About Me
- Joe Garrison
- Fishers, IN, United States
Director of Contemporary Worship and Assistant Director of Student Ministries at Castleton United Methodist Church in Indianapols, IN. Husband,Guitarist,and Drummer
Thursday, September 30, 2010
When Do We Take Knowledge Too Far?
For the last month now I have been teaching a group of high school students in our Phao Student Ministries the book of Proverbs as part of our semester long series "WISE UP! Study of Proverbs" on Wednesday nights. If you've ever read Proverbs you know that the book is focused on searching for and gaining wisdom and knowledge of God.I consistently have been hitting on how discipline in studying scripture and a focus on searching for wisdom and knowledge in many different areas of life can bring us closer to God. The writer of Proverbs is clear, wisdom can be found in many different places, not just church and Scripture, although Scripture should be our main focus.
As I am teaching the book of Proverbs to the high school students I am also leading a discussion with some young adults once a week on the book of Colossians. In Colossians, Paul is specifically writing to combat the Gnostics who believe that the only way to God is through knowledge. The body and flesh and anything created (actually including the incarnation of Jesus) is sinful and bad.
It's kind of a weird spot that I'm in. On one night I'm pounding home the need for wisdom and knowledge and a desire to study not only Scripture but study in school as well. On another night we are hearing about Paul's battle against the Gnostics in Colossae and their over emphasis on knowledge.
Obviously there has to be a middle ground or balance, right? So what do you think that is? Where is the balance between our desire to gain knowledge of God, and the wisdom of God, while not putting too much of an emphasis on those things, and still having a faith that goes beyond knowledge and isn't based on our limited ability to understand God?
Just something I'm thinking about. I would love to hear your thoughts!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
One Crazy Month
I am now one month into my new job at Castleton UMC. It's been a fun and crazy month. Here's what's been going on for those of you that care.
Student Ministries:
The first few weeks of things on the Student Ministries side of my job were pretty low key. The majority of things involved just getting the fall semester planned with Steph and working on the high school Bible study of Proverbs, which we are covering throughout the entire fall semester.
This week we finally began some programming for the students. Wednesday we began "WISE UP! Study of Proverbs" for our student side of Castleton Midweek Connection. I am leading the high school students in a study of Proverbs. Saturday we hit up RENOVATE our Saturday Evening Contemporary Service and then went over to Pinheads in Fishers, IN for some bowling with the High Schoolers.
It's felt like a busy, yet slow start. While there has been a lot to do the majority of it has seemed to be in the office and not as much with the students. That will definitely change as we dive head first into our fall programming with Bible Study, Breakfast Club, Sunday Nights along with student lunches and all the random fun that goes with Student Ministry. I'm definitely looking forward to all of it. I'm specifically looking forward to getting to know all the students and joining them on their faith journeys.
Contemporary Worship:
Things have been a lot of fun with both of our contemporary worship services. RENOVATE is taking off. The band has been playing great, Matt Lipan has done a great job settling into giving solid sermons each week.
We have run into some snags at Renovate. We had a couple of weddings to work around over the summer which hurt our consistency in worship time. Last week we lost guitarist Andrew Meadows as he moved out of state with his fiance. Soon we will be losing Matt Dilley, our current worship leader, as he got a full time job working at another local church. Those things in mind, we are still growing stronger as a service and faith community each week. Looks like we'll have our band line up locked down here soon and will be better than ever in no time!
Sunday mornings have been a lot of fun as well. We added Matt Harris on drums, a friend that graduated from Butler with Courtney. Matt Dilley has been doing a great job leading worship and the band seems to be locking better than we have in the past.
Overall, between both parts of my job, things have been very busy and a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to getting into the semester and getting a routine going and getting everything settled.
If you are someone, or you know someone, who might be interested in playing/singing in a worship team at Castleton UMC contact me at joe@castletonumc.org.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
