Nugget of Goodness

Some of the most fun, entertaining moments I have had with students are so random and not planned out. This past Sunday night in one of the Senior High Guy LifeGroups we were watching the Duke/Baylor NCAA Tournament game. While watching we decided to play a game of PIG on a kiddy hoop that was nearby. Coming up with different shots and craziness to get everyone else out was hysterical. Planned events and programs are a good thing and necessary sometimes!! Don't get so caught up in those that you miss the little random moments that make a difference as well!!

My shot of choice was nicknamed "granny on the square" - so good!!

Passion of the Christ

Showing this film on Good Friday here at SGC... rated R for graphic violence due to Christs torture and death on the cross. For a lot of the students they would have been to young to see it when it first came out a few years ago. In my opinion I believe they should see it with parents consent or with their parents. It depicts what Christ went through for us, Jesus made a way for us to have fellowship with His Father in heaven, made a way for us to have heaven as an option... without it we were a hopeless people! Ideally it would be to have parents come and watch it with their student!!

Good thing to encourage students to come and see the film?? Bad??? Thoughts??

Giving them a piece...

In student ministry its all about giving up pieces of the pie to get more people involved, delegate and allow the skills, talents and abilities of your volunteer staff and students shine!!

I am a control freak, I know what I want, I know what it takes and if its not done to the expectation I have for it then Ill just do it myself.

1. I need to get over myself... enough said

2. God can speak through and use anyone... not the qualified, its the called

I am striving to get more people involved in the programming, event planning, mentoring, discipleing, the ministry will be more effective and YOU/I cant be everywhere all the time. Tap into the talent that your ministry has in its midst. God will use them, you just have to get out of the way!

Madness...

This is a great time of year, 65 teams with visions of a national championship!! Fighting to be called the best and greatest team this year. Tons of games, tons of brackets, tons of upsets... love it! Its a time where people cheer for the underdog, cheer for their favorite team, cheer for the team they picked to win it all so they can win their office pool... it boils down to Passion. Passion for the game of basketball & seeing the classic David vs. Goliath battle and the little guy winning. We love being passionate about things, its in our DNA, its how we were made.

God created us passionate, he wants the same passion we show to March Madness/NFL/MLB/Music/Clothing/Shoes/Friendships/College Football/Texting/Facebook/Twitter/Status/Success/wealth/cars/houses!! Not a piece of it, the whole thing. In Romans 12:1 Paul is challenging us to be living sacrifices, it's our act of worship!!

We Become what we worship...

Staying In Front

With technology the way it is today its more important than ever to stay in front of students any way possible. There are so many negative influences out there in media, something positive is a breath of fresh air. Twitter, Facebook, Texting, Blogs, Youtube... etc are ways that you can stay in front of your students and present positive messages that encourage them in their walk with Christ. There are a lot of people who don't get into these things for various reasons... I believe that these are tools that we can use to make an impact...

The story of the Prodigal son is a great display of unconditional love but it also shows us a reality of the elder brother... In that story the younger brother goes off to live wildly... a true elder brother would have gone after him and rescue him from destroying his life... the elder brother in the story doesn't do this because he is to concerned with his share of the estate, what people think about him and doing the things he was "supposed" to do. He missed the point... we miss the point a lot of times... We shouldnt be sitting back letting students come to us... we need to be going after them... encouraging them, challenging them to live for something bigger than themselves...

Stay in Front of them, Go after them, show them Jesus!

Great Conversation

Ministry gets hectic, crazy, overwhelming, trying etc... on and on sometimes... Its amazing that God can be working in so many areas and you get to see Him at work daily in tons of positive ways and yet those couple things that are negative seem to floor you...

I almost missed a moment with some students the other night that was profound and should have hit me the minute it happened... I had the privilege of joining one of our student LifeGroups Sunday night. We were in a discussion talking about how people in America get complacent in our faith, get to comfortable with where we are at and we take for granted our freedom to worship God and meet in small groups like this without any repercussions... then one student spoke up "it drives me crazy that there are so many hurting people in the world and we do nothing about it... we play video games and think about what we are going to do on friday night and we do nothing about the people who are in need..." WOW... pondering that later I realized I have been way to focused on me, myself and I and almost missed out on a few of our students who's heart is passionate about "the least of these" and helping out people in need...

Dont lose sight of what God is calling you to do... do let yourself get in the way...

Not About Me...

Lately I have found myself thinking to much into certain aspects of students lives, beating myself up about things that I cant control, worrying about certain students who have so much potential but just dont get it yet. I have came to the realization that my attitude here was that of control and "what am I doing about it" instead of relying on the Holy Spirit to guide the situations and let God work. How arrogant am I? This hit me like a ton of bricks this week... I haven't blogged in some time because I think I have been to wrapped up in what I am doing, whats going on at Crossfire because of what I programmed, said, did.

Dear God, forgive me for my pride, selfishness, arrogance... take control, do what you will in my life, use me but not for my glory God for YOURS!!!

Are you in the same boat?? Do you go through your week and not give God a second thought?? God wants 100% of you... not just a little piece... that means our status, career, family, friends, church... everything...

God is obsessed with us and we dont give him the time of day most of the time and we arent even sorry about it...

Obsession = Unashamed, Unbridled, Overwhelming LOVE

or in other words... what we OWE Him because of what He's done for us...