{"id":7,"date":"2014-06-27T00:35:34","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T00:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elasson.com\/?page_id=7"},"modified":"2014-06-27T00:35:34","modified_gmt":"2014-06-27T00:35:34","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/elasson\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"about"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>Essays and tidbits\u00a0on personal development in the tension of ministry and marketplace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s a journey I suppose&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I tend to think while I walk, and it seems I&#8217;m\u00a0walking, a lot, on a wandering path. So\u00a0I&#8217;m simply recording my thoughts and steps as I wind along this path I can&#8217;t see far ahead on.<\/p>\n<p>I advanced quickly in full time ministry, doing collegiate ministry and heading up a men&#8217;s ministry that became successful in many ways. I then was asked to pastor a small church which was one of ten satellite locations that made up a mega-church.<\/p>\n<p>I decided I wanted to further my theological education at the same time I was asked to join a group in planting a church in a major university city in Kansas &#8211; right next to one of my top choices for a seminary school. This happened right after I was flown out to study and possibly join a booming collegiate church on the west coast. So I was primed to say &#8220;yes&#8221;, and after hearing great things about the leader&#8217;s personal passion\u00a0for training young men, my wife and I went for it. We packed up and moved to Lawrence, KS.<\/p>\n<p>I then realized I needed a job; so I started my own business. I did writing, publishing, sold advertising, networked, hosted events, consulted and more. \u00a0I&#8217;ve learned about all sorts of businesses and industries.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d always had an entrepreneurial bent and already knew I wanted to see <em>the<\/em>\u00a0Church more involved in local business, marketplace and community investment.<\/p>\n<p>Now I&#8217;m fixed on it as a viable, and maybe <em>the\u00a0<\/em>vital,\u00a0future for the church.<\/p>\n<p>I want to see us <a title=\"On Connecting Meaning In Our Stories For Our Community\" href=\"http:\/\/elasson.com\/connecting-stories-and-meaning\/\">connect our story into our community&#8217;s stories\u00a0in meaningful ways<\/a>! Ways that make a tangible, valuable, and then\u00a0<em>lasting<\/em> difference in people&#8217;s lives. Ways they appreciate so much we are then able to introduce them to the deeper meaning to life. Even if they don&#8217;t agree with our beliefs, they&#8217;d be sad if we were gone.<\/p>\n<p>God doesn&#8217;t need my help, but because the world needs God&#8217;s help and the church isn&#8217;t giving it as well as it could,\u00a0the\u00a0church is soon going to need a lot of help!<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;I&#8217;m wandering, winding, and wondering. Feel free to join me in this &#8220;elasson journey&#8221; to make a difference.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Even if it only makes a difference in you and me.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>John 3:30 \/\u00a0coram deo<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>P.S. This is not my main site. I do most of my &#8220;helpful&#8221; blogging on business, communications, marketing, leadership, relationships and more on <a title=\"RileyAdamVoth.com\" href=\"http:\/\/rileyadamvoth.com\" target=\"_blank\">RileyAdamVoth.com<\/a>. Most of my &#8220;helpful&#8221; theological jams happen on my hobby site, <a title=\"TheMajestysMen.com\" href=\"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\" target=\"_blank\">TheMajestysMen.com<\/a>. Most of my creative writing is on <a title=\"TragedyFortunate.com\" href=\"http:\/\/tragedyfortunate.com\" target=\"_blank\">TragedyFortunate.com<\/a>. That leaves this as a place for personal reflections, questions or\u00a0criticisms, theological notes of interest, and thoughts on my personal development in this hybrid-ministry-life that shouldn&#8217;t be &#8220;hybrid&#8221; but, rather, &#8220;holistic&#8221;. I don&#8217;t publicize it much at all, but you can if you find it helpful or inspiring. I&#8217;d also welcome, and\u00a0value, your thoughts even if you&#8217;re the only one commenting on every single post. I often want to be that guy with others.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>P.P.S. Ok, but really, what does &#8220;elasson&#8221; mean&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">Original Word: \u1f10\u03bb\u03ac\u03c3\u03c3\u03c9\u03bd, \u03bf\u03bd<br \/>\nPart of Speech: Adjective<br \/>\nTransliteration: elass\u00f3n or elatt\u00f3n<br \/>\nPhonetic Spelling: (el-as&#8217;-sone)<br \/>\nShort Definition: less, smaller, inferior<br \/>\nDefinition: less, smaller; poorer, inferior<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and so yea, all the lowercases around here are on purpose.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>John 3:30 &#8211; He must increase, but I must decrease.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Essays and tidbits\u00a0on personal development in the tension of ministry and marketplace. It&#8217;s a journey I suppose&#8230; I tend to think while I walk, and it seems I&#8217;m\u00a0walking, a lot, on a wandering path. So\u00a0I&#8217;m simply recording my thoughts and steps as I wind along this path I can&#8217;t see far ahead on. I advanced [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-7","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/elasson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/elasson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/elasson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/elasson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/elasson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/elasson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/elasson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}