Communication

I learn more about Jesus and Scripture through listening to a good sermon than through any other form of communication.  But I'm the exception.  I grew up in a church tradition that placed a very high value on the sermon.  I work with students who grew up in a tradition that places the highest value on the communion and prayer.  Neither is bad or wrong, but they are different.  This presents a challenge for me, who is used to communicating the truth of God's word in a very traditional sermoneqsque format.  The question is, how can I communicate the truth of the gospel to our students in innovative, relevant ways?  I'm not advocating ending preaching, I'm just seeking to maximize the effects of the time we have with our students.  Maybe we move to a small group, discussion driven wednesday night?  Maybe something else?  What are some innovative ways to communicate the gospel to young people? 

Treasure

I'm still excited and feeling energetic about what is happening at Christ Church on Wednesday Nights.  We are in week 4 of entourage, and are going to be looking at why we follow Jesus.  The disciples ask Jesus in Matthew 18 who will be the greatest, not understanding the ultimate goal of following Jesus.  We don't follow Jesus because of what we get from him, we follow Jesus because Jesus is what we get.  My prayer for our student ministry has and is that God opens our students eyes to the truth of the Gospel, and that irresistible grace inflames their souls with a passion to know and love God through the propitiation of Christ on the Cross.  I hope they begin to want more than to check church off and live life for themselves.  I want badly for the treasure that a relationship with Christ is becomes the focus of their lives and they glorify God.  This week we will be exploring what Jesus means when he says that the disciples need to have faith like a child.  We will talk about what it looks like to love God as a teenager in a culture that makes it so difficult to seek holiness and the person of Christ.  Continue to pray for the souls of our students with me, that they would see God as loving King, and not angry cosmic killjoy.  I pray God will make us excited about him.  

The Scriptures

I've got to teach the most difficult lesson I've ever taught on Sunday.  I'm teaching our confirmation class this week, and the topic is "Why the Bible is the Source of Ultimate Truth".  I'm a little intimidated to teach this because of what a weighty, complex issue that is to teach at all, but by the task of taking that and packaging it in a way that 15 and 16 year olds grasp it.  I've been studying all week, and found some incredibly helpful stuff.  The Resurgence website has a teaching by John Piper on Why he trusts the scriptures and that was amazing.  Anyways, my hope for this teaching is that God uses it to inflame our students hearts to have a trust and a passion for his word.  I pray that God draws them into an understanding of his word that excites them, and spurs them to viewing and using scripture as the foundation of their life, and not a boring obligation they have to listen to twice a Eucharist on Sunday.  I'm excited to present the word of God to a group of students, but I have a great deal of trepidation about doing so accurately and clearly.  God's word is not something I want to speak on erroneously.  Pray God draws our students towards him, using his word in their lives, as a catalyst sending them into a relationship with him.  And pray for my teaching to be concise, clear and relevant.  

Who Do you Say that I am?

We are in the full swing of entourage on wednesday nights.  Tonight is 80's night complete with costume contest and music video karaoke.  More importantly, we are in matthew 16:13-19, Peter's Confession.  There was a lot of confusion about the identity of Christ during his earthly ministry.  Nothing has changed.  We live in a culture that is just as confused about the identity of Christ as the culture Jesus walked in.  Who do people say that I am?  That is the question Jesus asks his disciples in the text, and that is the question we will answer tonight.  Who does culture say the Jesus is?  Great teacher?  Hippie?  Rebel? More importantly we are going to answer the second question Christ poses to the disciples.  Who do you say that I am?  Our view of Christ has a direct correlation to how we follow him.  Are we following a teacher?  Are we following a philosopher?  Are we following the living God who defeated sin and died to serve as a substituionary atonement for us? How does who you think Jesus is effect how you relate to him?  

Home

I love living in Greenville.  I love our church, our home and our friends, but I still miss Dallas.  Mainly, I miss my friends.  While I was doing Seminary on Campus, I was blessed to have a group of about 8 friends who were very close with each other.  We all had similar interests, goals and passions.  I was able to connect with one of those guys on Sunday.  He got married about a month before me, and has a very similar outlook on church, ministry, etc. as I do.  After talking to him for about 20 minutes I realized how much I had left behind in Texas.  I miss the camaraderie and accountability with guys like him. By the way, if you are reading this and you are in any type of leadership position in a church, this particular guy NEEDS to be on your radar.  His name is Brian Rayburn, and he is on staff with the college ministry at Lakepointe after being a youth pastor at a very successful church in Asia.  Listen to him teach via their podcast.  Brian is the most gifted communicator I've ever known.  If you are smart, you will find him and give him a position.  Anyways, I'm excited to have friends like Brian.  Guys who I'm going to do ministry with for the next 40 years.  We're going to struggle with ministry, family and life together for a long time.  Thank God for relationships. 

Paradigm RE-Shift

In the 70's/80's youth ministry began to really professionalize. The church saw a need to reach students for Christ, and knew they had to reach students differently than they would reach adults. Specifically, as the church's awareness of the need to reach unchurched people began to shift, the paradigm of youth ministry began to shift as well. Because the typical teenager that did not know Christ would never go to church on Sunday morning, we started Wednesday night programs that were innovative, creative and effective. Students who would never come to church to hear about Christ were now entering into a relationship with Jesus and becoming followers of him. After they were plugged into a Wednesday night ministry, as their faith grew, so did their tendency to go to church. The formerly unchurched student now loves Jesus and wants to grow his or her faith. Sunday School (if the church offered it) was the next step in his/her development. That model continues to be very effective, especially in non denominational churches that do such a great job of reaching the unchurched for Christ. A mid week program is a great way to reach unchurched students. I currently serve at a large, traditional, mainline denominational church, and we kicked off our mid week program called entourage two weeks ago, and it's been interesting to watch. Because of the vision and demographics of the bible churches I've been at, the question was always how do we reach the unchurched for Christ? The question that has arisen at Christ Church Greenville has been different, it's "How do we reach Churched Students for Christ?" A lot of students at our church (like any in the bible belt) go to church sunday because their parents make them. It's what is done in the south on sunday before football comes on television. Simply attending church no longer means some one follows Christ. The majority of our unreached students show up on sunday morning, not wednesday night. The wednesday nighters are serious enough about their faith to make the extra time at church a priority. This is a completely different paradigm than that seen in the "typical" American youth program. If we make Wednesday night the outreach level program, (which we have been doing) then the kids who are at the outreach level faith wise aren't going to come. The outreach level students are there on Sunday Morning. How do we eschew the traditional Sunday Morning Model in a way that we reach the students when they come? I feel like in the coming years here, we are going to explore changing the wednesday night paradigm. If we want to connect with the students who aren't committed followers of Christ, we are going to have to do it when they are going to come, which is Sunday morning. What does that look like? How can we re-invent Sunday Morning to connect our fringe students? What do you think?