Decade in Review

Well, I can't resist.  Many other bloggers that I read have recapped their last decade.  I thought, at first, how little I would have to say, but the more I thought about it, the more overwhelming the changes have been.

Ten years ago, I turned 20 (I won't be 30 until March, so hold off on the jokes).  I was a sophomore in college, trying to decide what my major would be - I would finally settle for Computer Science and Business.  I spent my days in class, my evenings with Erin, and my weekends with my fraternity brothers.  Erin and I had been dating for less than six months at the turn of the millenium.  I also weighed 50-60 pounds less than I do now and had hair!

Since then, I graduated from college, my parents and sister moved from South Georgia to Nebraska to Tenessee, Erin and I got engaged and then married, I started and finished seminary, and we've had two kids, Ben and Faith.

I served as the Youth Minister at First UMC of Dacula for 2 1/2 years.  It was probably the most fun job I've ever had - after all, where else do you get paid to play and go on trips?  It's hard to believe that some of the kids that were barely in middle school at the time are now in college. Many of them are married or getting married and some are college graduates. 

I left there in 2005 because I needed a full-time appointment in order to be commissioned as a Probationary Elder.  Just days after I left, Erin and I had our world rocked with news of a miscarriage.  The very next day I appeared before the Board of Ordained Ministry for my commissioning interviews (a day that was supposed to be hard without the extenuating circumstances). 

I was commissioned and served for two years as the Associate Pastor of Programs and Missions at First UMC of Lawrenceville.  Missions has been my source of energy for ministry.  I heard God calling me to ministry on a mission trip when I was in high school and always felt closest to God when I was serving others.  Those two years were fun, busy, challenging, and formational.  I learned that I love ministry in the large church, but that I'm also not cut out to be an associate pastor - God has called me to preach.

That was a busy two years.  You may be asking what a Minister of Programs and Missions does.  I'm still trying to figure that out myself.  I had the priviledge of coordinating a church with a $140,000 missions budget.  I also coordinated the church's men's ministry, young adult ministry, historic campground and the ministries involved with it, and for a time, the church's recreation ministries.  I thank God for the great staff I had to work with and the wonderful volunteers with the heart and desire to do unimaginable things.

Funny story:  I was on our annual men's retreat, an hour from Lawrenceville and two hours from Atlanta, when Erin went into labor with Ben.  I was given applause when I returned from taking my phone call with my bag on my shoulder and made it to the hospital (in Atlanta) in just over an hour.  The whole trip, I was reciting to myself what I would say to the State Trooper who I just knew would pull me over and calling every law enforcement officer I could think of to see if any of them had enough clout to get me an escort.  I almost beat Erin to the hospital.

Summer of 2007 Erin, Ben and I moved to McDonough, where we live now.  I was given my first crack at being Pastor in Charge for a congregation.  What a roller-coaster ride it has been!  I've had people that I've wanted to strangle and people that have wanted to strangle me.  I've been blessed with lay leaders that desire growth and change and are willing to expirament with me in ministry.  Faith was born in 2008 and now I have constant back pain from being wrapped around her finger.

Many things have come and gone in the last 10 years.  I've made friends, lost friends, and made-up with friends.  I've ministered with and to countless people.  I've preached more, prayed more, and cried more than I could have imagined.  I've started the next generation of Strouds and held other people's babies at the altar and baptized them.  I've seen men and women late in life come to know Christ for the first time (and baptized some of those for the first time).  I've stood alongside families as we laid to rest people that we loved dearly, some of those were my own family.

Now with 30 quickly approaching, I wonder what the next ten years will hold.  By the time 2020 gets here, Ben will be almost ready to start driving and Faith will be in confirmation.  Erin and I will have been married for nearly 17 years.  Who knows what I will be doing in ministry?  I can't wait to see what God has in store for me, who I will meet, and where I will go.