Exiled Community

I’ve been wrestling over the last several weeks on where I believe that God is calling me to minister. A year and a half ago, I started seminary and was appointed in the Methodist Church in the Elder track. I want to do seminary…so I am sure I am in the right place there. What I am unsure about is being in the Elder track. That means that the Bishop in my conference can call me to a church to be a pastor. Now, I believe I have the abilities and gifts to lead a church…the question is where does my passion lie…and where is God calling me?

A few weeks ago, I received a call from a church in Texas as they were looking for a youth pastor. My name was given by a friend as someone they believed would be a good fit there. The job description was remarkable. A ton of potential. Warm weather in the winter! The biggest problem was moving away from our family (especially with Abbie).

This got me thinking about what I want to do. While I like the general church ministry…I think, more and more, that I am more geared to the specialized ministry of youth ministry, or young adult ministry, or worship pastor. What this means, right now…I don’t know. But it is something I’m going to be wrestling with for awhile. I meet with DCOM (District Committee on Ministry) next month. This question may come up while I am there. We’ll have to see how forthcoming I am. So if you’re reading this, I would invite you to keep me in your prayers.

I’m back from the Pen-Del Conference Youth Rally held in Ocean City, MD this past weekend. I believe this was my 7th Rally to be at since moving to Delaware. It is always an incredible weekend. This year was a little different as I wasn’t leading a group, but helping with the leadership of the overall conference. My fancy title was Back Stage Coordinator. This means I made sure all the speakers, students, and bands were ready to go on stage at the right time…and I had a great view!

During my seven times at the Rally- this had to be one of the best overall. All the bands were outstanding. Starfield did a solid job leading worship. Hawk Nelson, LA Symphony, and Flatfoot56 each rocked the crowd. Flatfoot56 is a Celtic Punk band. (It’s just like it sounds…a punk band with bagpipes…sweet!) Ayiesha Woods was probably the surprise of the weekend. Her set just plained rocked! Her guitarist was amazing and ended the concert with a crazy solo!

The Rally also featured Taylor Mason- probably one of the funniest comedians I have ever seen. He is simply amazing.

The speakers were Kathleen Baskin-Ball, a pastor from the Dallas area and Justin Lookadoo. They focused on the theme “Whatever” coming from Colossians 3:23. Both did an excellent job of challenging the students in their faith.

The cherry on top of the weekend was the opportunity to hang out with our churches youth group during some of the event. It was different not being with them the whole time, but I savored the opportunity to worship and dance with them during the bands. All in all, a pretty great weekend.

I’ve been reading Rob Bell’s book Sex God this past week. I’m about half-way through it. There is a lot of talk in Christian-land on whether Rob Bell is the next Billy Graham or some sort of heretic. I, for one, really enjoy Rob’s sermons and teachings…but like any Christian should, I strive to investigate what people say and write.

Regardless of that, I really like what Rob wrote on love and risk on pg. 98…

“Love is handing your heart to someone and taking the risk that they will
hand it back because they don’t want it.”

“Love is giving away power. When we love, we give the other person
the power in the relationship.”

“Love is a giving away. When we love, we put ourselves out there, we
expose ourselve, we allw oursleves to be vulnerable.”

“Love is giving up control. It’s surrendering the desire to control the
other person.”

(for whatever reason, I can’t get this justified left…but onward I go)

This is what God did with us. He loved us enough to give us free will. He loved us enough to give us his Son. He loved enough to risk that we might reject His love. When we understand God’s love for us, it compels us to look at the love we have for those around us. It moves us to a selfless love, an empowering love.

In the New Year, my prayer is to ask God to help me take risk and to love as He loves me.

Sunday was our 7th anniversary! In typical LaMotte fashion, I was at Youth Group on Sunday. But we did make plans and celebrated our anniversary on Friday. Andrea’s parents came down and watched Abbie for us, which gave us the opportunity to go out.

The celebration started with Andrea receiving 100 blooms of Peruvian Lilies(sounds exotic, they’re beautiful). We had decided ahead of time to go to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Ocean City for dinner. We love Ruth’s Chris! We also love having credit card points to redeem for giftcards to Ruth’s Chris so we don’t have to actually pay for the meal! The meal, by the way, was very good!

The big suprise of the night was my gift to Andrea. I got her a diamond bracelet (The bangle kind) with seven diamonds in it. I was able to speak with our server away from Andrea and gave her my coatcheck ticket and she was to get the box out of my coat and bring the bracelet out when she brought us our dessert. Yeah, I’m that smooth.

It worked perfectly! Our server brought our dessert, two glasses of champagne, and the bracelet. When she put the box down, Andrea was very suprised, knowing there had to be some sort of jewelry in it. She opened it up and her face just lit up as she saw the bracelet for the first time!

It was a great evening with the person I love most in this world! We’re looking forward to the next many years of being together!

I’m working on a sermon for Sunday at Avenue. It is the season of Advent, and like many Churches, we light the advent wreath as part of our worship liturgy. This Sunday is the third candle, which is the candle of joy. I will be preaching on an unexpected joy.

My text is Luke 1:39-56, where Mary has just received the news that she is pregnant with the Savior of humanity. She visits her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist. In the passage, Mary sings a hymn, call the Magnificat, and praises God for His continued work throughout history.

Mary is filled with joy that God has chosen her, that God is active in redeeming and saving the world. Mary is filled with joy that God lifts up the humble and feeds the hungry. I’m sure that Mary is also filled with joy at the prospect of being a mother.

What I feel is the unexpected joy is the joy God has as the whole scene plays out. John 3:16 is familiar in that it says, “For God so loved the world, that he sent his only Son…” I think God was filled with joy to see the redemptive plan begin to unfold to save the Ones he loves. I can imagine God smiling down on Mary and creation knowing that redemption is close at hand.

Julian of Norwhich was a 14th century mystic in England who had a series of revelations (or Showings) based of the Passion of Christ (Not the movie, the actual events). In these revelations, she gets a glimpse of Jesus’ joy. She writes,

Can you imagine Jesus, on the Cross, feeling joy? Can you image the nails, the crown of thorns, and the spear, and the joy Jesus had because He loved humanity so much that He would die for them? It’s hard for me to imagine this joy based on the scene, but this is what Julian suggest- that Christ loved us so much, that He was filled with joy to die so that we might be set free from sin. And if He had to suffer more, he would.

You may be saying that this sounds more like an Easter message. Well, the joy that God had in redeeming humanity began in a humble stable. The unsurpassing love of God came to earth as a little baby. This Christmas, we can find joy by seeking out the unconditional love that God offers all of us.

…To the LaMotte Family Christmas!

I had a Griswald Family Christmas experience the other day. Andrea and I had purchased new lights for our house for Christmas, and I put them up and everything looked great. I hooked our lights up to a timer where they come on at dusk. When dusk came (around 4:45-5:00 p.m. here in Delaware), the lights came on just like they should. I saw one bulb was out because it was not screwed all the way in…so I fixed it. And then it happened. The lights went out. For no reason. They were brandnew. Three hours of work down the tubes.

Well, today I was finally able to check the lights out. The fuse in the first strand went bad. I replaced the fuse, and all the lights work. Now we have 9 glorious strands of lights on the house (I think Clark at 25…with 100 lights each.) I’ll post a picture later…but for now, this video clip will have to do.

Andrea and I got our tree decorated last night…between the hour of 9:00-10:00 p.m. Abbie was quite awake and playful. Thankfully she did go to sleep around 10 p.m.

Now I should study for my final, which is tomorrow. I’m really not in the mood to take it.