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!