This year is a time of major transition for myself and my family. After 17 years serving as the English Pastor at CFC I am going to be moving on to a new ministry. My wife Joni has been teaching high school science for 9 years and is also ready to try something new. For a variety of reasons, this seems like the right time for a change. It has been announced at my church and I have told family and a few close friends, but I realized that I should say something here as well.
I have been thinking and praying for several years about a possible change. My passion and calling has always been in the area of teaching and leadership training. I have had good opportunities to do that at CFC, but there are many other responsibilities to being a pastor. I am seeking a ministry opportunity that will allow me to be more focused on what I believe God has called and gifted me to do.
Probably no one is able to serve in the area of their calling and gifting 100% of the time, but if you can reach 70-80% that is very good. It is really a win-win situation. Greater joy in ministry, a greater sense of fulfillment, greater effectiveness in ministry and greater impact for God’s kingdom. I want to be in the right place, doing exactly what God has called me to do.
I’m not really sure what my new ministry will look like. I am looking into doing some teaching at a seminary or Bible college as well as church based teaching and training opportunities. I will be available to do training seminars and to advise church leadership teams. I would like to do some more writing. It is likely that I will end up doing a variety of things. The main thing is to sense God’s leading and follow it. I appreciate your prayers as I look for the way forward.
Later this year we are planning on moving up to the Portland area where both Joni and I have family. She grew up in Portland and I am from Montana, so we both love the Pacific Northwest. We will begin our time there with a sabbatical that we both feel is much needed. We will spend some time resting and seeking God’s direction for the next phase of our lives. After an initial break I plan to spend some time every day working on finishing my book on English ministry in ethnic immigrant churches. By the end of the year I expect to be moving on to new ministry opportunities, but at this point I don’t know what that will be. It’s a little like hiking on a path in the woods. I can see a little way ahead, but beyond that I don’t know where the trail will go. But wherever the path leads, God is already there. I’m looking forward to the adventure.
Over Christmas I spend a week in Oregon vising family. As usual when I am on vacation, I did not listen to, watch or read the news in any form. I was out of touch with the world. The amazing thing is that the world got along just fine during my absence. Since then I have been thinking about how much news I really need.
Imagine a world without news
Throughout most of human history people had very little information about events outside their immediate vicinity. Think about the situation only 200 years ago. They had newspapers, but no Internet, TV or radio broadcasts. The first radio news program was broadcast August 31, 1920 by station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan. The transcontinental telegraph line was completed in 1861. Without any means of electronic communication, messages had to be delivered by a human courier or not at all. The newspapers back then covered mostly local news. Information from other parts of the world was sparse and out of date. Before the printing press there were not any newspapers at all.
Try to imagine yourself in such a world. How did people ever survive without up to the minute updates on world events over the Internet? How would you? We are all affected by the nearly universal belief that it is important to be well informed. To an extent I agree, because what happens in distant lands can impact our lives. What happens in the current Middle East turmoil is affecting the price I pay at the pump. They didn’t have this problem 200 years ago because they didn’t need oil (the world’s first oil refinery was built in 1854-46). But the world is a lot more connected now, so we do need to stay informed.
Are we news junkies?
So the real question is, “How much news do you need?” Is there a point at which we become news junkies whose habit eats up valuable time that should be spend doing something else? Currently when I am at my computer I keep one browser tab open to my Google home page News tab. I have widgets that show three headlines each from a variety of news sources from different perspectives: Google’s feed, CNN, Fox, Reuters and BBC. I usually look at the news page several times a day to see if there is anything new. I also look over the newspaper each day while I eat my breakfast, and listen to news radio while I am driving around. So I get plenty of news.
In fact, it is really an illusion of being well informed. I don’t know what determines which three news story are listed in each widget. If there is any bias in the selection process, then I am receiving a distorted picture of what is happening in the world. If I took more time and browsed the articles the web sites of each of those news organizations then I would be better informed, but still limited to what they choose to publish. To be truly well informed would require several hours a day of news research. Who has time for that?
But would I be seriously deprived if I checked the news on line only once or twice a day? What if I looked for a summary of the situations in Egypt and Libya once a week instead of trying to keep up with events every day? There are other things that I could be doing with the time I spend on the news. What if I listened to worship music in my car instead of always turning on the news radio? Maybe I could quickly scan the newspaper, and then read something more substantial. The point is that every minute we spend consuming news is a minute that could have been spent doing something else. Since we can’t possibly consume all the news that is available each day, we need to decide where to draw the line.
What do you think? How much news do we need?
