You're in control, is there anywhere you wanna go? You're in control, is there anything you wanna know? The future's for dicovering...

The title today is a Coldplay lyric, from their X & Y album, entitled Square One. The album is great, this song is great, check out their website by clicking the title. It's...pretty great.

Haven't posted in a while. here's largely why...

Dear youth, members, and consistory of First United Church of Christ,

I am someone whose life has been spent planting for another day’s harvest. I am one who has been fed by love and the reflected power of the potential of young men and women. For this call and for these moments I will always hold First United Church of Christ, especially “my kids” close to my heart. I will be carrying the lessons learned within the walls at 301 West Cherry Street and with its members for the rest of my ministry and my life. I have also tried always to instill in the youth I have worked with a strong sense that God does call us to serve, in often unknown and foreign places. Had you said I would be living in Bluffton, Indiana through my twenties I’d have doubted it. Listening to God’s call is what led me here, to this church and you people. It is too, what now leads me away.

I’ve known this day was coming since October 1, 2001 and I’ve been mourning it almost since. We’ve all known this day was coming soon and even announced it to ourselves, but yet this moment carries so much more than I ever anticipated. I am hereby resigning as Director of Christian Education/Youth Ministry. My last Sunday will be August 6, 2006.

The most a man can do serving a church as Youth Director is inspire the youth to follow their heart, rely on their faith, and trust that God will be with them. I have challenged the kids of this church, and I suspect some of the grownups too, to have a deep faith that they can articulate, share, and validate through their own Biblical interpretation. I have asked the kids always to be themselves and have faith that God created them, sustains them, and speaks to them even now. If I am relying on my own faith, if I am being my truest self, and if I am listening to what God is speaking to me I must now depart this lovely church on West Cherry Street in Bluffton.

I wish I could tell you what it is I plan on doing then. I can not. I wish that I could tell you that I think I’ll find something better. I do not. I wish that I could even say that I’ve done all I can do here. I have not. I am glad I’ve gotten to see the storm clouds dissipate. I’m glad I’ve gotten to see this church begin to heal and confront its own calls to serve. I look forward to seeing more of this in the next few months. But as I look ahead at where you are going and where I find my interests shifting I am struck with the clear reality that I feel no longer called to serve the church family here at First. I am ready for the next adventure. Even then, it is not an easy decision to make, but if I’m living up to the very lessons I’ve tried to teach, I must listen to these new whisperings of my future calls.

There are opportunities on the horizon that I may explore. But July-November cast many doubts on the paths I’d laid out for the future. Perhaps Seminary awaits and perhaps not. Perhaps I belong in the UCC and perhaps not. I feel I can’t make these decisions in the midst of guiding the Youth Ministry any further. And there is another level this program could reach. I remain committed to your kids and will gladly serve as counselor to them via phone or email when and where appropriate. I will look forward to being their Camp Director if they return to Merom in the summers. It is time now that I as an individual called by God and you as a church family called by God, take the paths God has prepared us.

I will be ever grateful for this amazing opportunity. I am humbled at the deep sense in me that my time here has mattered. I will always be praying for your success and happiness. To the almost seventy of you aged 3-21 that I had the privilege of serving as Youth Pastor to I must say something extra; your friendship and love has lifted me up, will lift me up, and will remain what makes this not just a building but a church family to me. You are saints already and I have faith that you will lead lives that show us all how to be better disciples of Jesus Christ. Know that you will always have a friend, an ally, a fan, and a better man to call upon for having spent this time with you here.

With deepest humility and gratitude,

J.D. Rose