Focusing

Hello bloggers!

We seem to go through this about once a quarter or so, but I was feeling the hurt from not having posted to the J-Blog in a while. As is typically the case when this goes down, there is a revamping of the theme, and I thank the designers of the free theme you see before you (whoever they are!)

I want to try to do my best to post once a day, whether I think I have something or not. My writing improves greatly when I'm on the JBlog, and you all seem ok with putting up with my dribble, so I really want to be disciplined in getting things posted up here on the olde' blog.

I've also really wanted to focus things. At the top, you'll see four specific areas (or TAGS as those in the biz call them) that I'm going to be focusing on at the JBlog. This isn't to say that there won't be the occasional riff into Pittsburgh Penguins (how awesome are they!) or hilarious YouTube Videos (those will be filed under youth ministry, because who doesn't love using them as clips), but for the most part I want to focus us in on four different areas:

Youth Ministry

How could we get away from our roots? Something special has happened in the last year or so, which I have been totally unprepared for, but somehow I have become a Veteran Youth Worker. A good friend of mine tells me that an expert is someone who makes the same mistake 100 times or more, and manages to stop making it. As much as I hesitate to say so, by that definition I believe I am an expert youth worker.

And so we're going to have a renewed sense of youth ministry around here. If you are a youth pastor, I'd love to hear your stories in the comments as well. But I'd love to offer some insights, challenges, dreams, and visions for where youth ministry is, and where youth ministry could be going. So get in on the conversation, and if you know someone who is a youth worker who could benefit from seeing things here, feel free to point them in the direction of the J-Blog.

Worship

I have the privilege and honor of also working with our Bridge worship service as a worship leader. My view on worship is definitely expanding. I've said before that I don't think that worship is limited to holding a guitar and busting out a song, but I'm seeing more and more of that knowledge lead to lifestyle change. In particular, I'm starting to see a great importance to incorporating home worship into corporate worship. This isn't to say that you could do the whole "God thing" on your own, but it is to say that there's a personal aspect to our faith in addition to our corporate aspect, and we'll explore both here. (For those of you who are fans of things like my Spire Articles, don't worry, this is where they fit in)

Seminary

This fall, I returned to Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in East Liberty. Granted, I am only on campus one night a week for one class a week, but hey, I'm still there. And I also think that I'm not alone in being a 20 something who works full time and has to try to juggle a seminary degree on top of that. Not only that, but when was the last time I took a test? When was the last time I wrote a paper? We'll explore in detail what it means to be a student, but most specifically a student of Theology. How could anyone not find that exciting?

Book Reviews

How could we forget these? I've actually been reading a great deal, because of the whole school situation, so we'll get to see a bit more here.

So anyway, that's where my head is headed anyway. I look forward to writing a bit more, and hopefully interacting with you guys through the comments!

Godspeed,

Jason