Day 2 - 10 Years from now
I have taken a Blog Challenge to blog daily for the next 30 days mostly about myself so that you and others can get to know me a bit better. Tell a friend about www.jacobfields.org this month, or like and interact with me on my Facebook ministry page at Facebook.com/Jacobwfields
I find this to be a very fun topic, it is so broad that it can be taken in several directions. So I will oblige myself by expounding on a few of those directions here. I will cover what I hope my family will be like in 10 years, what I hope my career will look like in 10 years, and what I hope my families finances will be like in 10 years. Since this is a getting to know me challenge I will save what I hope the world will look like in 10 years for another post another day.
My Family in 10 Years -
In 10 years from today I will be 36 years old and my wife will be the big 40. My son will be 10 1/2 years old and he will hopefully have a younger brother about 8 years old. My wife will be able to spend as much time with our kids as she would like because she will be working just enough to keep her sanity 10-20 hours a week in Physical Therapy. My Son George will likely be interested in a lot of things mostly spending time outdoors with daddy and Grandpa. I have no clue what it is that his main interest would be I want to let him choose what he does and I will just support him as best I can, I might discourage football unless there are significant advances in concussion prevention. I could see him being great at any number of things including gymnastics or aerial acrobatics all the way to baseball really anything. My family is now and still will be my absolute first priority (aside from my personal relationship with Christ) and hopefully we will be able to travel. I want my kids to be able to see the world and understand how amazing God's creation is while at the same time being able to see all the work the body of Christ is doing in the world as well as how much work still needs to be done.
My Career in 10 years -
In 10 years I will have finished seminary and with God's grace I will have been an Ordained elder in the Methodist church for at least 3 years (it can be a long process). At this point in my career I could see myself in a medium size church for the North Texas Conference (around 250 Average Worship Attendance) hopefully as the Sr. Pastor. I would be excited about leading the vision and direction of the church and helping it to live into the mission of creating disciples. I could potentially see myself in a new church plant, helping bring the message of Christ through the lens of Methodism to people in new ways. One thing I hope I will have accomplished by this point is figuring out what it is that elevates a preacher to become a "national voice" for people who are looking for more christian content than Sunday morning. For example:Matt Chandler, Louie Giglio, Francis Chan, Joel Olsteen, Rick Warren, Rob Bell or others. Then take whatever it is that lifts their voice to a national level and use that strategy to elevate a Methodist voice (or a few) to that level because as great as those current voices are, we don't understand the way God interacts with the world in the same way. We all agree and must focus on the cross of Christ, but some of the things they say become stumbling points for people who understand God differently than they do and I feel strongly that the nations theology could benefit from a national voice that has a Wesleyan understanding of the Gospel.
My Personal Finances in 10 years -
In 10 years I plan to be 100% debt free. This includes my home and student loans, and no car payment either. This would only be 4 years early on the mortgage so I think it will be doable so long as my wife and I continue to embrace the Wesley philosophy of Make as much as you can, Save as much as you can, Give as much as you can. We live below our means. I hope to have set up a self generating stream of income through MASA that will essentially eliminate a need for my wife to make an income and free her to be able to stay home if she would like or work if she would like but so that she would not need to for the sake of the family budget. Likely I can see her still working between 10-20 hours a week but because she would go stir crazy if she didn't. I hope to have by this point a healthy retirement fund and be preparing myself to set up another side stream of income in real estate if I haven't got it set up already by then.
All these plans and hopes are of course subject to God's will for my life and barring disaster. 10 years ago at 16 I did a similar exercise on Xanga does anyone even remember that blog site? Most of what I imagined for my life happened, I graduated college in 4 years, I got Married and had my first kid at the age of 25 (the thing that didn't happen was real estate investing but that is because my stance on debt has changed, we did buy our first house though). I pray that God will continue to bless my life as he already has so far so that I could be a blessing to others.
