Well, it's official now. This morning I announced my resignation from my job as associate minister at Adrian Christian Church. Here's the statement I made at church this morning:

I've decided that it's time for me to move on to something else. When Paul first talked to me about coming here as a youth minister I told him that I didn't think youth ministry was something I would really like or be good at. But we all agreed to give it a try. After two years I think I can safely say that I was right. It's not that I think I've wasted my time or wasted the church's time. I think our youth ministry has come a long way in these two years. I love all of the kids, but the bottom line is, I don't love the job. And the kids deserve someone who has a passion and a gift for youth ministry. So, effective September 19, I'll be getting out of the way.

I should make a couple of things clear. First, I will still be a member of this church. We're not moving or leaving the church. Second, Sara will keep her job. Third, I'm not leaving because of any problems in the church. Things are going great here, people are getting along, new things are happening, and despite all that, I'm ready for a break and ready to do something I'm more suited for.

You might wonder what I'm going to do now. Well, I wonder about that, too. Working with technology has been something that I've gravitated toward, even here at the church. I feel like I'm good at it and I plan to make a career out of it. And there are lots of new jobs being created in that field, they're just mostly in India. As for my involvement in the church, it's going to be scaled back quite a bit for now. I'm going to try to find my place as a volunteer, and I think some time off will help with that. I do intend for the website to continue to be timely and useful, so I'll do what I need to do to help out with that.

I believe that this move is the best thing for my family, for my faith, and in the long run, for the church, too. Thank you for your prayers, and thank you for making this the best job I've ever had.

I would appreciate your prayers while I'm making this transition and looking for a new job. I'm really looking forward to just being a member of the church and not being in charge.

I didn't participate in the latest Blogswap, but you can read the entries here if you're interested.

Tonight there was a Bible study at church and we were all telling our favorite Bible verses and then discussing them. Here's mine:

Deuteronomy 23:12-13

Man, that verse is special to me. Ok, here's my real one.

I uploaded the video that I made from our trip to Colorado. Follow the link, then choose the size you want: NYR Video :: Adrian Christian Church

We're back from NYR. Did I mention that we were going to Colorado for a week? Well, we did and we're back. It was a fun week, but we really missed Emma. She stayed with my parents and didn't get too upset about us being gone, but it was the longest we've ever been away from her. I'll have more about last week as soon as I can.

I'm pleased to present the third installment of BlogSwap. This time we'll hear from Tim Challies, the creator of BlogSwap. If you're interested in participating, use the link below. Many thanks to Tim for all the work he does to make BlogSwap happen.

Dr. W.A. Criswell (1909-2002), long-time pastor of First Baptist Church
of Dallas, was once traveling by airplane on a trip across the country
to attend a speaking engagement and was thrilled to recognize the man in
the seat beside him as a well-known Christian theologian. Criswell
admired this man and wanted to strike up a conversation with him. After
the plane left the ground and settled into cruising altitude he
introduced himself and the two began to speak.

The theologian told the pastor how he had recently lost his four-year
old son to a terrible illness. The child was sent home from school one
day with a fever. At first the parents thought it was a typical
childhood illness, but as the child's condition continued to worsen they
took him to the hospital. After the doctors ran a battery of tests they
told the parents that their son had a virulent form of meningitis and
that there was nothing they could do for him. The child was going to
die.

The loving father did the only thing he could do, which was sit with his
son in a death vigil. It was the middle of the day and the illness was
causing the little boy's vision began to fade. He looked up at his daddy
and said softly, "Daddy, it's getting dark, isn't it?"

The professor replied, "Yes, son, it is dark. It is very dark." And for
the father it was very dark.

The little boy said, "I guess it's time for me to get to sleep, isn't
it?"

"Yes son, it's time for you to sleep," said the father.

The theologian explained to Dr. Criswell how his son liked his pillow
and his blankets arranged just so and how he put his head on his hands
while he slept. He told how he helped the child fix his pillow and how
his little boy rested his head on his hands and said. "Good night daddy.
I'll see you in the morning." With that the little boy closed his eyes
and breathed his last.

The professor stopped talking and looked out the window of the airplane
for a good long time. Finally he turned to Dr Criswell and with his
voice breaking and tears spilling onto his cheeks said, "I can hardly
wait for morning to come!"

Though it may sound like merely the cry of a grief-stricken parent, the
father's words speak of far more. They speak of a profoundly beautiful
truth. His words echo those of King David who, after his son died said,
"I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." (2 Samuel 13:23) The
father believed that life does not end with death - death is just the
beginning! His words are an awesome statement of faith. He had faith to
believe that Jesus' words were true when he said, "I am the way, the
truth and the life!" Only through Jesus can we have the hope of eternal
life that sustains the grief-stricken father. Only through Jesus can we
have assurance that he "will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there
shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying." (Revelation 21:4) God
offers us this assurance if only we will believe in Him.

Do you believe in Him? Give God the opportunity to be real to you and to
give you the faith to believe that there really is life beyond death.

Tim Challies writes essays, articles & reviews written from a Reformed,
Christian Perspective. He tries hard to put the fun back into
fundamentalism. Check out his site at Challies Dot Com.

My entry will be posted on The Irvins.

To view the rest of this week's entries, click here.

Would you like to BlogSwap? For more information visit Challies.com.

Your response on my last post has been really helpful. Thanks for your suggestions, and for understanding my plight. Here's my next question: Should I feel bad that I would rather listen to music that is not "Christian"? Kyle referred to this issue in his review of Everyday Apocalypse, but I'd like to hear more.

Today is the launch date for the Adrian Christian Church web site. So far the reaction has been pretty positive.

I had to act quickly to avoid infection after reinstalling WindowsXP on my office computer. Fifty critical updates. I got it updated and the next thing I installed was a decent web browser. It's been good to start over, and most importantly, the shell is not crashing every time I try to open Windows Explorer to browse the files on my computer. That was so annoying. I partitioned the hard drive so I could try and install Linux on the other half. I tried, but as Home Simpson says, trying is the first step toward failure. And I failed. I can't get it to work with my video card and monitor, so it will boot into Mandrake Linux just fine, but I can't see anything because it won't send a signal to my monitor. Now that I have the hard drive split up it should be easy to wipe that partition and try again.

Testing has begun on the church website. I only had three volunteers, so if anyone else is interested in helping, please email me.