Douglas Young

I read a book a while back that noted how the Psalmist seemed fond of new songs. His express desire was to sing “a new song”  to the Lord (Psalm 33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1). I must admit, I feel the same way about a lot of things in life.

The longing for something new isn’t abnormal. It’s actually natural, and at times needed. The covenant offered at Sinai was in need of being replaced by something “new” (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:7-13). But something new is generally risky. The “old wine” might be what we are used to, and often, we will only take on something new if we can put it in old wineskins (Luke 5:36-39). After all, we are entrenched in the belief that “the old is better” (v. 39). But the inborn sense of desire for something new must be dealt with. You can only avoid it for so long before it becomes deconstructive.

For a while now, I’ve considered breaking free from local church pulpit work to do something new. I don’t want to quit ministering, but I do want to minister in a way that I sense betters serves people. Yes, that’s exactly what I meant!  “What can better serve people than to preach ‘the good news’ to them?” you might be thinking.  Look,  preaching and teaching doesn’t just take place in church auditoriums. It happens in a number of different environments, in numeous venues. But before one thinks that a Sunday morning assembly is “the” best place to minister, I would suggest such one takes a Sunday, stands behind a pulpit for 30 minutes, and speaks . What you might see might change your mind! Sleeping. Doodling. Texting. Reading the Bible but not following along with the minister. People looking around and watching what others are doing. All of this happens every Sunday all over the country.

So, for the time being, I am transitioning into something new. I will no longer be involved in full-time preaching work. Instead, my wife  and I have chosen to minister together in the lives of children at a nearby children’s home in Portales, NM.

I want something new. I need something new. The New Mexico Christian Children’s Home has stepped in to offer Tisha and I an opportunity to do something new.

It will be tough. We both know that. That is, in part, why we want to do it. We are concerned for the future of the church, and we long for Jesus and his church to be integral to the lives of today’s youth.

I ask that you will pray for us as we begin to transition, as well as keep us in your prayers as jump into this work with both feet!

The last two months have been immensely intense, terribly frustrating, and yet incredibly enlightening. Uprooting a family from one state to another, selling a house for which we took a horrible hit, having to say “See ya later” (we refused to use the word “goodbye” if at all possible) to people we love tremendously, and struggling to overcome sleep deprivation from an experience I wanted to forget have made transitioning into a new work not the most pleasant experience in the world. But now that we’ve turned the corner on the things listed above, things are considerably better.

Transitions are a fact of life for us all. Some are easier than others to endure. The transition from junior high to high school is significantly less taxing than the transition from high school to college. The transition from high school to college pales in comparison to that of single life to married life. All transitions carry varying degrees of adaptive difficulties.

I think it providential that not long before I would face what has been my toughest transition to date, I’d been given a number of different books to help along the way. One such book was William Bridges’s Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes. How fitting!

All of this has put a number of different things into perspective for me.

• God’s presence no longer seems afar, nor should it (Acts 17:27-28).
• I am definitely attuned to God’s opening of doors for his servants (Revelation 3:8).
• Family must be forged with love, patience, and endurance.
• Friends are indeed precious!