I have taken a Blog Challenge to blog daily for the next 30 days mostly about myself so that you and others can get to know me a bit better. Tell a friend about www.jacobfields.org this month, or like and interact with me on my Facebook ministry page at Facebook.com/Jacobwfields
I find this to be a very fun topic, it is so broad that it can be taken in several directions. So I will oblige myself by expounding on a few of those directions here. I will cover what I hope my family will be like in 10 years, what I hope my career will look like in 10 years, and what I hope my families finances will be like in 10 years. Since this is a getting to know me challenge I will save what I hope the world will look like in 10 years for another post another day.
My Family in 10 Years -
In 10 years from today I will be 36 years old and my wife will be the big 40. My son will be 10 1/2 years old and he will hopefully have a younger brother about 8 years old. My wife will be able to spend as much time with our kids as she would like because she will be working just enough to keep her sanity 10-20 hours a week in Physical Therapy. My Son George will likely be interested in a lot of things mostly spending time outdoors with daddy and Grandpa. I have no clue what it is that his main interest would be I want to let him choose what he does and I will just support him as best I can, I might discourage football unless there are significant advances in concussion prevention. I could see him being great at any number of things including gymnastics or aerial acrobatics all the way to baseball really anything. My family is now and still will be my absolute first priority (aside from my personal relationship with Christ) and hopefully we will be able to travel. I want my kids to be able to see the world and understand how amazing God's creation is while at the same time being able to see all the work the body of Christ is doing in the world as well as how much work still needs to be done.
My Career in 10 years -
In 10 years I will have finished seminary and with God's grace I will have been an Ordained elder in the Methodist church for at least 3 years (it can be a long process). At this point in my career I could see myself in a medium size church for the North Texas Conference (around 250 Average Worship Attendance) hopefully as the Sr. Pastor. I would be excited about leading the vision and direction of the church and helping it to live into the mission of creating disciples. I could potentially see myself in a new church plant, helping bring the message of Christ through the lens of Methodism to people in new ways. One thing I hope I will have accomplished by this point is figuring out what it is that elevates a preacher to become a "national voice" for people who are looking for more christian content than Sunday morning. For example:Matt Chandler, Louie Giglio, Francis Chan, Joel Olsteen, Rick Warren, Rob Bell or others. Then take whatever it is that lifts their voice to a national level and use that strategy to elevate a Methodist voice (or a few) to that level because as great as those current voices are, we don't understand the way God interacts with the world in the same way. We all agree and must focus on the cross of Christ, but some of the things they say become stumbling points for people who understand God differently than they do and I feel strongly that the nations theology could benefit from a national voice that has a Wesleyan understanding of the Gospel.
My Personal Finances in 10 years -
In 10 years I plan to be 100% debt free. This includes my home and student loans, and no car payment either. This would only be 4 years early on the mortgage so I think it will be doable so long as my wife and I continue to embrace the Wesley philosophy of Make as much as you can, Save as much as you can, Give as much as you can. We live below our means. I hope to have set up a self generating stream of income through MASA that will essentially eliminate a need for my wife to make an income and free her to be able to stay home if she would like or work if she would like but so that she would not need to for the sake of the family budget. Likely I can see her still working between 10-20 hours a week but because she would go stir crazy if she didn't. I hope to have by this point a healthy retirement fund and be preparing myself to set up another side stream of income in real estate if I haven't got it set up already by then.
All these plans and hopes are of course subject to God's will for my life and barring disaster. 10 years ago at 16 I did a similar exercise on Xanga does anyone even remember that blog site? Most of what I imagined for my life happened, I graduated college in 4 years, I got Married and had my first kid at the age of 25 (the thing that didn't happen was real estate investing but that is because my stance on debt has changed, we did buy our first house though). I pray that God will continue to bless my life as he already has so far so that I could be a blessing to others.
As Always thanks for your
time and giving this a read. If you enjoyed it share it with friends, you can
do so easily with one of the buttons below. I pray that you will embrace life
in the Love and Grace offered to you through Jesus Christ, and that you will
always remember Jeremiah 29:11. – For I know the plans I have for you
declares the Lord, Plans to Proper You and not for harm, Plans with Hope for
the Future.
