Discipleship

Youth ministry: Are you making them think…One of my goals in minisrty and life.

/ youthguysteve / Leave a comment

question-mark

Have you ever thought about why you believe and trust in Jesus?  This weekend I asked my high school students this important question.  They struggled to put into words the reasons why they trust in Jesus.  I enjoyed that. I think of all the things I want my students to do with their faith is think.  I think being a disciple of Jesus means we think.  I want them to struggle with this Jesus of Nazareth, and what he said and did.  I think all too often we send students out of our ministry without having them really grapple with this question of who is Jesus, and why we believe and trust in him. I wouldn’t say the students struggled with believing and trusting in Jesus.  We all have doubts and struggles with Jesus, but that isn’t why they struggled to answer the question.  They struggled because they never thought about it.  They never had to put into words the reason for the hope they have in Him.

I think one of the most important things I do as a church worker is challenge my students to think.  Too often in Christian churches and youth ministries we forget to make our students think.  I think we think it is enough to just tell them the answers and then they can say them back to others, but being a follower of Jesus is questioning our leaders and other who claim to know this Jesus.  Being a disciple of Jesus is that struggle with the scripture and struggle with faith in this God who cares for us. To struggle with why I believe in this Jesus.  Why I trust those that saw him and heard what he said.  It is part of growing up and growing in Jesus.  We never fully understand. It is a lifetime of struggle and thinking but it is so important for all of us to think to wrestle with Jesus.

I didn’t want to answer yet why I trust and believe in this Jesus. They asked me but we aren’t at that point yet.  This journey may take a little while because they need to struggle with it.  We all need to struggle with this faith and trust in Jesus thing. So my question for you is are you struggling with your faith, and trust in Jesus? If you aren’t I would challenge you to struggle with it.  I would challenge you to dive into your scripture to struggle with what Jesus said.  In the struggle and thinking we grow.  I want to grow and struggle and think so I may know Jesus more.  I also pray the Holy Spirit guides this process as we struggle.  The Holy Spirit guided those early disciples who struggled and thought and believed in Jesus and know he will be with those of us who are Jesus’ disciples today.

Change makes everyone angry…Jesus brought change.

/ youthguysteve / Leave a comment

untitled

Change is hard. People don’t like change. People don’t want to change their lives. People don’t want to change their actions. People don’t want to change really anything about themselves. We like to be comfortable and safe. We like things to run just the way they have because we know what to expect. The only time people like change is they are the one making the changes. I had a friend who used to say “I like change as long as I am the one making the changes.”

Change is something we don’t like but is a part of life as a disciple. Thank God it is. I am struck by how when change happens to me I really don’t like it. Change is hard and painful but often necessary. I struggle with change because I am messy. My relationship with Jesus is messy. You see I don’t always like to look in the mirror and see the changes that need to be made. I struggle with the changed life in Jesus. It isn’t a strait line with a definite end point. It has a beginning in baptism, it has and end in Death but the middle is messy. I think it is why we get so angry with our faith because we want everything to be better and easy. Our sinful nature in all of us is a twisty road, and just when we think we get the hang of it we take another turn, we are reminded of more change needed in our lives and the need for Christ’s grace.

This weekend as I sat and participated in Easter services I thought about change. I thought about the changes in my life. I think about people who come in and out of it. I thought about my faith life and how the resurrection of Jesus really impacted me. How Jesus came to change the equation, how He came to change me. You see when I see the cross and empty tomb I think about how Jesus came to forgive me and to change me. To take me from my original place and move me to another place. A place of change. A place where I have to look in a mirror and know I am a broken man, yet I have a risen savior who is changing my life. Not just saving me, but changing my life.

The cross brings change. The resurrection brings change. Many people get angry at Church, Church workers, faithful people, and family because they remind us of our need for Jesus. They point us to a Jesus who didn’t come to keep the status quo in our lives, but to bring change. The cross and resurrection brought about the greatest change. It brought you who were dead into a new life, but the change didn’t stop there. The spirit continues to work on you and me.

Change is a struggle but it is part of being a Disciple of Christ. So when you are feeling that frustration with the change look to the cross and empty tomb, and the change it brought for you. That change from being away from God to being with God in Christ Jesus.

Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Romans 7:16-25a ESV

Come and listen! Come and listen to what Jesus has done!

/ youthguysteve / Leave a comment

Image

One of my favorite songs by David Crowder Band is “Come and listen.” The song reminders me of the importance of sharing with people what Jesus has done for them. Sometimes in ministry we forget how essential that is. As I was sitting with a bunch of high school students for youth group I was stuck by something. I was struck by my calling to bring people to come and listen to Jesus.

