Rue Royale Returns to Macomb, IL

The Wesley Foundation is located at 1325 University Drive in Macomb!  Right next to Horrabin and across the street from Higgins Hall

Listen to Rue Royale Here:  www.myspace.com/rueroyale

Joining Rue Royale for one evening only of their US Tour will Be Eddie Boyer, who has embarked on a Solo Acoustic Project. Previously you may have known him as the front man for The Good Tangerines. His artistic skill and soulful voice are sure to set you on pace to have an eventful experiential evening,

The show will be a free will donation, with lots of coffee, tea and other goodies to purchase, as well as delightful merch! Don’t forget the merch!

Everything seems to be falling into place..

So, as some of you know, I have been planning on quitting RadioShack for quite sometime. I am happy to say that  I will officially be done working at The Shack within the next two weeks.  I am quitting because my district manager does not want to let me work only weekends this summer while I am working at the Carbon Cliff Meal site.  While my Summer position is a paid position, I first thought that I would just have to find a job when I return from the QC in early August.  I know that’s easier said than done in this economy but I had faith that it would all work out.  Here’s where God stepped in.

About a week and a half ago, my District Superintendent called me and informed me that a new cooperative parish was being formed between three churches: Galesburg Faith  UMC, Galesburg Emmanuel UMC and Knoxville UMC.   She said that they had a directing pastor and an associate pastor in place, and all they needed was a lay person to fill the quarter-time spot.  She asked me if I would be interested in having the position as a student pastor, and I graciously and humbly accepted.  I met with the directing pastor, Peter Wehrly a few days later and then on Thursday I met with and got officially hired by the Staff Parish Relations Committee of the three churches.

I am very humbled that my District Superintendent would choose me, and I am very excited to begin working with this cooperative parish on July 1.  As a quarter time student pastor, I will be preaching at one of the three churches every Sunday and I will also be the youth pastor for the youth groups of the churches.  I am really excited about this opportunity and I would appreciate your prayers as I begin what I believe to be my first step into the ministry.

End of the Year

So a school year has come and gone, and now my summer begins.. Oh what to do, what to do?  Well, I plan on doing some reading.. okay a lot of reading…  In case you were wondering, here is what I will be reading this summer:

“Who Killed Jesus” by John Dominic Crossan
“The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot” by Bart D. Ehrman
“The Great Emergence” by Phyllis Tickle
“Jesus for the Non Religious” by John Shelby Spong
“God’s Problem” by Bart D. Ehrman
Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) by Bart D. Ehrman

A second endeavor I will be doing this summer is that I will be working as the Program Director for the Carbon Cliff  Summer Meal Site in Carbon Cliff, Illinois.  This is a program that provides lunch to the children that live in the surrounding areas as well as provides a summer school type program after lunch.  I hope to keep you updated about my summer through this blog, and I hope that I’ll have your thoughts and prayers as I do God’s work.

New Blog, New Beginnings..

For those of you who don’t know, I have recently entered the candidacy process for ordination in the United Methodist Church.  This will be about a year long process that will have me in constant prayer, discernment and inquiry into the ministry to find out exactly what God wants me to do and how God wants to use me.  I am on track to have my final interview with the District Committee on Ordained Ministry in or around February 2011 and then I will graduate from Western in May.  My next step will then be to go to a United Methodist seminary.  I have a couple of seminaries that I am very interested in, but I will end up applying to 4 or 5 of them.  The schools that I am most interested in are Garrett Evangelical-Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois; Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado and Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C.

I will be using this blog to talk about what I am learning as I meet with my mentor every two weeks as I go through this process and begin the journey of a lifetime.  As most of you know, I am very interested in everything religion so I will also use this blog to rant, rave and talk about anything pertaining to religion and sometimes even politics.   As you can see, my Twitter feed is right over there ====> so if you have a Twitter, be sure to follow me so you can keep up with my blog.