2nd Spiritual Interview

I actually did this interview a month ago, but forgot to upload it, oops. I really enjoyed my time with Leslie from Northeast. I have wanted to talk ministry with her for awhile and I finally got that chance at the beginning of this month. I really wanted her to answer five questions: (1) How does a ministry take their pulse on outreach?, (2) In terms of leadership, formal or informal, how does an individual find balance between what they feel "called" to do, what they enjoy doing, and what seems to be the most pressing need of the ministry?, (3) What were her views on women's role in the church, particularly of men's authority over women?, (4) What were her thoughts about close guy/girl, platonic, friendships?, (5) What are a few rare, but extremely important qualities of a great friend?.

(1) Leslie told me she struggles with the balance between being inward-focused as a community and making outreach a priority. She said she did know outreach has to be a lifestyle deal where everyone in the community is living in such a way that they take the opportunities God gives them to minister to those outside the church in whatever way he wants, that includes MAKING time to do just that. She also said that God often works much slower than we try to. We try to rush this deal especially when we get discouraged and feel stressed to make something out of situations and relationships God may not be working in. It starts and continues with going to God to ask him who he wants us to minister too and creating a relationship with him that we can extend to others.

(2) Leslie told me the story of Kurt really wanting to do youth ministry at the church they were at before, but never getting the chance. However, one of the first things Ronnie asked him when they discussed starting Northeast was if he wanted to do children's ministry. ..and oh man what a great job he has done. So basically she answered wait on God and he will put you in the right place, but be faithful with whatever he gives you along the way.

(3) She told me she has had to take selfish ambition completely out of the picture. Additionally, she has had to respect the positions of leadership within the church and whatever God leads them to decide on any issue including women speaking in the church even though she enjoys public speaking and if she ever got the chance would love to speak. She ended with saying that women can do a lot in the kingdom, especially when it comes to the important things like teaching the word, discipling, and the like so why fight over a few specifics?

(4) She thought this was an interesting question and admittedly told me she had two close guy friends in college, but liked both of them beyond friendship. It's a tricky situation for sure.

Eddie Howard

I conducted my first spiritual interview. I hadn’t really considered interviewing Eddie until Brandon mentioned it at camp. I asked Eddie two major questions: (1) What did he mean when he called himself a “rescuer,” (2) how do you know what your role should be in a ministry? These might seem unimportant or at least kind of drab when you consider all the other questions I could have asked him, but these two questions for me represented that last six or so months of my troubling thought life. Without getting too much into where I’ve been and what I’ve been thinking, Eddie provided some great insight into my life and helped answer some questions I had a deep longing to find answers to.

When I asked Eddie what he meant by being a rescuer he told me that by nature he seeks out the hurt and hopeless and tries to minister to them. He told me he was drawn to the “bad” kids when he was involved in youth ministry or the kids that needed a lot of attention. One of his lessons in “leading through leaders” came when he was faced with responsibility of over 300 kids in the youth group he helped start. He told me he couldn’t even begin to get to them all so he was forced to train 7 guys to help with about 50 kids each. A few of those guys didn’t make it but the majority of them did. But every time he would go to visit, say the ninth graders (who he had mentored two years earlier) they didn’t really even remember who he was. At first this change of pace made him pretty sad, but when he saw how much better they were doing because of the better quality attention they had been given by the guy he mentored he soon realized the power of leading through other leaders – that is the power to “rescue” so much more than you can do on your own. I could relate to everything he was saying in terms of being a rescuer; my friendships often suffer, because I’m off looking for the next person I can help, a person who needs me. When I communicated that to him, he told me it probably was a result of insecurity, particularly the type that has to “prove themselves” as an effective minister to both themselves and others in order to feel valuable. I was like “no way, not me.” Then later I was like “okay may-be.” That suggestion linked with the principles of Experiencing God has made me question my true reliance upon God to determine who to minister to and how to do it.

