Video Tour of Juneau

I started substitute teaching this week for the Juneau School District. I'm a little busy trying to get the new personal schedule figured out. As a substitute for the usual blog post (and thanks for reading, by the way) here's an update video we made for our friends at Radiant Church in Fairbanks. Enjoy!

https://vimeo.com/48209532

And for those of you who cannot imagine me teaching in a public school setting - my apologies.

Stepping Down on the Accelerator

Things up here in church-plant land have picked up in recent days. Thankfully, life is getting busier.

We've gained some unexpected support from two churches in Alaska. ChangePoint Church in Anchorage and Radiant Church in Fairbanks care about Juneau, Southeast Alaska, and participating in the formation of new churches in our State. It is humbling and exciting for us to be in partnership with these two healthy and influential churches. Conversations continue along the idea of combining our expertise and resources as a statewide church-planting collective. (Picture me as the not yet healthy, influential, short on expertise and resources character in this collective.)

We are meeting more and more people. There is growing interest on the part of several fellas to participate in  theological and missiological training here in Juneau. These guys represent different churches, different denominations, and different personal histories. I am excited to facilitate the equipping of leaders, and we anticipate beginning to do so next month. (Picture us meeting often on early weekday mornings.)

This Sunday is our second "gathering" in our living room. We hope to make this a weekly gathering beginning  in September. We're going to eat together, pray together, study our Bibles together, care for each other, and talk together about the what and why of the Church (big "C".) Deb and I are excited for this. We have friends in business, government, healthcare, and neighbors we hope will join in. (Picture us all crammed into the Rydman's cozy living room.)

In my effort to get around more people I am now on the Juneau School District's substitute list. (Picture me warping the minds of impressionable youth.) I have applied for a counselor position at the "Youth Center," (read: Juvie.) My friend Mark tells me I'm too nice for that job. (I might need a tattoo and some facial scars.) I've applied for a job as a "Graduation Coach" at the alternative high school. (Picture me with a clip board and a sweatshirt that says "I [Heart] Diploma's")

God is stepping down on the accelerator of my life. He's answering my prayers. It's time and I''m ready to pick up the pace, and follow His lead.

Urgency

Summer in Southeast Alaska is two things: 1) not long, and 2) not to be taken for granted. It's considered a "mild temperature range" around here. 60's are the new 80's. And true to form we moved here to take part in the coldest and wettest summer Juneau's had in decades. More than one person has proposed the theory that it was us who brought the cold and wet. But unlike the good folks in California, Oregon or Washington who may feel entitled to a certain summer quality level, Alaskans seem to take uncooperative weather in stride. (Save your notes and cards.)

Summer for Alaskans takes on a certain urgency. Again, because the summer is 1) not long, and 2) not to be taken for granted. There is a cultural and societal impetus here to cram as much fun as possible into the summer months (okay, days.) Because fall comes all too quick.

High school football teams around the State are entering the second week of their season. The Statewide "snow-calypse" (or here in Southeast the eleven month rain festival) is soon to settle in for good, Xtratuff's will again be mandatory footwear, and summer will only be a memory.

So while there's still time people here, us included do whatever is necessary to rearrange schedules and convolute priorities to emphasize fun. The boat marinas are nearly empty, the float planes all take to the sky, and hundreds of salmon and halibut are meeting an untimely demise as we speak.

I am busy looking for daytime work and gathering people into an initial gospel community. My bride (who already has plenty of daytime work) is busy thinking of all the places she wants to see, visit and camp. And this only proves she is already more indigenous, therefore more urgent than I am.

And (to state what may be the obvious takeaway) I want this same sense of urgency in how I live out the gospel imperatives in my life. Because, my time is 1) not long, and 2) not to be taken for granted.

Career Sabotage

Here on an early Friday morning I have several unrelated thoughts in my head. 1) I know I'm ready to be done with the Olympics when synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics take over the events calendar, 2) If here in Alaska we are losing five minutes of daylight each day, by my calculations it will be dark by 4PM in December, 3) If it's going to rain every day through December why do I care what time it gets dark?, and 4) What will my life look like in the next weeks?

This week I applied to both UPS (the delivery service, not the private university in Washington) and to Costco. Neither of these employment destinations was ever in my thinking when I was a seminary student. I also looked at openings with Alaska Airlines. The free flights would be nice, but without any current openings there will be no free flights.

I received an email from UPS telling me I will be interviewed. They need a delivery driver here in Juneau. I'm sure they're wowed with my resume. I'm sure the brown uniform will bring out the natural highlights in my hair. But under the category of things I don't know (but God certainly does) I do not yet see how I can work a full time job and plant a church at the same time. But God does.

It's not like I haven't had a marketplace job in the past. I spent most of the 90's selling advertising in airports. I ended up being pretty good at it. But it didn't involve also planting a church (or driving a truck.)

All that aside the "word" I'm getting this morning is, "Don't think; just do!" Wherever and whatever it all ends up being, God is already there. It will be new to me, but not new to Him. This is not career sabotage - it's just transferable skills and resume development. My ego has no bearing in following God's directives. What I think will happen and what will actually happen are probably two different things.

And the other "word" I'm getting? Stop using the word "BUT" in sentences! And go get a haircut!

Work

We've been in Juneau Alaska now for six months (and five days.) We are excited to be here, and excited to see what God has in store for us and through us for this city and region. We've made friends. We've hosted people in our little home. We've had gospel conversations. Even this summer's lack of summer weather has not discouraged us (this first year, at least.)

Deb gets up and goes to work each day. She runs the Career Services office at the University of Alaska Southeast. She is good at what she does. She works hard. One friend has referred to her as my "sugar mama." It's her income that's paying our bills. Meanwhile, I get up each day wondering how to spend my time. I have become a house-husband. I do laundry. I plan dinner. I talk to the dog.

In another one of those "God telling me something" episodes I have sensed I am being told to go out and get a job. I need more to do each day. I need somewhere to go, and people to see. I brought this up with my friend Joe over lunch the other day and he said, "Alaska is a working man's state. You'll gain by having a real job in addition to your pastoral role." I took this as confirmation, if not the voice of God Himself.

So this week I applied with the school district to be a substitute teacher. I applied to be a ticket-taker for the State Ferry System. I spend my days at home now looking at job boards, completing online applications and praying as to what God would have me do. No sales jobs for me this time around. (Nothing worse than a pastor who sells stuff, confusing everyone.) A service job of some kind is a better fit for me, I think.

It may be that Jesus is telling me I need to devote some time to being a missionary before I can settle into being a pastor of missionaries. It may be He's telling me that being bi-vocational is to be my vocation, for a season at least.

And I'm excited about this, excited to have somewhere to go and something to do. I'm excited to be a missionary, and in the mission field.