Author: Ben Meredith

Ben is a recovering pharisee, a web guy, a passable guitar player (as long as you're not near Nashville), and the type of guy you'd want on your team in a game of Mad Gab. Follow him on twitter.
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Clarity. Or, how God used you and you might not have even known it.

We announced yesterday that we are leaving staff.  The website will start looking a bit different over the next few days, as I make it more current-chapter-of-life friendly.

We are so excited for the clarity God has given us for this transition, and I want to take a minute to clarify something for anyone out there who might be reading this and thinking some variant of the following, which I recieved in an email from somebody I’d been trying to meet with for support:

I’m going to go ahead and assume that my poor communication and slowness in getting back to you this week was not the cause of you leaving staff. That would be sad for me.

My answer to this person was that they were a part of God’s answer to our prayers for clarity.  He sovereignly had folks not be able to meet with us, come off of our team, and decrease their giving in such a way as to make it abundantly clear that we should leave staff.  We are so thankful that folks like her didn’t get back to us.

So if you are reading this message and are sad that we are no longer on staff (effective Sept 2, but please continue donating through Nov 30), and you hold yourself partially responsible, stop it. God is the one who called us off staff.  Rejoice with us that He used you to do it.

If you want to be part of Him calling us to our next job, pass this link on to all of your friends: Resumé.  Or don’t.  Because either way, God’s gonna use you. 🙂

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Feedback needed.

Last week I posted a link to my new resumé, and I’ve already received some great feedback.  That feedback was unsolicited but super-helpful.

Today I am asking for feedback.  I’ve made some changes already, and will be making more throughout the next few days.

Would you take a few minutes to go and look over my resumé with a mind to helping me make it the best one you’ve ever read?

Later, I’ll be adding some more insightful and useful content here, but for now, can you help me out?

Three questions:

  1. What should I add? (let’s stick to true things–one of my rough drafts indicated that I invented the iPad.)
  2. What should I take away*?
  3. What other question(s) should I be asking here?

You can comment below with your thoughts on my resume, (I especially need spell-check help, as I made this all by hand in html) or email me

*I am not going to take away the QR code.  It’s my bit of geekery, and I am going to leave it.  I am also not going to make the links clickable on the left pane.  Those are just part of the background image, added for a bit of branding flair.  Don’t have the time or skills to make them clickable.

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God is not a Carny on a Smoke Break.

Here’s the thing about roller coasters: how well you do on them only affects you.  The same coaster that makes some people scream with excitement makes others shriek with horror.

One person laughs.

Another pukes. (fair enough, in that case how well you do also affects the people directly behind you…)

There’s that neat story in Mark 4:35-41 that others have pointed to where we see this principle at work.  There’s a storm that has professional fishermen scared for their life (read: really bad storm), and Jesus is ASLEEP in the stern of the boat.  The thing is literally falling apart, and Jesus is sleeping.

His perspective on the roller coaster was right.  He knew who made the thing, and was supremely confident in it’s construction.

As we have buckled ourselves into this current coaster (leaving staff, click-click-clicking up the hill toward unemployment), I’m so confident that God is the one who pulled down the safety bar and gave the thumbs up for the cart to begin up the hill.  But as analogies go, this one is falling apart quickly.  God is not a carny, going on a smoke break while I fly upside down across the theme park.  He made the coaster, holds the coaster up, controls the weather, etc, etc.

But I think he enjoys us experiencing the mystery of the click-click-click.  Let’s hold our hands up and enjoy the ride!

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The Funniest Thing Our Son has Accomplished.

My son will never make Last Comic Standing (though with Felipe Esparza winning the whole thing, maybe he should.  Team Johnagin all the way.)  His latest act is sort of the opposite of “stand up,” but still pretty hilarious.  Enjoy. (video embedded, in case you are all up in a feed reader at the moment.)

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What do you want to be when you grow up?

I’ve just rounded the corner out of my third decade, and I’ve hit a strange crisis.  Up until this point I’ve always known what I want to be when I grow up: a missionary.  I want to get paid to share the gospel.  The gospel is preeminent, foundational.  The paycheck has always been secondary.

So it’s tough to think  in terms of benefits and 401-K, as I have been looking out at my options going forward.

I feel pretty marketable in church circles, in that I am a worship leader who is also a bit of a tech guy/jack of most trades.  I can fix the wireless network and code the websites and help streamline interoffice communications, in addition to leading the music on Sunday mornings.  So, I’m not really concerned about being able to land a job somewhere in churchland.

But I just quit my dream job, and most of the places I’m looking at now are either part-time or not in my dream situation (denominational/theological differences that would likely become an issue, need for a Masters degree of some sort, etc) and so here I am at a crossroad.  I am not going to jump at the first ministry job out there, just for a paycheck.  I’d rather work at Starbucks or Harris Teeter while I wait on my dream situation than to get roped in to a less-than-ideal vocational ministry situation.

Which leads me to the same question I faced as a 3rd grader: what I want to be when I grow up.  Back then I said I’d like to be an artist when i grow up.  I didn’t miss it by far.  My 3rd grade heart knew that ultimately, I want to be creative.  22 years later, I now can confidently say that I not only want to be an artist, I want to be an artist who is focused on creating, because I serve a creative God.  My heart can’t help but to image and promote the creative heart of God.

So now I just have to figure out a way to monetize that.  In the meantime, I’ve put in some applications at various spots, like selling cell phones (let’s face it, I am always talking about iPhones and Android phones anyway, I might as well get paid to sell them…).  I am very excited for the next step, and interested to see how tossing a new baby into this mix will affect things (I’ll let you know in a week and a half).

Bottom line, if I show up at your door toting a Papa John’s box, you’d better tip well.

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