Christmas Eve (Merry Rip-mas)

This will be my first blogger post in over three years.  I figured it would be good to start blogging about all the odd things that always seem to make their way into my life.  Needless to say, here goes....

Today I had three things happen that made the day interesting; two that I won't soon forget and one that was just inopportune at best.  We'll start with the rundown of the day.  For the past 12 years, I have been the youth minister at the churches that I had worked with, and was always home with my parents for Christmas eve.  This year, however, I am the worship minister.  This simply means that I get to be the guy who has no other choice but to arrive at the high school early,(we meet in a high school for worship each week) make sure everything is set up, and make sure everything is ready for us to leave.  Luckily, I have a great lead minister to work with and he stuck around at the end.  With all of that said, tonight is memorable due to that service.

As I said earlier, I haven't been to a Christmas Eve service since High School, and tonight was the first of what looks to be many at Catalyst.  Also, this was the first ever Christmas Eve service at Catalyst.  It's so much fun to experience every "first" at a church.  I'm always so thankful for the journey God has placed me in.  I've had so many experiences, good and bad, that have shaped who I am today, and I love this newest adventure.  Catalyst has really been a joy to serve in, but also a real challenge for me.  I gave up one of the most amazing ministry experiences of my life in K-town, Wisconsin to do what I'm doing.  As a matter of fact, I've been texting over the last several minutes with one of my former students, Zach Campbell.  Zach is definitely one of those guys that I'm so glad to have gotten to know.  Needless to say, there is a lot to be thankful for this Christmas.

Oh, and that "inopportune" thing that I mentioned before?  We were putting up pipe and drape today, and I was standing on one of the theater seats in the auditorium when it folded up and my foot dropped into the cavern that was created.  The fall wasn't the problem.  The fact that my jeans were caught on the seat and tore a hole that measured somewhere over a foot in length was the problem.  I simply drove home quickly, changed jeans, came back and led worship.  Our lead minister's wife, Rachel, simply called it, a "Merry Rip-mas".

So, to all of you who might be reading this, Merry Rip-mas and a Happy New Tear!