James Schick is a Papa

James Schick is my kid's youth pastor, and James Schick is the real deal. He is in his mid-to-late-twenties which makes him old enough to have been in my youth group in Maine. That realization came to me only recently when kids from my Maine days started finding me on FaceBook. I had never really thought of him that way early on and now I am used to him just being James. James is a wonderful preacher, and he served faithfully as interim pastor during our two years without a shepherd. One of the things I knew he prayed about was the future dynamics between him and the new guy. I absolutely understood that feeling and really prayed for that specifically too because our church had gone through a very long transition period, and James was instrumental in holding things together.

Kevin, our new pastor is a gem and he and James have really hit it off. He and James are not alike at all, but they are very compatible.

If I were driving a truck and Kevin and James were dogs riding in the cab with me, James would be the calm one staring at his paws or maybe staring at the jangling ignition keys. He'd be thinking, but you wouldn't know exactly what. Kevin, on the other hand, would be halfway out the window, tongue hanging out, ears flapping in the wind and baying at anything walking down the road...don't misunderstand me, I've seen James go after a referee in one of our school football games; and Kevin couldn't put together those signature sermons or initiate a plan to move our church in the direction it needs to go without his intellect. Personality-wise though?
...It works...at least in my mind.