In the last 6 weeks I have gotten to be apart of the search committee for the hiring of the next pastor. It is has been a quite pleasant journey. Most of this has been pioneered by our own Dennis Martin who has headed up the search team. He has given us lots of homework and much info on hiring the best candidate for Marion. KUDOS to you Dennis on your hard work and your spearheading of the committee you efforts are kindomly (if that is a word).

One thing that has amazed me is how well thought out it the hiring process has been this time. There has been purpose along the whole way and that is great for a church!!!

Also we have done our best to refine the process – I think I and the rest of the leadership will say that we could have done a better job in the past with hiring and the whole process that involves it. So we are learning from our mistakes but at the same time we are making sure we are not doing a giant swing of the pendulum. Far too often that is the case especially with church personnel. A church tends to hire the exact opposite of the person who last held the position and the usually leads to problems as well.

One thing that has been humbling for me sitting through the 3 interviews of our candidates is that I have been humbled. When you are let in on 3 other men’s lives and humbled by their Godly character this is a good thing and motivates me to strive to be something better.

No matter whom we pick of the 3 candidates I will say that there is not a bad pick of the 3 and I am not saying that out of lip service to anyone that is the truth and everyone on the search committee will tell you that.

There are not many times in youth ministry where I can remember being intimidated. However there is a time when I am intimidated almost every time and that is when I go to what I call an away game, a student’s school. When I first got into youth ministry the Director of Rochester Area Youth for Christ Grary Kadansky challenged the local youth pastors to go to schools to visit with students and get to know them lost for the sake of Christ. This sounded like a good idea to me. So I jumped through the necessary whoops of paper work, background checks, and meeting with principals, phone calls, parent letters and everything else. Finally it was time do it. My first school visit was a cold wintery day and I was going to meet a student in the youth group who attended Mayo high school in Rochester. As I was mentally preparing for this I had no idea what it was going to be like.

Overall High school was a very positive place for me, Isaac, when I was a student. However, I know it is also a place with some of the toughest people on earth and I had been out of the game for some time. It is tough to be a highschooler. I wasn’t a highschooler anymore and now I was going to attend one for a lunch hour and I feared I was going to look as out of place as I felt. I was going into it with some tricks up my sleeve and they were candy and cards. I grew up playing games with friends and also there is a commonality with people when you receive food from them especially some good ol chocolate.

Well for those of you who know how Rochester school district works then you probably know that students get about 45 minutes too long for lunch, so with plenty of time to kill I got to know the guys who were sitting around me and then eventually I broke out the cards. Up to this point I could feel a bit of uneasiness in the air as to why I was even here. I explained to all of them who I was and that I just really like teenagers (in a non creepy way of course). And I was just there to hang out with them. Well we broke out the game of spoons and luckily this good ol game from the depression was a hit. I got to see experience a little bit of life with them and I enjoyed it very much.

I still try to visit a school at very minimum one a month and more if I can. I feel like you have to win the away games before you can do anything to bring them to the home field. I have many other stories about going to schools and I will share them on the blog as time goes on but I thought you would all enjoy my first time going to a school as a youth pastor.

Your zinc riced,

ike

We discussed last time about the nature of hurting students. Today we are going to visit the topic of CUTTING. Cutting is defined as an act of attempting to alter mood state by inflicting physical harm serious enough to cause tissue damage. This could include many things but as the reader I hope you get the idea. Many times cutting is confused as being a half hearted attempt at suicide, or an immature attempt at getting attention. When in reality it is a coping mechanism to deal with the hurt that is felt inside. When a person feels like they cannot control the emotional hurt they have inside some see cutting as a viable option because it is in their control and it doesn’t affect anyone else but them. Cutting is an effort to apply therapy to emotional hurt and is an effort to stay away from suicide or more drastic measures. Just for clarification – as mentioned that it is therapeutic does not mean this is a healthy option for therapy and should not be considered a good thing in any way. However now you see the cycle and one can see how this is an attempt at coping with the underlying theme of low self-esteem. This is where one can also see its addictive nature. The first time a student cuts he/she is relieved and the next time they cut they are relieved but not like they were the first time so they are quicker to return to their low self-esteem and emotional hurt and most often fall deeper into a downward spiral. So what do we do for a cutter? Get them some professional help. Cutting is something not to be taken lightly and it is no job for a lay man. There are many good Christian counselors out there and if you know someone who is cutting or you yourself are struggling with it contact me via this website and I can help. Until next week

Your zinc riced,

ike