12.12.10

Over the past few months, Ashley and I have been praying and wrestling with our future. We have decided that God has released us from this ministry and it is time for us to move forward with our lives. Today, I am officially giving you notice of my resignation as the Youth Pastor at Cross Community.

It has been a privilege for Ashley and I to serve the Lord by ministering to the students in this church and community.  I have enjoyed the opportunity to experience with these students their spiritual growth and watch them in their activities, sports, and concerts.  God is really working in the lives of these students and I pray that they continue to develop to be the men and women that He wants them to be. Thank you for the privilege of serving at Cross Community. 

National Youth Workers Convention

So... I'm sitting in my hotel room, downtown Nashville, the night before the National Youth Worker's Convention is over, and I must say that my mind is swimming!  As I think about all that God is doing in my life and ministry, there are many variables that will play a part in where CONNECT will be heading in the future as well as myself personally.  It's crazy to see how God nudge's you.  Sometimes you don't realize where you are when you are in ministry day in and day out.  When I was given the opportunity to come down here, it was a perfect opportunity for me to just get away from everything, and be able to reflect!
  Just to catch everyone up to speed, last week at CONNECT I introduced the idea that we are basically stopping everything going on in CONNECT right now.  The only thing we are going to offer to students is on the Wednesday nights when the rest of the church meets, we will be offering a prayer service, where we will be praying for God's wisdom to guide us in the visioning process.  The point of stopping everything is to help us get back on track with where GOD wants to take this ministry.  We will be determining the vision and some practical goals for CONNECT.  This is perfect timing, because down here, I have been given so many great resources on visioning, and relationships, and leading, and students, and looking toward the future... the list goes on and on!
  God is so good to me.  He has blessed me with a great youth group and an awesome "core" group of students, a church that provides me with everything to effectively run a ministry, an awesome wife to give me support, and of course His word to guide, strengthen, lead, challenge, connect me to Him!  It seems sometimes like I feel like we are limited in our ministry, but one thing that I have realized down here is that God is a God who provides in every area, as long as we are willing to trust Him.
  I ask you to pray for me as we are going through this process right now of defining who we are.  It's one thing to say that we are "CONNECT", but what does that mean?!?  Why are doing what we are doing.  Please pray for us as we are deciding who we are and what we stand for so that in the beginning of the year, we can hit the pavement running so fast that Berne can't keep up!

Take It Like A Man

  It has been awhile since I have updated my blog.  There is quite a bit going on in our youth right now!  We have so many students coming on wednesday nights right now!  We were just under 60 last week and I am gearing up for just as many this week.  We started a new series titled "Take It Like A Man" where we have been looking at some traits of a Godly man.  This whole thing has been kind of spun around the Ironman theme where we have been pulling some ideas about what it is to be a "man" based on the characters in the movie.  Last week, we tackled the Big picture. and that Big Picture, believe it or not is circumcision.  You see, back in the OT, when the idea first came around, Abraham had to cut a piece of himself to claim that he was God's.  That was the agreement that God made with him.  As time went on, and Jesus died for us, the ultimate death,  circumcision took on a new meaning.  This new meaning was that we have to cut a piece out of our own selfish person to make room for what God can make us!  THATS the big picture!  we have to cut out our own self to make room for the Almighty God in ourselves so that we can become like him.
  Part of the small picture, we talked about last week was one of the three characteristics that this series was going to tackle: the first being Humility.  We talked a whole bunch about where humility fits in and how in the movie, the definition of a man is quite the opposite of humility and Tony Stark's pride almost kills him in the end!  We have got to break down this stereotype that a man has to be so proud that He can't take a knee. Thats what we discussed last wednesday.
   This week, I now have a new twist that was just given to me from God tonight, Sunday evening.  It is actually shaping the second part of this series and we are going to focus on an OT Bible character who shows us what it's like to be a man after God's own heart!  We have been given a strong challenge and as hard as it is, we as men need to stand up to that challenge, especially when we are still young and forming our ways!  Please, Please, Please pray for the young men in our youth group to be challenged so much that they make some strong commitments this week to redevelop some of the habits in their lives.

