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!