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.