Chase the Setting Sun...

It's that time of the year again. The holidays are here. The Christmas tree is up (and has been for a couple weeks...haha). There is an eternal flame in the fire place these days. Thanksgiving is a few days away and you know what that means...time to bake some dinner rolls.

Since my Grandpa Garrison died a few years ago I have taken over the task of making the traditional holiday dinner rolls for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Grandpa made rolls for decades up until the last couple of years of his life. They were always a tie for my favorite holiday food tradition, right along with Mom's stuffing. For a lot of years I think I barely ate anything else at Thanksgiving dinner. I bite of turkey, a plate of stuffing, and about ten dinner rolls.

I always get a few messages each year from family asking how many rolls I'm making, usually with a hint of "If you don't make enough you're dead" in their voices. It really is a honor to make them. I think at this point making the rolls is my strongest connection with my Grandpa. They are always good for bringing a couple of my cousins to tears with that first roll of the season. It seems that biting into them brings back all the memories of "helping" Grandpa bake bread when we were little.

Along with the honor of making them is a little bit of fear. I'm kind of a perfectionist when it comes to these rolls. I'm always worried they are going to be bad, or even just not quite as good as Grandpa's were. What if no one likes them this year?

So far so good. I've only tanked them a couple times. The first two times I made them and only Courtney and I had those.

Hopefully this year goes as well as other years and I can keep those memories flowing with Grandpa's dinner rolls. Tomorrow, once again I will try and channel some of Grandpa's bread baking expertise and whip up two or three batches of rolls, about one hundred rolls in total.

I'll have a long day of work ahead of me, but I always enjoy the house smelling like fresh baked rolls, the Christmas tree lit, and the eternal flame burning in the fireplace.

What are your family holiday traditions?

I have now been doing full time ministry for about three and a half months. November 1st marked the end of my third month here at Castleton UMC. There have been a lot of fun and exciting things going on here in Phao Student Ministries along with the Contemporary worship ministries here at Castleton.

Along with some amazing things that have been going on in ministry it has been a time of figuring out how to balance full time ministry with marriage.

As probably anyone in ministry will tell you, it takes up an incredible amount of your time and energy. The passion God has given those of us in ministry, for those we minister to, often occupies our minds long after we leave the doors of the church. Ministry is not a 9-5, 40 hour per week kind of job. It tends to be a "whatever it takes to do it well" kind of job.

I have run into the struggle of not only dealing with full time ministry's time commitment, but being involved in two (or three) totally different types of ministries presents maybe a greater struggle to balance ministry with being home with my wife. I am supposed to spend half (or maybe a little less than half) of my time working on contemporary worship for our two worship services, and the rest of my time ministering to teenagers.

As perfect of a job as that may sound, it is difficult because handling music, musicians, and organization of two separate services and bands tends to be more than a 15-20 hour a week job. Student ministry, even though I work alongside a great full time Director of Student Ministries, tends to also take more than 20 hours a week. Add on leading a Tuesday night discussion group for young adults every week and the weeks tend to get pretty long.

As much as I absolutely love my job, the struggle has been finding time to be home. Not just finding time to be home though; finding time to be home when my wife, Courtney, is home. My schedule tends to make it so it is easier to be home in the mornings while she is at work because ministry often extends into the evenings, when she is home.

I am constantly trying to find ways to be home more but I'll admit, it's pretty hard. I'm thankful that everyone I work for, and with, are supportive of helping me find ways to get more time at home with Courtney.

I'm sure this is a struggle that I'll be working on forever, or at least as long as God is using me in full time ministry. Every pastor, youth worker, church staffer, deals with this kind of thing. It's nothing new. It's not specific to me.

I'd be curious to hear from those of you that are doing this, or have done this before and are (or were) married. How do you, or have you, balanced ministry with home life and family? What are the secrets I haven't come up with yet? Thanks.

P.S. Courtney has been a rock star throughout these last few months, as hard as it's been, she has been more than supportive and willing to adapt her life to meet the demands of being a "youth pastor's wife." Thank you.

Well, I've only been at work since like 3pm today. It's 5:40pm. I officially can't concentrate and I still have two hours left. It's not like it's a long day of work or anything.

I got to work at 3pm, put together worship books and slides for worship for the Sunday morning contemporary band and then came over to the sanctuary to set up the stage for rehearsal. All the while having The Ride with JMV playing on the PA system so I could hear up to the minute Colts coverage.

Three hours to go then the Colts rock Monday Night Football against the Houston Texans for the lead in the AFC South division. Having a few friends over for Chili and football. Doesn't get much better than that!

So for the next two hours I will try to gain my composure and think about something other than the Colts...maybe.

As much as I love Monday night football, it would be better for me if the Colts didn't play on a workday ever. So here's lookin forward to Thursday Night Football in December and a productive day that day as well!!

Go Colts!