TheDeSocios.com

Some of you might notice that thedesocios.com has been fairly quiet recently. Well alot has been going on for us in the last month.

The first week of January Jo, Gus and I traveled to visit my family in upstate New York. This gave us a nice break from alot of the busyness.

As many people know we have been planning and praying for the opportunity to plant a new church for the Lawrenceville Bloomfield sections of Pittsburgh.

Last weekend I presented my plans to our denomination’s regional leadership and they decided to endorse it.

This means a number of things for the DeSocios and thedesocios.com Read More

Last January I decided to start evaluating how I did with goals over 2008.
Here were some of the goals that I came up with for 2009.
(Instead of a pass or fail, Im gonna give myself a grade instead.)

1. Spend more time getting things done
Grade:C+ I got alot better at keeping track of things, but I still wasted alot of time this year.

2. Get to know more of our neighbors
Grade:B- Volunteering and being a local helped with this.

3. Network with more church planters
Grade:B+ Between Philly, Assessment and Pittsburgh, I’m beginning to get to know alot of great church planters.

4. Write on our blog more often
Grade:C While I didn’t write as often as I wanted to, I upped my posting over 2008, from under 40 to 114.

5. Finish as many of my half read books as possible
Grade: C- While I did finish some books I wanted to read, I ended up adding a few more books to my need to read list.

6. Take more photos
Grade: A- With a new baby, and a better camera phone I definitely took alot more pictures this year than 2008.

7. Pray more
Grade: B+ While a had a better pattern of prayer in 2009 than I did in 2008. I’m still not praying as often as I wish.

So what are some goals for 2010

Read and pray more systematically with my family.
Go fishing or camping at least once.
Write in a more systematic way.
Get my bike fixed and actually ride it.
Network with more community leaders and pastors.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

(Philippians 4:6 ESV)

Sometimes God’s word hit you right between the eyes and you need it to.

Several years back Jo and I stumbled into Pittsburgh, we meet out in the country of western PA, and both of us had grown up around much bigger cities, so it wasn’t a given that we would stay here very long. But, after moving here for graduate work we fell in love with the city. I’ve come to realize that loving a place is alot like loving a person. It takes commitment. It involves sacrifice. It means knowing flaws and still loving. After living here for four and a half years I can say that we love Pittsburgh. We love the people, and the neighborhoods, the accents and the culture of this curious forgotten city.

What Assessment was

Monday morning Jo, Gus and I flew to Atlanta, for our denominations Church Planter Assessment. The main goal of the Assessment was to interact with Jo and I to see how well we might do at starting a new church (often called church planting). Our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America does this kind of thing several times a year. We were with 8 other couples and one guy.
The actual assessment was an intense process. It was broken up into projects, teaching, interviews, and personality testing. The men and women evaluating us had all participated in church planting or were in leadership in similar areas. All our assessors were great–they really cared about getting to know us, and while I assumed the whole thing would be just one big job interview, I’m glad I was wrong. I made some great connections with the other potential-planters as well as the assessors.

What Assessment wasn’t

• A cake walk — It wasn’t an easy process. We probably spent 15 hours just with the application alone, and that was before the intense 3 days spent in Atlanta.
• A vacation — I’ve never been on a vacation with that kind of breakneck pace.
• Final approval — The assessment offered us a recommendation. The final approval comes from our local network of churches(presbytery).
• That scene from Armageddon — The counseling wasn’t crazy and no one went near my cooli.

Why was it important?

• It was one of the best things that Jo and I have done for our marriage.
• The process also helped shape my thoughts on my limitations as a potential church planter.
• We went away from the week with a fresh perspective on our hopes for Lawrenceville, some of which changed over the week and other which were affirmed.
• It let me see that I hadn’t been relating to Christ the way I need to. I had been offering people the church, it was Jesus’s church, but I hadn’t been offering people Jesus. This blew me away, and I so glad that it did.

Does this change anything?

• Yup, it sure does, but I’m not exactly sure of everything yet, so I’m gonna keep my mouth shut.

Jo, Gus and I are in Atlanta this week for assessment with the Presbyterian Church in America’s group that helps start new churches. There is no way I have the energy to go over all the stuff that happened today, but I can give a quick overview of some of the highlights (in no particular order):

1. We had a counseling session with Phil Drake. It was really good. We looked at where our blind spots are, and it confirmed to us that Jo and I are working well together. It also revealed some potential challenges for church planting and pastoral ministry in general.

2. I preached a 10 minute sermon and then Jo and I talked about our call to church planting. The format was such that there was no dialogue as much as they ask and we answer. It was a bit wearing, but an important step.

3. We’ve already got to talk to some great couples about ministry they are excited about. Its interesting to find that alot of the people here are looking for affirmation and they didn’t necessarily wait till after assessment to start talking praying and planning for church planting opportunities.

On a side note I need to thank my Mom who is staying with us all week, and all those other folks who contributed to let us get here.

I love it when I get to use my talents in a fun way that is not bound to some job duty. Right now I’m designing a wordpress theme for my brother and sister-in-law as a Christmas present.
Here is a very small glimps at the site.

I would tend to bet that many people think prayer is very important, but those same people feel guilty that they don’t do it enough.

We should remember that prayer is a way of talking to God. It doesn’t need to be overly formalized. Prayer when when you can, and look for ways to pray more often.

The problem I have is that when I think about prayer is that I often think about all the things I should be praying for, and it exhausts me. I get so stressed thinking about the things I’m not praying about that I rather just ignore the whole thing.

I needed a basic framework where I could spend time in prayer each day without feeling guilty that I was forgetting something.

So what I did was make a small spread sheet that I’ve put in the back of my Bible. I’ve broken it down day by day. Each day I pray for different things in a few categories: Family, Friends, Neighbors, Concerns or Ministries. So for instance today is Thursday and I prayed:
Read More

When I was considering becoming a pastor no one ever said to me: “Dude thats the happiest job in the world!!” Its often unrewarding and difficult work. My bet is that most jobs are just as frustrating and hard as mine.

Everybody has hard weeks. People are mean, the weather can suck, and you just aren’t treated the way that you think you should be.

The question is: how do you respond to hard weeks? Are you a total jerk? Do you take it out on your family? Do you have some way of getting rid of all that junk that has built up over the last week? Or do you just push it down?