness with my passions, my walk with my work. One would think that this would be natural for a “preacher”, but it’s not. Those of us who come from traditional, attractional based churches bring those ideas with us and we struggle, some succeed, many fail. I don’t have all the answers, as a matter of fact I have more questions than anything else, but I want to enter into conversation with others on this journey and seek to find answers from the Word, His Spirit and from each other’s lives.

So please, comments are not only welcome, they are what makes a conversation. So please feel free to leave comments whether you agree, disagree or are chewing on what was said. Just be nice, keep it clean.