Blog Challenge #3: Interview with Carl Jones!

This is the third week of the October Blog Challenge, and I had the pleasure of interviewing Carl Jones, an awesome former youth pastor with a fantastic blog! My questions are in this font, his are in the bold! :)

Yours is a pretty unique situation, a tale about a guy who made an honest mistake that changed his life forever, what I'd like to know is how that affected your view of the church? How did it change your perception of the church as an institution, as a body, and as a place of ministry?

My sin and losing my ministry has changed my perception of the church in both positive and negative ways.  The love forgiveness and grace I have received from so many Christians has been a blessing, and to some extent, a surprise.  I have not felt that grace from much of the institutional church and many of its leaders.  My failures have opened my eyes wide to the fact that the church talks about grace much more often than it puts the teaching into practice.  But I would not have survived these past 5 years without the love and forgiveness of my Christian friends.

Have you done anything to stay involved in ministry in some way?

My blog.  I started as just an outlet for stories and remembrances; it has become a ministry in many ways.  God has blessed my efforts there by giving me opportunities to write some curriculum and for a few other publications.  Writing has become my ministry.  I also love answering questions and sharing ideas with my many youth ministry friends on Twitter (@Youthguy07).

You've mentioned a few times in your blog that you have a passion for music and lead worship from time to time, are you still involved with worship music at all? If not, would you like to be?

At this point only as a participant.  I would love to be more involved, but feel like because of my circumstances I need to wait for an invitation before I go charging in.  I'd love to do some simple worship leading again- just me and my guitar.

Blogger to blogger, do you have any tips about dealing with writer's block, and committing to writing more often?

I'm a big proponent of scheduling my writing.  I am committed to writing every day; I think it's a good idea to pick a frequency and stick with it.  I also think that it's good to plan out topics in advance.  That way your mind can be working on them before you write- and you can always change if inspiration comes from a new area.  I also read as many blogs as I can.  Keeps me fired up and wanting to write!

Would you like to do a guest post on my blog sometime? :)

I would love to!  And would love to have your write for my blog as well.  I love the cross-sharing of ideas!