Friday, October 28, 2011

Welcome Message

I am starting a new adventure in life.  Well, really it is an old adventure entering a new phase.  For the last eleven years I have been working for Churches in various positions and at the same time completing degrees for the purpose of becoming a Pastor.  My undergraduate degree was done at what used to be a tiny ministry based college in Northern California called San Jose Christian College.  By the time I graduated with a Bachelor of Art degree in Bible and Theology and dual major in Counseling Psychology, my school had moved campuses, changed names, changed from quarters to semesters and completely re hauled their curriculum into a liberal arts university.  I served for three years after graduation as a full time youth minister in a Presbyterian Church in Santa Barbara, Ca.  During my time as a youth minister God opened doors for me to attend seminary and eventually led me to enter full time seminary to finish my Masters of Divinity degree.  I ended up in Pittsburgh at a Presbyterian Church (USA) school called Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (the best Seminary in the States if you ask me).  Having now finished my M.Div and the process for preparation for ordination in the PC (USA), I have been extended a call as Associate Pastor of Family Ministry Development at First Presbyterian Church of Plymouth, Mi (FPCP).  Quite a mouthful, but it is exciting to see such a long process of preparation begin a little bit of fruition.

I hope this blog will serve as a place for me to reflect on ministry and provide daily devotional thoughts based on the Daily Lectionary Passages used by the PC (USA).  I will attempt to make the devotional thoughts "Family Friendly" to be used during a daily family devotional time by families at FPCP.  At the time I was writing the previous sentence my 19 month old son came running up the stairs screaming like a banshee because of something his sister did to him.  I know well the difficulty of developing a daily devotional rhythm with a family of young ones.  This blog will be an experiment more than anything else.  I welcome feedback from anyone reading as to what worked and what didn't so that I can be mindful of how to best provide a practical devotional thought for the whole family each day.  Let's figure this thing out together.

Along the way I will also be posting links to sermons I have preached or sermons I have found particularly moving and hopefully will have an update on my ministry reflections and family life twice a month.  This way some of you who know me can keep up on what is going on with the Thomas' from a distance.  I don't know about you but I read many blogs on a daily basis.  The best way I have found to do this is through subscribing to the blog's RSS feed via Google Reader.  Every day I browse through my subscriptions and read what catches my eye.  Many of my subscriptions are blogs of friends who I have moved away from and it is a great way to keep up to date with what is going on in their lives.  If you have never used an RSS subscription tool like this, Google Reader is very simple and makes reading through your favorite blogs an easy process.  Lastly I want to welcome you to this space and thank you for reading, as surely I am probably one of the least important or knowledgeable voices in your life, it means a lot to me that you would take the time to read my thoughts.  Peace and Grace to you in Jesus Christ.

Chris

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