Winter Update Letter!

Grace and peace to you and yours!

I pray that you are receiving this letter at a time of joy and comfort this holiday season. I am writing because it is that time again. What a blessing it is to be able to share life with all of you in a variety of ways. So many things have happened since this summer, I hardly know where to start.

My summer internship at Central Ave. UMC turned out to be a fantastic experience. It has served as an opportunity to learn more about myself and God’s will for my life, as well as a springboard for future opportunities. It was designed to facilitate an exploration of calling and I discovered a calling in multi-site church development. I hope to pursue a vocation in this field of ministry but only time will tell. As a result of this discovery, I decided to drop my religion major to a minor and take additional classes of interest. So far I’ve taken a class on Entrepreneurship and a class on Personal Selling.

In addition to it being a great experience, I was able to walk away from the internship with tangible skills. One in particular is the ability to tell my story as more than a testimony, as a sermon. Since this summer, I have traveled to a couple of churches to preach and I enjoy every minute of it. Through relationships I’ve made this summer, I have been able to speak in other contexts as well, such as a Young Life leaders retreat.

Since the start of the school year, I have also been attempting to build my professional network. I’ve had the opportunity to meet with leaders in multi-site churches and church consulting from Ohio and Tennessee. The meetings are always interesting and educational. I have made some great connections! As I continue to work on models and processes to assist churches with multi-site development, I know the information gathered through these connections and the connections themselves are priceless.

Unfortunately, due to the amount of time and energy I have given to these endeavors, I’ve had to shuffle around my campus activities. I am no longer an active member of the golf team, as of the end of fall season. I will continue to support the team in the spring, however, I will not practice every day or compete. My other campus activities have continued. I lead two small groups, one as a Bible study and one as a life group. I am the Event Coordinator for the Collegiate Entrepreneur’s Organization. I sit on the Student Advisory Board for the Communication Department of the Arts and Sciences College. Last but not least, I sing in People of Worship which is an outreach ministry through the chapel.

My last new development is…a job! Beginning on January 5th, I will work for the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church as a conference consultant specializing in youth work. The contract runs through June and only demands 15 hours of time a week. It’s a step in the right direction!

At this point in my life, so many things change so quickly. For more frequent updates and thoughts, follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/TAShanks, on Facebook at facebook.com/tiffanie.shanks or on my blog at tiffanieinministry.blogspot.com. I’m not sure what life will look like after graduation in May but I know that God is in control. When the time is right I’ll know the plan. Until then I’m enjoying the ride!

In Christ,

Philipians 1:3
Tiffanie ♥

Merry Christmas!

When I think about Christmas I think about three things…faith, hope and love. Imagine that? I don’t think of them in that order though. See, I first think about hope. I think about what great hope the followers of Jesus in the 1st century could have in the fact that God had chosen to come down as the Son of Man to be our salvation. He came down to bring us out! But, where do we get our hope? “Faith is the substance of all things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” Our hope comes from our faith that Jesus is the Son of God, sent by God to be crucified, dead and buried, and to rise again. But that doesn’t happen until Easter. Nowadays its only a few months between Christmas and Easter. In the 1st century there were 33 years between Christmas and Easter. 33 years of faith. 33 years of believing in things that they hadn’t seen happen yet. So, faith in what? Faith in knowing that God has sent His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Why, would God do something like that? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Because He loves us THAT much.

So, when I think about Christmas, why do I think about faith, hope, and love? Because that’s all we really get until Easter! We get faith that Jesus is God’s only Son, hope in God's promise to his nation, and the love of God's sacrifice.