thinking out loud without too much forethought on the open and public World Wide Web.
Posted by Ryan Woods
I'm at this odd juncture in my life.
In the past everything was so cut and dry. You were a youth minister and therefore had teenagers looking up to you. You had to act a certain way in order to fit the mold and also to fit the roll of a roll model. If you weren't a youth minister you were a preacher. As a preacher you must fit into many molds, mainly you have to be an official adult. You can't be quite as jokey (at least not in a way that all will see) you've got to carry yourself with some respect (unlike the youth minister), and all that jazz.
Me, I'm just a minister. Connections minister is what I might call myself, but who knows. Jess prefers Ass Pastor (a poor abbreviation of associate pastor). I've got no unspoken (or spoken) boundaries that our Christian culture has developed over time. Instead I'm issued the charge of living recklessly for Jesus, being myself, and loving people. Not so black and white really.
Don't get me wrong, I love it. It's liberating. It's dangerous.
Point A.) Two blogs ago I wrote a post jokingly about sex and different pre-sexual acts. It was a funny blog and actually turned into a fairly valuable conversation about sex before marriage and all the artificial lines we draw connected to it. It was a funny blog, but it was a dangerous blog. If you don't know me, or if you don't have the same sense of humor as me, or if you don't have the same world view as me, or if you don't have the same theology as me, or if you have a different personality than me, or if or if or if. There are so many variables! The potential is there for severe offense to be made at my doing.
Point B.) I don't generally care what people think too much. I mean that in a nice and positive way, not in a negative, I only think of myself, kind of way. I care about those I'm in contact with. I try to love thoroughly. But I always try to just be myself in as many areas as possible. I understand systems psychology. I understand that we act different in each and every different system because we play a different rolls in those systems. I understand that stuff enough to know it's true. But I do pride myself on being a genuine person who is fairly consistent in nearly every situation. Concerning blogging, I like that my blog is a fairly healthy representation of what I am like if you hang out with me. I'm a bit random, a bit crass, a flawed follower of Christ, a church planter, a dad, husband, etc.
Point C.) I want people to read my blog. It's on my business card. It's on our website. I tell people about it. I'm proud of it (not of it's quality, but of it's minimal entertainment value). With all that said, does my roll as a minister preclude me from writing anything and everything on my blog? Thats what I've always done. I just write. Often, after finishing a blog, I find that I wish I had thought more before I made it public. But thats just me I guess...it's me, but should it be? Do I need to start censuring myself for the sake of JC? It's not that I say horribly crass things all the time, but if I'm planting a church and people look to me as their spiritual leader and they see that I'm writing about Southpark or dry humping will that cause more problems than it solves (and trust me, those two things do solve some problems in life)? Can I no longer have a blog that is straight up me? Do I need to change me?
I'm not looking for answers from you dearest blogmunity. I'm just doing what I always do: thinking out loud without too much forethought on the open and public World Wide Web.
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