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Youth are our future, right?

No! The future of our youth lies in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The truth is, the youth of any generation need to hear and accept this gospel! Youth Ministry on the Front Foot tackles the unique opportunities and challenges of ministry to this age group through the wisdom of experienced youth ministers with a passion for seeing teenagers come to Christ. The biblical principles and practical advice in these pages on key issues such as social media, discipling and leader accountability are ideal for youth ministers, church leaders and anyone interested in youth ministry. Application guides in each chapter also contain helpful questions, checklists and diagrams for your youth ministry context.

Contributors: Mike Everett, Eugene Hor, Cameron Hyslop, Ron Irving, Sarah Macken, Jodie McNeill, Dave Miers, Ken D Noakes, Murray Norman, Scott Petty, Graham Stanton, Zac Veron (series editor) & Kylie Williams

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Click below for Endorsements…

Youth Ministry on the Front Foot is a welcome addition to Youthworks’ Front Foot series. Here is a resource that I wish I’d had as a youth leader, with pithy chapters on a range of issues that confront everyone involved in youth ministry. All the chapters are written by trusted practitioners whose experience and theological acumen provide much food for thought, with principles to adopt and pitfalls to avoid. I commend this volume wholeheartedly. Glenn Davies, Bishop of North Sydney

I don’t take youth ministry books lightly simply because I don’t take youth ministry lightly. Building and reaching the youth of today is a herculean task that needs the clear thinking and wisdom that can only come through God’s word. This book is full of God-honouring, helpful and practical teaching for anyone serious about youth ministry. Strongly recommended. Ken Moser, Professor of Youth Ministry, Briercrest College and Seminary, Canada

This is a labour of love; love for Jesus and love for youth. It is an excellent resource, full of applied biblical wisdom, to stimulate and equip those who share these loves and a desire to be more effective in their own context of helping young people to know and grow in their relationship with the Lord. Bill Salier, Vice Principal, Moore Theological College, Sydney

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India Gospel League has recognised the need for pastors to be trained and has partnered with Moore College to see pastors be trained in correspondence courses by teams of Aussies who will travel to India. One such group is leaving in 3 days.

The team is lead by my sister and her husband. They would love your support – in prayer and in your generous gifts. To find out more visit newcastlechristianstudents.org where you will find out more about the team and more about how you can support them.

They leave in a few days, have already raised over $10K, and have only $3000 to go… what do you reckon?

I thought that Christmas was a good time to launch a series rather than inviting people to a new series starting the following week. Hopefully visitors will have heard the series kick-off over Christmas and their interest will have been piqued to continue finding out more reasons why Jesus came down to earth.

It’s been good to leverage the same artwork and signage from Christmas. It means our public banners (one of which was stolen!!) are relevant for 6 weeks instead of just 1 event. However, I think that the artwork is probably a little bit too Christmassy. So if we were to do it again in a year’s time, the advertising could be a bit more generic.

What’s your church preaching on throughout January?
Don’t go to a church? Consider checking one out so you can consider Jesus.
(Contact me if you need help finding one in your area.)

Check out this line from my favourite Christmas Carol – O Holy Night – “He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger”. Sometimes Christmas isn’t a joyful time for people as they reflect on the brokenness of our world. But Jesus gets it. He has been there. Check out Hebrews 4:14-16

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Christmas morning is an opportunity to hope again in our God who came into our world 2000 years ago. Keep trusting in Jesus. Or find out more. Have a read of this. Find a church.

If you’re on the Northern Beaches come along to one of St Faith’s Christmas services.

SORRY + THANKS + PLEASE // LISTEN TO EPHESIANS 2:1-10 SERMON

1. SORRY – The Reason for Faith
2. THANKS – The Object of Faith
3. PLEASE – The Life of Faith

Let me know if you want to chat further about having faith in Jesus.

Click here if you can’t see the vid

Click here if you can’t see the video

(h/t ed sowden)

Praise God for opportunities like this! // Click here if you can’t see the above vid.

(h/t Kirkplace web)

GENESIS 23-25 Sermon- Dave Miers (right-click etc to download)

Here’s the outline:

1. Abraham trusts God will keep his promise
2. Abraham works to continue to see God’s promises continue in his family
3. Abraham looked forward to his home to come

Here are the 8 steps:

1. Keep it short.
2. Be realistic about your aims.
3. Be winsome, humorous, and don’t be preachy.
4. Try and steer clear of Ephesians 5 and 1 Peter 3 Biblical submission passages.
5. Choose instead a passage that highlights marriage themes such as love, grace, commitment etc.
6. Preach the gospel.
7. Personalise the wedding sermon around the couple’s courtship and relationship.
8. Did I mention, keep it short?

