Pastor…

So…I’m about 1000% sure that my calling is to pastor young people. I was convinced of this in January 2001.

2001…seems like an eternity ago!

Although I have been a pastor for nearly two months, it still doesn’t have the ‘ring’ to it that I had hoped. When I was in Lake Charles, LA, I don’t think anyone really called me, or addressed me as ‘Pastor.’ When I was there, deep down, that’s how I really wanted to be addressed. I introduced myself like that all the time. I felt like I had made the ‘Major Leagues.’ I was 22 years old and power hungry. I went in guns-a-blazin’! Changing things left and right, and not really building relationships with the people I was brought there to pastor.

BIG MISTAKE…

I was told, before I left the LC, that most of the kids didn’t like me at all. I understand that now. It wasn’t until a lot of responsibility was removed that I built the relationships with those students. The pressure was off, in a way. I didn’t have the pressure of planning and preparing for a service, or outreaches, or sermons, or events.

When I left the LC, I had very strong relationships with most of those kids. Some of which are still on my Facebook friends list! I saw a few of them this past weekend at the Coreluv Tour in Houston, TX. It was great to see them! I hadn’t seen most of them in over a year. It was just like old times…joking, talking, enjoying each other’s company.

When I first arrived in the LC, I was convinced that pastors had these superhuman…supernatural…powers. Weird…I know. But, seeing what I saw when I was living in Lafayette, LA, convinced me of that. You know when you tell yourself something long enough, you begin to believe it. I don’t know how intentional it was, but I began to think that way. So, naturally, I thought of myself in that way in the LC.

Hence…the way people felt about me.

I learned a lot about myself when I moved to Houston. Like I’ve said before, I went there to examine myself more than anything else. When I got there, the extent of the ministry I did was really just between me and God. I had to heal. I had to learn from my mistakes. I had to take care of myself. I got a job that wasn’t in the ministry or at Starbucks. An 8-5′er is what I got. Never had one of those before. That was a weird experience to say the least. Kinda hated it. Good money, though…haha.

Anyway, now that I’m here in Forney, TX doing the job I love to do, I have taken a different approach. I have decided to, at least, learn the kids names before I give some vision, or shake things up. I’ve got a second chance to do something great! But, this time I want to do it without the superpowers…and the attitude…and the arrogance. Its been quite the process to learn this. I never thought that I was real stubborn…until a few months ago. I’m an ox….

This time around…I don’t really care how ‘Pastor Brett’ sounds.