I find in ministry I can fail at the sharing with people what Jesus has done for them.  I can struggle to hear for myself what Jesus has done for me. Every three weeks at youth group I have asked our students to take 30 minutes in prayer. We spend time praying for friends requests on our prayer wall. We also spend some of that time in the scripture. This week during that time I opened up to Ezekiel 37. It is one of my favorite texts in all of scripture. I love the story it tells about dry bones. I love what is says about our life of faith and our walk with Jesus. It talks about God’s promise to bring us from death to life. It points us to Jesus and what he does for us.

I have found in my life that often when we are struggling with their faith, when our faith is dyeing, it is because we haven’t come and listened. We forgot the importance of being in God’s word and listening to what he has done. .

So the question today I am struggling with, am I coming and listening? Am I helping students come and listen to what Jesus has done? Am I listening to what Jesus has done for me on the cross and in my life each day? How about you?  If not I would ask you to come with me and listen to what Jesus has done for you and me.

Are we pointing them to Jesus?

/ youthguysteve / Leave a comment

chapel

This weekend I got to spend time doing something I really enjoy.  I spent time at Concordia University Ann Arbor at an event I spent four years serving and investing in to help students grow in faith.  It was a joy to take students to this event this year, but it was probably more special to me because my daughter was able to attend the event as well. This weekend was definitely the high of the week.

The problem with ministry much like life is that it is filled with far too many lows and not nearly enough highs.  You see the whole week leading up to the event is spent in the mundane of meetings, meetings, reading, meetings…did I mention meetings.  It was a long week.  Thankfully, it was a fulfilling time in life and ministry.

I think I discovered why it was so fulfilling based on the Gospel lesson for last Sunday.  John 3:16 is one of those texts that is very powerful and although it gives me great hope I think the important part of the verse is the story leading up to it, John 3:1-15.  The story brings images of the symbol of us living in darkness and Jesus being our light.  I love how Jesus reminds us of the point of this season in the Church year, His cross.

We, as the Church and disciples of God are called to point His people to the cross.  At Tool Time, I got to experience a group of students leading an event dedicated to leading students to that cross (this is not an altar call moment).  What I mean is these students were constantly showing the students I serve, Jesus.  Whether it was small groups, general session speakers, or time in the chapel for offerings, the goal of the weekend was to show them Jesus’ love.  It wasn’t about awesome bands, or great sets, servant events, or funny skits.  All those things were about pointing kids to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

This week reminded me of something so important in my ministry and my life.  It is how I should judge everything I do with students, with my family, and with those I meet.  I should say to myself did I show them Jesus?  Did I point them to the cross?  No matter how you do this, no matter what vocation God has called you to serve in, remember our call as the people of Christ is to point them to Jesus. I want to point them to His life, death, and resurrection so that we might have that eternal life hear on earth and in the life to come.

Have you compelled them to come to the banquet yet?

/ youthguysteve / Leave a comment

banquethall2

Recently I spent some time with some new and old friends talking about ministry.  We were eating together, as is the case with many church workers.  I enjoy food, but the guys I was eating with seemed to enjoy it just a little bit more… well actually a lot more. They love to share food with each other and enjoy the experience together. It was a great time. I love food and I love how good food can bring about such good conversation. It is a way for many of us to break down walls and really listen. (Mostly the listening comes from stuffing our faces with food.) Good food really does bring about great joy and conversation.

This eating together reminded my of a text of scripture I recently read while preparing some of my students for 30 hour famine. Luke 14:12-24, is one of my favorite texts in scripture. I love how Jesus invited the the lowly.  He calls the crippled and the lame.  The crippled, who in Jesus’ day were the outcasts.  The people who wouldn’t have been allowed in the temple or anywhere God was present, because they were unclean, unworthy to be in God’s presence and grace.  They were unworthy to join in the fellowship because they weren’t good enough.  Jesus in this parable reminds us that we who sit at the table are the lowly beggars the sick and lame. We are not worthy to be in His presence but we are anyway, because of his graciousness.  We give thanks to God for this.

More importantly I was struck by Luke 14:23 after the crippled and lame are invited he was to go out and compel them to come.  I have always been fascinated by this part of the story.  You see as a disciple of Jesus I am asked to be like him.  He compels them to come in.  How am I compelling my neighbor to come and be at the banquet.  I think many of us just drop the invite and throw up are hands when they don’t come.  Here Jesus seems to tell us to go and compel them to come.  Be more forceful.  Sometimes I wonder if when we got the invite and went to His banquet, why don’t I go to my friends, family, even enemies and share with them this awesome place of nourishment we have in Jesus.  This place where we eat and are satisfied. Where we have true fellowship in God.  I pray for myself to have heart of invitation and a want to compel my neighbor, not just selfishness for myself.

So the question remains for all of us. Have you compelled them to come to the banquet yet?