I have a confession. My letter to you, and this blog post, are about 8 weeks too late. MessageMakers started the first week of February; this is my apology for keeping you in the dark all this time.
"So allow me to bring you up to speed." After our first week of orientation, each of us chose an area of ministry we were interested in pursuing and interviewed with the staff member who be our lead during the internship. I personally interviewed for graphic design, but because of certain complications ended up in campus ministries, helping with small group (Connect) development. After some small finagling however, it was decided I would also be doing graphic design, but only a couple of times a week to help me build a portfolio.
As I mentioned in the letter, the internship is part involvement in ministry, but also part discipleship. We spend the first half of everyday learning about theology, breaking down disciplines, learning about leadership, etc. We have been reading through several books, including: The Celebrations of Discipline, Enemies of the Heart, Covenant and Kingdom, and 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. For every portion of a book we read a teaching is supplemented with it, whether that is from a pastor in the church or taught amongst ourselves.
For many weeks now I have been working with the Connect leaders to sustain the current season of groups, and to prepare for the next. Unfortunately my staff lead took another job elsewhere which has left my superiors with little to give me. In the interest of keeping me involved and using my skills to their maximum capacity, I was recently switched to working with the Downtown Campus. There I will probably be helping to develop a system to identify new attenders, and to lead each person on the "next step" of their journey.
So currently, to sum up, I am transitioning into my new Downtown ministry track. While doing this I will also be working on building my graphics portfolio and of course our mornings of discipleship will continue. I plan to update this blog at least once a week, though more would be nice. I realize this has been an entirely vague post, but in the interest of sanity I'm keeping things short and sweet. If you ever have any questions or messages for me, please feel free to email me at dstout3d@gmail.com. I thank you all the support you have given me and as always don't be afraid to say hello if you see me around.
-Derek
"So allow me to bring you up to speed." After our first week of orientation, each of us chose an area of ministry we were interested in pursuing and interviewed with the staff member who be our lead during the internship. I personally interviewed for graphic design, but because of certain complications ended up in campus ministries, helping with small group (Connect) development. After some small finagling however, it was decided I would also be doing graphic design, but only a couple of times a week to help me build a portfolio.
As I mentioned in the letter, the internship is part involvement in ministry, but also part discipleship. We spend the first half of everyday learning about theology, breaking down disciplines, learning about leadership, etc. We have been reading through several books, including: The Celebrations of Discipline, Enemies of the Heart, Covenant and Kingdom, and 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. For every portion of a book we read a teaching is supplemented with it, whether that is from a pastor in the church or taught amongst ourselves.
For many weeks now I have been working with the Connect leaders to sustain the current season of groups, and to prepare for the next. Unfortunately my staff lead took another job elsewhere which has left my superiors with little to give me. In the interest of keeping me involved and using my skills to their maximum capacity, I was recently switched to working with the Downtown Campus. There I will probably be helping to develop a system to identify new attenders, and to lead each person on the "next step" of their journey.
So currently, to sum up, I am transitioning into my new Downtown ministry track. While doing this I will also be working on building my graphics portfolio and of course our mornings of discipleship will continue. I plan to update this blog at least once a week, though more would be nice. I realize this has been an entirely vague post, but in the interest of sanity I'm keeping things short and sweet. If you ever have any questions or messages for me, please feel free to email me at dstout3d@gmail.com. I thank you all the support you have given me and as always don't be afraid to say hello if you see me around.
-Derek