iLife week 3

We had a great night at Connect this past Wednesday!  We had quite a large number of students up in the youth room actually, which is really starting to get the gears in my head turning on what we should do, because we are maxed out on space.  That is a great problem to have, but it will probably have to be addressed soon.  Although numbers don't tell us everything, they do offer some help on if we are attracting students, and with over 50 students up in that room, it tells us, at least they feel comfortable to bring their friends.  Now we need to make sure that we are making Eternal connections with all of them!  Right now I am reading a book on building a sustainable youth ministry.  The goal for me is not to build a ministry that when it is time for me to move on, people say wow, that was a great time, but for me to build a foundation where the ministry continues to grow whoever the youth pastor is.  That is my challenge.
  As we are going through this series on iLife, we have been discussing rules that God has designed for relationships.  We pick up these phrases that we live by, like "if you don't have anything nice to say... Don't say anything at all" or "Don't cry over spilt milk." We actually took one very popular phrase, "Mind your own business"  and shredded it up at Connect.  The problem with MYOB is it is not Biblical at all!  Christ calls us to be one body with many parts and as a body, if there is something that you can do to help another part of that body, why would you not help them! Our culture teaches us that we should just mind our own business because we don't want to get messy or it's not our concern, but the truth is, if we see a Christian brother or sister in sin, we have got to address it and if we don't, we are actually hurting the body of Christ!  This can be a challenging task!  Many times when you confront a friend in love, they are in a "sin matrix," where they can't clearly see the true direction of where they are headed.  Wednesday night I urged the students to try and work through this with their friends and help them realize that what they are doing to themselves and to the body of Christ.  It was a powerful night and I am so lucky for the teens that I get to work with weekly!  Please pray that these students step up to the challenge to Encourage their friends and family, boyfriend/girlfriends, to address the issues in their lives! Thank God for friends who care enough to challenge us in our walks!

September Sermon Series

In the month of September we have been going through a series by Doug Fields called iLife.  This series is all about our relationships!  Not boy/girl relationships, all relationships: mom & dad, friends, enemies, siblings, boy/girl relationships... everyone!  There are basically two ways we can look at our relationships: first the way that the world tells us we should treat others (treat others the way they treat you) or second, the way that God has specifically designed relationships to work the best!  Why would we not listen to the one who created relationships in the first place!  Each week we tackle a different irule (a rule that God has designed for us to have the best relationships possible).
     The first week we simply talked about forgiveness.  That is the foundational element in a friendship.  Eventually, we are going to do something that needs to be forgiven, and we all have experienced something that someone has done that we needed to forgive them for.  This is basic.  This is elemental!  Many of our students have gone through pretty tough stuff.  Maybe they have had some issues with parents, or a girlfriend/boyfriend that has broken their hearts!  One thing that we have to constantly remember is that no matter what, we have been forgiven way more than anything else someone has done to us:  when Christ died on the cross, he took all of our sins and forgave us even before we were born!  Why on earth would we hold something so trivial over someone else and not be able to forgive them after Christ has wiped us completely clean!  I know that it is hard sometimes when someone intentionally hurts you, but in no way does those things  measure up to the perfect example.  If we want to be like Christ, we have got to forgive.
     Last week we tackled Acceptance.  Same concept.  Why on earth would we not be able to accept someone after God has accepted us even after all the things we have done against him. Thank goodness we have a Savior huh! I would strongly suggest that as this series goes on through the month, be sure to check back to see what we are talking about at Connect!  This is an interesting and powerful series.  Please pray that the right students are here on the right nights to hear what God wants to say to them individually!

We've changed our name!  Student underground is now named "Connect."  Basically we wanted to create our own identity and so we have been working on coming up with a new name!  After much thought and discussion, we kind of brainstormed this idea that students come to our youth group to get connected to God, to others, to the word... therefore, what better name than 'Connect.'  Going with this theme, you can see down in the bottom corner of this picture, our new symbol: the word Connect with an ipod charger cable!  Perfect!  Today's students are developed by things that plug in.  We want at Cross Community Church to make sure they get connected to right things, not only the things the world is telling them they should get connected into.

