The Next Season of My Life
I need to kind of make an announcement but I want to give context to it before I just throw it out there. If you don't want context, then just scroll down to the last 3 paragraphs to see the announcement. If you DO want context, here we go...
The summer of 2003 I had the awesome privilege to work at FBC Indian Rocks in Largo (Tampa), FL as a Jr. High Intern. There I got to learn from THE Middle School guru Gary Hunt, who was/is the Middle School pastor there. Well to say the least, He ROCKED! And I learned tons from him. I had done student ministry work before and always had success with it and had fun with it, and I knew my dad used to be a youth pastor for a long time, and I always kind of faintly wondered if I'd choose a career in student ministry. Well the summer of 2003 is when I made a decision that student ministry is the job/career/calling that I'd choose. In Chrisitaneze terminology, "I got my call to ministry." Following that I worked as a Middle School intern at my home church for 3 semesters and once again had a lot of success and had an absolute blast.
Then I took a semester off of student ministry work b/c I had to take 21 hours at ULL to finish my bachelors. Then following my graduation in May of '05 I considered moving to either New Orleans or Dallas to begin a Masters Degree. Lots of people become youth pastors with out even a college degree, and that's stinking awesome, but I felt like I should get a Master's Degree before I went out and tried to lead an entire youth group on my own for a couple of reasons.
1. (This is the biggest reason) I have no formal Christian education. I know 6th graders who know WAY more about the Bible than I do, and I want the theological knowledge. I want to know that stuff b/c I don't want to just know what I believe, but also why i believe it.
2. Resume stuffer. I think God's gonna have me in a medium to large sized church and most of those churches don't even look at resumes that don’t have a masters degree on them. That’s the only reason I went to ULL, was b/c I had too. I needed it on my resume.
BUT, after graduating from ULL I wasn’t ready to take on 3 more years of school after just finishing a 5 year degree. I wanted a break from the life of worrying about tests and tuition and getting to your 8am class. So, I put seminary off for a semester and said I’d think about going in January of ’06.
So I after deciding that I wouldn’t pursue my master’s degree yet, I knew that I wanted to move out of my parent's house and I needed a full-time job to do that. I had played around with some video stuff at home and for some funny jr. high videos and we were starting to use more video in our corporate worship service. So in May of '05 I took the full time position of Media Director at East Bayou, moved into my own apartment and began my life in the “real world” as all of my teachers from kindergarten on called it.
It rocked. I had my own place. Had an awesome job. God was using me. Everything was cool.
And then comes time to make a decision again about seminary. And I just wasn’t ready yet. Things were going well and the media dept was growing and doing more stuff. And the idea of school just wasn’t attractive yet. I knew I needed to still go, but just not yet. So I spent the spring semester of ’06 continuing work at church and still living on my own. I’d thought about doing the whole commute to seminary in New Orleans and continue to live and work in Lafayette, but I could only go to school part time. And going to school part time would take a minimum of 5 years. And that wasn’t really a viable option.
Right around February ’06 I started really thinking about seminary again and wondering how much longer I’d put it off. Well shortly after that, I got pitched the chance to go from media director to media pastor, which means the chance to go from being a part of the dept to being in charge of the dept. It was an awesome opportunity that I wanted. And so I took it.
But even when I took the media pastor job, I made it clear that this was just a job for this season of my life and that I still intended to EVENTUALLY go to seminary and then pursue a student pastor position.
And here’s why student ministry over media ministry. I’m OK in media. I realize that. I know I’m not great. And I’ve told people in the past that and they say, “No, no, no you’re AMAZING in media.” And while I appreciate the compliment, trust me, I know what I’m capable of in media, and I know what others are capable of in media and trust me, there is WAY better out there. Media for me is an unnatural thing. Yeah, I can get the job done but I have to work really hard at it. For example, Taylor Toce. Taylor Toce is a natural media guy. He can do in 10 minutes what takes me an hour. Literally, not figuratively, 10 minutes! And that’s cool. I know what I’m capable of. Now with student ministry, it is ABSOLUTELY NATURAL for me. What takes others years to get done, I’ve had the ability and blessing from God to do in weeks. It’s not said arrogantly. It’s said observantly. I realize that God has hooked me up and that’s why I want to pursue it, b/c God’s equipped me to do it and to do it well. It’s about Him, not me. Know that.
So I knew I loved my media pastor job but I also churned inside over when I could get back into student ministry. And I knew I had to tackle seminary before I took on a student ministry job.