When I asked Eddie about knowing your role he simply said you ask God where he wants you and go with it. It’s part identifying your abilities, part identifying your passion and mostly asking God where he wants you. I told him I primarily thought of it as a promotion ladder. Those who do the “field work” are on the bottom and those who “train trainers” are at the top. He didn’t seem to agree with that idea, nor do I now that I consider it. God calls, we don’t seek to be promoted; besides promotion in Christ’s kingdom is always downward.

Update on Project

My survey research class has begun, and I’m really enjoying it so far. I ran into a snag though with my project when my teacher explained that the assignment we we’re going to be required to complete was much less involved than what I was wanting to do – basically we were assigned to complete a survey analysis of peer-reviewed research in a popular Sociological journal. However, I told him what I was thinking in terms of my proposal to study the spiritual environment at UTD, and he loved the idea. I will have to redirect a little in order to satisfy the requirements of the class, meaning I will have to survey a random stratified, semi-disproportionate sample of the UTD population. What that basically means is that I will have to identify the particular population I want to study. I have decided on 18-24 year old, degree-seeking, full-time students stratified by ethnicity, gender, age, and nationality (possibly even outside Texas as another level). Since I won’t be able to acquire religious information from UTD I will have to tweak my sample to ensure a proper representation of this specific group (since it is the target group in terms of research). I believe these added guidelines won’t be problematic as they will enable me to compare inter-religiously (namely as it pertains to Christianity) as well as intra-religiously. A few of my hypothesis thus far are: (1) Religious beliefs and attitudes do not significantly affect how one makes major life choices, therefore (2) There will be a weak correlation inter-religiously to major life choices, but will be a strong correlation intra-religiously. In other words, commonality will exist among individuals from all types of religions, in terms of life choices, rather than within a particular religion. My hypothesis is not my major concern, but rather I’m mostly interested in taking a spiritual pulse of our campus. Next step: research the exact proportion of our student body that fits my criteria. Let me know if you have any comments on my hypothesis or how I will choose my sample (particularly if you have another dimension you think I should consider in stratifying my sample).

My Dad

Okay I didn’t quite talk to him for 30 minutes but we did have a great talk where I updated him on some of the stuff going on in my life. I still need to work on it Matt; teach me the ways of talking to my father.

Spiritual Interviews

I'm pretty psyched about doing these spiritual interviews, especially as I have begun thinking about the particular questions I would like to ask. I want to talk to Mark Royal, Leslie Rowe, Alberto Mendez and Casey Worsham and someone outside of NE (yet to be determined). I want to hear feedback on the importance of followers' perceptions of a leader, proper uses of authority, taking your communities pulse at effectively reaching out to pre-Christians and the importance of intimate friendship -particularly what these individuals have to say on the biblical and spiritual guidance they have received on these topics. These questions will be a great source for the ministry topics assignment where we are suppose to write what we are learning and studying.

Project Proposal

I'm taking a survey research course this semester which will educate me on effective survey techniques as well give me a glimpse of the social science research scene. My proposal is less activity-oriented than the other proposals I have heard so it may not be the best idea, but my thinking was to conduct a survey of spiritual interest and beliefs; I imagine this to be quite a formidable task. However, I believe the benefits of a well-designed survey could enlighten Christians and other religious participants, so to speak, on the spiritual climate that pervades our campus. Additionally, I would incorporate this as an assignment for the class and thus would have ample time to devote to the project.

I was thinking of a 15-minute, possibly 30-question survey that might be conducted in an interview-type setting. I have pondered numerous issues relating to motivation of participants, survey as well as interviewer bias, sample selection, etc and, of course, need whatever feedback you may have on how to go about addressing these issues.

In terms of leading people in the ministry, I would like for students from our ministry to be involved with the interview process as well as the eventual dissemination of survey results to our ministry and possibly our school. I'm hoping the interview process will lead to more conversation, but will be able to include those uninterested in spiritual conversation.

If this project is approved, I expect to have chosen a sample by the first week of February, complete a survey before Spring Break and conduct all of the interviewing before the second week in April.
So am I crazy or what? Give me your ideas now! Please.