Category: Ministry

Today was a great day!  Even with the hardships of the week, today was so refreshing.  I was given an opportunity to preach at my home church of Crossroads Christian Church and it was so enjoyable to get to do something that has definitely become a passion in my life.  It has been about a year since I had actually gotten to preach anywhere. Granted, I had taught in youth group and 5th & 6th grade ministry settings, but I hadn’t preached since September of 2010.  Honestly, I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy getting to dig into God’s word and preach.  Today reminded me of that and reminded me that maybe it’s time to start looking for where God might be leading me.  I’m ready!  It’s time to officially start the search for the next ministry that God is leading me to.  Today was a great day!

Steven Furtick (www.stevenfurtick.com) of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC posted a great blog recently.  Actually, he has posted a lot of great blogs recently but this last one really hit me hard enough that I decided to share.  Enjoy.

Staying out of trouble vs. Walking in your calling Posted: 10 Jun 2010 02:00 AM PDT I have a deep passion to see this present generation of students have a God-sized impact on the world. In my opinion, there has never been a group in history with more potential to be used by God to further His Kingdom. They have the resources. They have the gifting. And most importantly, they have the audacity to believe that God can actually use them to accomplish the impossible. Which makes it all the more aggravating that we’re losing this generation. Some think it’s their lack of commitment. Others think it’s because they lack structure and are just too wild. Each of these suggestions places the problem on the students. I think the problem lies with us. We haven’t given them something worthy of giving themselves completely over to. Instead we’ve settled for simply trying to keep them out of trouble. We are training them to be good little boys and girls. God did not raise them up for that. He wants them to be great men and women of God. He has placed a calling on their lives. Collectively and individually. And this is what we need to spend all of our time and energy communicating. Students do not need us to be behavioral modification specialists. They need us to demonstrate what it looks like to walk in your calling. The vision we are casting before them is too small. The challenge we are presenting isn’t great enough. I feel that the greatest peril in modern Christianity relating to youth culture is that we are under challenging this generation of students with an anemic alternate version of the Gospel that isn’t worth keeping your pants on for. We lull them to sleep with do’s and don’ts instead of waking them up to the God-given potential inside of them. The truth is you can stay out of trouble but fall short of your calling. You can stay out of trouble, but live a life of little impact or significance. When a student comes to understand that God has something for them far greater than sex, alcohol, and the pursuit of short-lived high school popularity, everything changes. These things lose their attractiveness. And it has nothing to do with staying out of trouble. Their motivation is that they would not dare risk the glorious destiny God has for them by wasting their time on anything that could short-circuit it. Students (and all of us for that matter) don’t need rules to live by. They need a calling to live for.