So this summer, summer of ’06, I seriously considered whether or not I had te guts to make the decision to do it, to go to seminary. I’ve been out of school for a year, and if I started seminary right now and went full time, I would be 26 before I finished my degree. And I don’t want to lose my young years b/c I procrastinated when I was 22 and 23.
So………… Over the last 2 or 3 months I started asking myself, “Sean. Are you gonna do this?!” Kind of calling myself out. And so I went to God and started praying about it everyday and asking Him to give me a clear answer and desire to go if He wanted me to.
And He gave it to me. For the past 3 years I've been scared of the idea of seminary and in the past 4 months, I've grown a desire to go and gotten excited about it. I’ve given the church my notice and I’ll begin paper work this week to begin the admission process. That’s the announcement. I'm heading to Fort Worth, TX to begin classes for my Masters of Divinity Degree. I don't know the exact date I'm leaving Lafayette but it'll probably be some time in November. Classes begin January 2007. I’m leaving the town I was born in and grew up in and moving to TX. It’s a crazy feeling! I mean WOW!
Crazy huh? I know. It's kind of surreal. I'm very excited about it. I've thought about going for a couple of years now and I was never comfortable leaving yet. Now I am. Before I was honestly scared to leave the only place I’ve know and go to a new state, a new town and begin a life with new people, but now something in me has changed and I’m ready. I’m pumped. I cannot wait to go.
God's done some amazing things in my life in the past 3 years. I’m a different person than when I was 3 weeks ago, much less 3 moths ago, and especially 3 years ago. And it’s good. I’m proud of what God’s done in my life and where He’s led me. It hasn't all been easy but it has been good. And now I believe He’s leading me to Dallas.
The summer of 2003 I had the awesome privilege to work at FBC Indian Rocks in Largo (Tampa), FL as a Jr. High Intern. There I got to learn from THE Middle School guru Gary Hunt, who was/is the Middle School pastor there. Well to say the least, He ROCKED! And I learned tons from him. I had done student ministry work before and always had success with it and had fun with it, and I knew my dad used to be a youth pastor for a long time, and I always kind of faintly wondered if I'd choose a career in student ministry. Well the summer of 2003 is when I made a decision that student ministry is the job/career/calling that I'd choose. In Chrisitaneze terminology, "I got my call to ministry." Following that I worked as a Middle School intern at my home church for 3 semesters and once again had a lot of success and had an absolute blast.
Then I took a semester off of student ministry work b/c I had to take 21 hours at ULL to finish my bachelors. Then following my graduation in May of '05 I considered moving to either New Orleans or Dallas to begin a Masters Degree. Lots of people become youth pastors with out even a college degree, and that's stinking awesome, but I felt like I should get a Master's Degree before I went out and tried to lead an entire youth group on my own for a couple of reasons.
1. (This is the biggest reason) I have no formal Christian education. I know 6th graders who know WAY more about the Bible than I do, and I want the theological knowledge. I want to know that stuff b/c I don't want to just know what I believe, but also why i believe it.
2. Resume stuffer. I think God's gonna have me in a medium to large sized church and most of those churches don't even look at resumes that don’t have a masters degree on them. That’s the only reason I went to ULL, was b/c I had too. I needed it on my resume.
BUT, after graduating from ULL I wasn’t ready to take on 3 more years of school after just finishing a 5 year degree. I wanted a break from the life of worrying about tests and tuition and getting to your 8am class. So, I put seminary off for a semester and said I’d think about going in January of ’06.
So I after deciding that I wouldn’t pursue my master’s degree yet, I knew that I wanted to move out of my parent's house and I needed a full-time job to do that. I had played around with some video stuff at home and for some funny jr. high videos and we were starting to use more video in our corporate worship service. So in May of '05 I took the full time position of Media Director at East Bayou, moved into my own apartment and began my life in the “real world” as all of my teachers from kindergarten on called it.
It rocked. I had my own place. Had an awesome job. God was using me. Everything was cool.
And then comes time to make a decision again about seminary. And I just wasn’t ready yet. Things were going well and the media dept was growing and doing more stuff. And the idea of school just wasn’t attractive yet. I knew I needed to still go, but just not yet. So I spent the spring semester of ’06 continuing work at church and still living on my own. I’d thought about doing the whole commute to seminary in New Orleans and continue to live and work in Lafayette, but I could only go to school part time. And going to school part time would take a minimum of 5 years. And that wasn’t really a viable option.