Click here to read each point fleshed out.

Bring. It. On. soulies.net/summercamp

See other blogposts tagged with ‘John Dickson’

The ‘Redeeming Ruth’ series at Mars Hill Seattle had video bible readings. City on a Hill in Melbourne have also been doing video Bible readings. (Check out 5 reasons they’re doing them over at Communicate Jesus)

Got any other examples of ministries doing video Bible readings?

Anyone keen to do them for SOULIES, let me know!!

One of the things I’m surprised by as I read of the first persecuted Christians in the Bible and then read of contemporary persecuted Christians (through books like Radical and the VOM newsletter) is that so often persecution is faced with unrelenting joy!

His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 5:40-42)

The Apostles keep getting told to shut up about Jesus, they don’t. They get beaten up and told to stop, they don’t! Instead they rejoice that they were considered worthy to suffer for Jesus and then keep telling people about Jesus!!

I recently read of Pastor Wong (in the latest Voice of the Martyrs newsletter). He’s from China. Check out this quote:

Wong was arrested five times in 2010. Each time he was warned to discontinue his Christian activities. “I will not stop my work,” he responded.

Wong’s response is just like that of the Apostles in Acts 5. You can’t shut him up!! He will keep preaching Jesus regardless of what happens to him.

Why would someone do that? This might seem like a pretty bizarre concept for someone who isn’t a Christian, perhaps even for those who are Christian! Eleven of the twelve Apostles eventually died a martyr’s death. Why would they do that? Why would Pastor Wong keep preaching Jesus even though he keep getting arrested?

I think it’s because following Jesus is worth losing everything for and the Apostles and Pastor Wong probably believe in this verse:

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

The only way to be saved is by trusting in Jesus. Jesus offers eternal life to those who trust in his death and resurrection. This is the good news people desperately need to hear. And any suffering in this life is light and momentary compared to the glory that awaits those who belong to Jesus.

It’s not yet IDOP, but perhaps pray now for Christians who are persecuted in Jesus’ name. Pray that God would enable them to persevere. Not a Christian? Consider Jesus.

Check out my other posts on the Persecuted church.

Here is the MP3 from the sermon:

HOW TO BE A SPIRIT-FILLED CHURCH – EPHESIANS – Dave Miers

[right click etc to download]

Feel free to leave any questions or comment. Peaceout.

We need now to return to the imperative on which these four participles depend, that is, to the Christian duty and privilege from which these four Christian attitudes result. It is the command Be filled with the Spirit. The exact form of the verb pl?rousthe is suggestive.

First, it is in the imperative mood. ‘Be filled’ is not a tentative proposal, but an authoritative command. We have no more liberty to avoid this responsibility than the many others which surround it in Ephesians. To be filled with the Spirit is obligatory, not optional.


Secondly, it is in the plural form. In other words, it is addressed to the whole Christian community. None of us is to get drunk; all of us are to be Spirit-filled. The fullness of the Spirit is not an élitist privilege, but available for all the people of God.

Thirdly, it is in the passive voice. NEB renders it: ‘Let the Holy Spirit fill you’. There is no technique to learn and no formula to recite. What is essential is such a penitent turning from what grieves the Holy Spirit and such a believing openness to him that nothing hinders him from filling us. It is significant that the parallel passage in Colossians reads not ‘Let the Spirit fill you’ but ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly’ (3:16). We must never separate the Spirit and the Word. To obey the Word and to surrender to the Spirit are virtually identical.

Fourthly, it is in the present tense. In Greek there are two kinds of imperative, an aorist describing a single action, and a present when the action is continuous. Thus, when Jesus said during the wedding reception at Cana, ‘Fill the jars with water’ (Jn. 2:7), the imperative is aorist, since the jars were to be filled only once. But when Paul says to us, ‘Be filled with the Spirit’, he uses a present imperative, implying that we are to go on being filled. For the fullness of the Spirit is not a once-for-all experience which we can never lose, but a privilege to be renewed continuously by continuous believing and obedient appropriation. We have been ‘sealed’ with the Spirit once and for all; we need to be filled with the Spirit and go on being filled every day and every moment of the day.

Here, then, is a message for both the defeated and the complacent, that is, for Christians at opposite ends of the spiritual spectrum. To the defeated Paul would say, ‘Be filled with the Spirit, and he will give you a new love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and self-control.’ To the complacent Paul would say ‘go on being filled with the Spirit. Thank God for what he has given you thus far. But do not say you have arrived. For there is more, much more, yet to come.’

Stott, J. R. W. (1979). God’s new society : The message of Ephesians (208–209). Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.

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