Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Insert lyrics from a song that no one has ever heard here

I'm really freakin bored right now. Fortunately, there's only one hour left until I can leave for four whole days...nice.
I've pretty much decided on two possible routes for my post graduation life. The first is to volunteer for Navigator staff by means of the EDGE corps. The second is to attend grad school at Ohio University. Of course, there is a good possibility that I'll do both but I'm not sure of the order. In either case, I think I'm ultimately going to end up at Ohio University. There's some definite advantages to being out in Athens. Emily's family lives about 45 minutes from the university and she'll eventually want to move away from our crappy city back to the country. My feeling is that I've had enough of the city too. I've found that I really wouldn't mind moving to the country and I'll still only be about 2.5 hours away from my family and friends. I'm also feeling somewhat called to Ohio University. The Navigator organization there is fairly new and just beginning to piece together a ministry. If God allows, I think that I may be able to help out in expanding that ministry. The only real question then is: What will be my role? EDGE corps would make ministry my job as well as my passion. I would have unlimited time to meet with students and try to give my life away to the campus. While I'm not afraid of taking this risk I do have some reservations about my education. If I'm on EDGE corps I cannot be in classes or have a job. This will push that magical day when I'll be done with school back even further. If I'm simply a grad student at OU I'll be finishing my eduacation but at the cost of my time. I'm sure I'll be busy as hell with my coursework and won't really have too much time to invest in ministry work.
I think what I'm most concerned about is the capacity of ministy that I'll be able to engage in once I'm away from the Navigator bubble. The Navigators uses its name and reputation to bring seekers in. That means that I don't have to go out of my way to meet people who are interested in pursuing Christ. After I'm done with UC, I'll be on my own. Eventually, I'll be in a workplace. I'm really worried that I'll burn out on reaching people once I'm away from my supporting ministry. It's so easy to fall into the "I don't want people to think I'm a zealot Christian. So I'll just sit here quietly" metality. At what point, do you make sure that people know you're different? If you're trying really hard to act like everyone else, how will anyone know that you're not like everyone else, at least in a spiritual sense. I'm really worried about my willingess to take risks.

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