Right around February ’06 I started really thinking about seminary again and wondering how much longer I’d put it off. Well shortly after that, I got pitched the chance to go from media director to media pastor, which means the chance to go from being a part of the dept to being in charge of the dept. It was an awesome opportunity that I wanted. And so I took it.
But even when I took the media pastor job, I made it clear that this was just a job for this season of my life and that I still intended to EVENTUALLY go to seminary and then pursue a student pastor position.
And here’s why student ministry over media ministry. I’m OK in media. I realize that. I know I’m not great. And I’ve told people in the past that and they say, “No, no, no you’re AMAZING in media.” And while I appreciate the compliment, trust me, I know what I’m capable of in media, and I know what others are capable of in media and trust me, there is WAY better out there. Media for me is an unnatural thing. Yeah, I can get the job done but I have to work really hard at it. For example, Taylor Toce. Taylor Toce is a natural media guy. He can do in 10 minutes what takes me an hour. Literally, not figuratively, 10 minutes! And that’s cool. I know what I’m capable of. Now with student ministry, it is ABSOLUTELY NATURAL for me. What takes others years to get done, I’ve had the ability and blessing from God to do in weeks. It’s not said arrogantly. It’s said observantly. I realize that God has hooked me up and that’s why I want to pursue it, b/c God’s equipped me to do it and to do it well. It’s about Him, not me. Know that.
So I knew I loved my media pastor job but I also churned inside over when I could get back into student ministry. And I knew I had to tackle seminary before I took on a student ministry job.
So this summer, summer of ’06, I seriously considered whether or not I had te guts to make the decision to do it, to go to seminary. I’ve been out of school for a year, and if I started seminary right now and went full time, I would be 26 before I finished my degree. And I don’t want to lose my young years b/c I procrastinated when I was 22 and 23.
So………… Over the last 2 or 3 months I started asking myself, “Sean. Are you gonna do this?!” Kind of calling myself out. And so I went to God and started praying about it everyday and asking Him to give me a clear answer and desire to go if He wanted me to.
And He gave it to me. For the past 3 years I've been scared of the idea of seminary and in the past 4 months, I've grown a desire to go and gotten excited about it. I’ve given the church my notice and I’ll begin paper work this week to begin the admission process. That’s the announcement. I'm heading to Fort Worth, TX to begin classes for my Masters of Divinity Degree. I don't know the exact date I'm leaving Lafayette but it'll probably be some time in November. Classes begin January 2007. I’m leaving the town I was born in and grew up in and moving to TX. It’s a crazy feeling! I mean WOW!
Crazy huh? I know. It's kind of surreal. I'm very excited about it. I've thought about going for a couple of years now and I was never comfortable leaving yet. Now I am. Before I was honestly scared to leave the only place I’ve know and go to a new state, a new town and begin a life with new people, but now something in me has changed and I’m ready. I’m pumped. I cannot wait to go.
God's done some amazing things in my life in the past 3 years. I’m a different person than when I was 3 weeks ago, much less 3 moths ago, and especially 3 years ago. And it’s good. I’m proud of what God’s done in my life and where He’s led me. It hasn't all been easy but it has been good. And now I believe He’s leading me to Dallas.
Dude, If you need a place to stay till you find an apt. or something, or you just wanta get the lay of the land, call me and let me know! WE got an extra bed, and an extra person you can meet too! (Jacob that is, not a lady friend, sorry, but that might change if I get a job at Fellowship). Know that you are welcome at any time! Later!
Posted by
Johnny E! |
11:41 AM
You're the man bro! Thanks for the offer! I don't know any logistiacl details but I'm taking a trip down there in a couple of weeks to figure them out. I'll defintely be giving you a shout b/c I just want to see you brotherrrrrrr!!!!!!
Posted by
Sean Walker |
12:01 PM
I am so excited for you! And you are right on about working with the kids...you have mad talent with the video thing...but.....you are just perfect with those m.schoolers! They love you to death! Wow, that is just so great. I have been learning a lot recently esp. the past 2 1/2 months and one of those things would be to do what makes you happy. And do it before you are old and able to retire ! Rock and roll oh masters of divinity! :) Oh and I went to a rest. this weekend with mysteriously delicious french fries....so good bc they had....dun da da daaaaaaaa...Tony Chaucherys on them. Fabulous! Ya, I even called their mystery flavoring out, pretty amazing, I know, I was taught by the best!
Posted by
Anonymous |
12:54 AM