South Adams Homecoming

This week is South Adams Homecoming so there are lots of activities going on with the students.  Last night, they had their powder puff girls football game and boys volleyball.  Most of our high school students went to those activities, which made the youth room a lil' less crowded than usual.  We still had quite a few students show up for youth though which was great!  Because I knew we would have mostly Jr. Higher's, we played some pretty fun games!  First a game called Toga, where you have to basically play tag with a dodgeball.  Also, had 3 students come up and have a choice to either "take a bite" or "take a seat." Each round they had to take a bite out of a large union, just like you would an apple!  It was pretty gross, but the students all loved it.
  We talked about being "made."  We all want to become different things because we are all wired different.  Although we are all wired different, there are still some things that God has "made" us all the same.  We talked about how we are like clay.  We talked about how God is our potter and no matter what our plans our, sometimes He will mold us different than what we want, because He has a better plan for us!  We also talked about how clay is soft.  We need to have a soft heart, and we discussed how we move towards a soft heart.  If you are still curious about this lesson, be sure to ask your students about this message.  I'm sure they will be willing to talk to you about it! :)

School has started

Well, now that school has started, my phone is much quieter :)  What a great summer we had though.  There are many memories that were made that will never be forgotten.  The students were ready to head back to school though and it seems as if they are enjoying themselves with catching up with old friends, working on the new classes and training for their sports.  The past few weeks we have been discussing what evangelism means and how they can take that back to school with them.  You can always stand by the flag pole and scream "If you don't have Jesus, you will burn in Hell!!!" or you can have a more relational, (and quite possibly more effective ministry,) approach to reach the people you love.  We defined evangelism as "Caring about God and the people who don't know Him."  Evangelism doesn't have to be so outrageous.  We talked about three main principles when it comes to evangelism: being a good friend, having a good lifestyle, and being careful with your words.  In order to reach someone with a 'relational' aspect, you first must be a good friend to them.  We talked about what true friends look like.  Also, we talked about what does it mean to have good lifestyle and what integrity means in the Bible.  The third week is when I told them they have to be intentional in the words they use if they want to see their friends know Jesus the way that they do.  All this is to help train them for the first few weeks of school.  This wednesday, we will be tackling "Labels" and the labels we give the people when we see them for the first time.  My goal in this season is to give them some basic training when they are heading back to school.  Please pray for me to help them as they are finding out who they are in this world.

Loose Lips Sink Ships

Well, if you weren't at church sunday morning, you missed a Tony message :) With Randy on medical leave right now, I am getting a chance to preach a lil' more frequent lately. This sunday we discussed some pretty heavy stuff! The txt came from James 3.2-6 focusing on how our tongues are very powerful. Just as a ship's rudder can change the direction of a giant boat, your tongue also is just as powerful! In berne, this is something that we all deal with because it's such a small town. One little thing can happen and we tend to drag it out for the sake that there is not much else to talk about! :) The problem is, this will keep us from growing closer to God! It is clear throughout the Bible that gossiping is not tolerated. The Bible defines "Gossip" as "one who reveals secrets, one who goes about as a talebearer or scandel-monger" Gossip is distinguished from sharing information in two ways: the intent, and the information you are sharing! Even Jesus felt strong about this! In Matthew 12.33-37 Jesus belts some "religious leaders" about the issue! His main point in the scolding was "whatever is in your heart determines what you say! A good person produces good words and an evil person produces evil words" So... What do we do about all this gossip? We have to ask ourselves, Why the heck are we gossiping? yes it is human nature, but if we want to grow closer to God, we have got to cut it out!!! If you have an issue with someone the Bible clearly gives us a procedure for taking care of it. First we need to go talk to the person, if that doesn't work, bring a few with you. and if the issue is still there, bring in the church leadership. The last thing we talked about was 3 things we need to think about before we start sharing our information. Perry Noble says before you go sharing... #1 make sure you have your facts straight. #2 make sure that your source is reliable and #3 Resist the urge to seem to be the person "in the know." This is some good food for thought for all of us and I do believe that it was challenging for many.

Wednesday Nite Meetings

After careful consideration, I feel that it might be beneficial to keep updating this site about our youth ministry, and theology in general. Ashley is laughing at me as I type this out :) Tonight, being the first time together since Fuge, I wanted to create an environment where students would feel challenged to keep growing. We talked about Acts 2, and the beginning of the church. One of the main essentials that they had in the early church (right after Jesus ascended into heaven) was Community. It says "All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. Looking at the whole passage (Acts 2.41-47) we pulled 5 major things that we can do that are small acts, that will make God BIG! First we talked about how they met constantly, and we need to be committed to community. Also, they shared their stuff, so we need to be committed to sharing! Third, we talked about how the early church worshiped together and how worship is so much more than just singing, that is just one piece of the pie. Worship includes singing, praying, learning the Word, communion, and even fellowship! Today, we need to be committed to Worship. The fourth thing we talked about was how they cared for others and what does that look like. So many times we care about good things such as prolife, or living green, but do we care about people? We need to be committed to caring! And the last thing that we wrestled with was how they enjoyed each other! Youth are great at this. They are able to make friends with students who aren't in the same 'social club' as them such as the wrestling team, or even the same school! As a YP I get to see this played out daily! I love it! So the last thing we need to be committed to is to be committed to friendships. Overall, the bottom line is that if we living with a community focused mind, God will become BIG! and what we saw from Acts was that when they lived this way, what happened? "And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved" ~Acts 2.47 What a reward, we could only hope for one so good!

Well, fuge has finished and we are in the hotel for the evening. There were many commitments made on thursday and all the last goodbye's to their new friends were said and we headed out at about 11am to spend some time in Panama City Beach, FL. First stop we went to was Alvin's Island, a giant beach store equipped with live alligators! The students had a chance to pet a baby florida alligator and pick up some gifts for their families. After that, we found a taco bell/subway/burger king and got some fast food. After getting some energy, we headed down to the county pier to check out the ocean. most of the students didn't swim because all of the oil has pushed the oceans wildlife up into the shores so we didn't want to get eaten. Also the water has been filled with seaweed all week long, yuck! Following the pier, we checked into our hotel rooms and then headed out for the city. Half of the students went to the mall and the other half headed back to the beach and then the hotel swimming pool to enjoy the weather. Some of the girls will be coming home with quite a few shopping bags... fyi :) We met back up for 15 pizzas and a bunch of mountain dews in the hotel lobby and now, getting ready to fall asleep. Pray for our 6hr trip to priceville/Decatur AL tomorrow. We will be leaving around 10am. The students will have their phones in the car, so if you haven't had a chance to talk to your students, then would be a great time!

Wednesday has been a really hot day, but we still had a blast! today some of our fun events were snorkling, water sports, skimboarding, basketball and a variety show. Josh Armenta did a great job singing a worship song with a new friend from Texas. He was chosen for a spot, only 5 for the whole camp! Another big event, our guys won the Volleyball competition and even beat the fuge staff! Love having some powerful athletes! The weather was sunny most the day, got a lil' rain right after supper, but we were inside for our evening worship service so no one got wet :) Tonight's service was great! The camp pastor spoke on 1 John and is doing a great job relating with the students. They are also enjoying the worship band. Our quiet time/Bible study was on Daniel today and the students had so much to talk about in our church devotions on what they have learned about obedience. They learned so much about Daniel and were so excited to tell everyone what they are learning with their recreation games. Most of the games are centered around trust. Fortunately, we haven't had any injuries or accidents yet! Please pray for our safety and for God to continue to move in our students lives!

Volleyball Champs! 1st place! :)

Well, day 2 is almost over. We have had a great day, although we did get a lil' rain shower in the afternoon. The students are having a great time and getting the chance to meet many students from Alabama, Mississippi, and even a few from Texas! Some of the activities we have been doing are skimboarding, volleyball, water sports (soccer in the pool!), ultimate frisbee, and sand sculptures. The weather is about 90 but feels like over 100 with the humidity and we are still all getting used to it. Josh Butler has been down for the count the past few hours, but is starting to feel better after getting some good rest. Please keep Heather and her family in your prayers as they are going through a family emergency.
Today's focus was on Jonah and how we need to be listening to God and show our love to all of those who need him! Keep praying for the safety of our students so they don't overheat in this weather :)

Hey friends and family, we've had a great 2 days! Sorry I haven't been able to post yet. Last night we had no service where we were camping after rafting. We had a great day yesterday! No van trouble, and lots of laughs! The rafting was a blast and the only raft that flipped just happened to be mine with the jr highers... How ironic! :) fortunately, there was no injuries and we have something great to look back on. We were really worried about our cabin not having air conditioning but thankfully we did! Tenn was very hot, but we all had a good nights sleep!
We made it to fuge about 3pm again forunately without and vehicle trouble! The beach looks awesome and we are ready for a great week! Please pray that everyone keeps enough water in them and we don't have any exhaustion. The facilities are pretty nice and I appriciate the AC! Still have a long week ahead of us!

Hey! This is my first post here. This website is set up to help the people who are praying and supporting our youth at Cross Community stay informed at what's happening in Panama City, Fl while we are at Fuge this year. Be sure to check it out because there will be updates and pictures added daily while we are on our trip!