Category: Jesus

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Youth Ministry Papers: Commitment is Counter-Cultural

I’m planning on producing a youth ministry training paper most Wednesday’s throughout the year. These papers will be discussed at our Soulies weekly leaders meeting. Anyone is welcome to interact in the comments. Click here to access archive.

Young punks today are scared of commitment. Mobile phone companies are aware of this, so they’ve lowered the commitment bar: no longer is it the norm to lock-in to a 24-month contract, but 12-month, 6-month and pay-as-you-go options are all now available. If you’ve tried to run an event via “Events” in Facebook, you’d know how difficult it is to get people to commit to your event. If they actually respond to the invitation they’re more than likely to click “maybe” just so they can leave their options open. If you say “yes”, you limit your options if a better offer is made closer to the event. Why do you think people are afraid of making commitments? How might this make youth ministry harder?

There is a sense in which the Christian life is all about making a commitment. A Christian commits to trust in Jesus (John 3:16) and to “no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (2 Corinthians 5:15 NIV)

As a member of our church, you are asked to make a commitment to the direction and mission of our church. By being part of the leadership in our church you are indicating that you are on-board with the doctrine of the church and the church  mission statement:  “Our desire is to be: A community transformed by Jesus’ love; fully devoted to loving one another; and radically committed to impacting the world with Christ’s love.”

Our youth ministry is thoroughly behind this mission statement. However, we’ve changed the wording to summarise the statement for our youth community.

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No more fear in death

This is a killer video. I’ve posted it twice before. Here it is again for new readers.

The old skool preacher sampled in this vid is Billy Graham. He has preached Jesus to a trillion people. I recently worked out that I became a Christian through someone who became a Christian under the ministry of someone who became a Christian from Billy’s preaching in 1959. Make sense? Pretty cool. I probably won’t get to meet Billy this side of eternity (though I have met his grandson) but I might hear him preaching Jesus in heaven.

Read more about Jesus: the King who Saves + the King who Rules.

Contact me if you want to find out more.

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Francis Chan – Beyond Expectations

After Francis Chan resigned from his role as the senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, he spent 3 months travelling around Asia (check this vid for reasons for leaving). I enjoyed reading Lisa’s (his wife) updates during that time. Below is an update from Francis after they arrived back in the USA. My favourite paragraph is in bold.

Update #5 from Francis Chan

Beyond Expectations

It has been an amazing couple of months as you probably saw from Lisa’s updates.  I don’t even know where to start.  Once again, God far exceeded my expectations.  He has a way of doing that…

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…   Ephesians 3:20

There is far too much to say.  I won’t even attempt to write down all of my thoughts, as that would take too long to read.  I prefer you spend that time in scripture.  So let me just throw out a few thoughts.

GOD is the love of my life.  While I enjoyed experiencing different cultures and meeting new people, I most enjoyed my time communing with God.  It doesn’t matter where I am or what I am doing.  Nothing beats conversing with the living God and watching Him answer prayer.

My family was able to experience exactly what I had hoped and more.  One of my goals as a parent is to show my kids how to live for eternity (Matt. 6:18-20).  I don’t want them to live for the things of this earth.  This was the first time they were able to enjoy not having a home and finding security in Christ.  While I tried to teach that our house was not our home, it is much easier to grasp that concept while homeless.

Continue reading “Francis Chan – Beyond Expectations”

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Healthy Habits – Resolutions that Matter

We’re now half way through February – how are you going with your New Year’s Resolutions? If you’re a Christian – how are you going with your Christian resolutions? Well? Keep charging. Badly? Pretend it’s January 1 and start again! Our January preaching series at St Faith’s was called Healthy Habits – Resolutions that Matter. It was a good way to start the year being challenged to develop godly Christian habits.

Here are the mp3s for the series. (Right click to download etc)

  1. Resolve to Read the Word – Dave Miers (related blog post)
  2. Resolve to Spend Time in Prayer – Trent McGrath
  3. Resolve to Meet with God’s People – Neil Souter
  4. Resolve to Share the Gospel – Dave Miers
  5. Resolve to Shine as Lights – Kerry Nagel

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Persecution Is Not a Social Justice Issue

Here’s the intro of a 5 part series over at the Thirteen Three blog: “Our generation loves social justice, don’t we!? We genuinely believe that we can make an impact by righting some of the wrongs we see in the world today. As Christians, we are called to work for justice, to care for the poor, the oppressed and the needy […] You might assume that persecution falls into the poverty/justice category. But persecution is not a social justice issue. Let me tell you why.”

Check out each post… Why Persecution Is Not a Social Justice Issue:

  1. Following Jesus is about dying
  2. Jesus promises that His followers will be persecuted
  3. God grows His church through persecution
  4. We are not trying to stop persecution
  5. A FINAL WORD: Are we against Social Justice?

It’s a really useful series of posts. It helps the Christian to see that persecution is the normal Christian life. Jesus said to expect it (John 15:20). Many Christians around the world experience it. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:12 that “…everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

Comfortable, middle-class and persecution-free is not the normal for the Christian.

The normality of persecution helps you respond rightly when it comes. Check out the apostles response to it in Acts 5:41 – “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” They don’t complain that their rights have been denied, rather they rejoice and then in v42 they go on and keep preaching Jesus!

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Youth Ministry Papers: I want to be a Super-Model

I’m planning on producing a youth ministry training paper most Wednesday’s throughout the year. These papers will be discussed at our Soulies weekly leaders meeting. Anyone is welcome to interact in the comments. Click here to access archive.

At the end of year 10, during those bludgey months after you’ve finished the school certificate, we participated in a few weeks of “Modelling and Deportment” classes. They were helpful for gaining confidence, learning job-interview skills and gaining tips on how to strut your stuff on a catwalk!! During those weeks I probably gained too much confidence and started thinking that I could be a catwalk model. Aside from abnormally large calf muscles, I really didn’t have the stereotypical traits required for modelling. I was a bit deluded in my self-confidence and vanity!

Often it’s the vain who want to be models: girls who spend a lot of time falling in love with themselves while looking in the mirror; or guys who spend a lot of time at the gym looking in the mirror and repeatedly kissing their biceps!

But, believe it or not, if you put your hand up to be a youth leader you are also raising your hand to say that you are willing to be a model. But this isn’t in a vain type of I-love-myself way. It’s all about modelling to others what it means to follow Jesus. Like it or not if you are already involved in leadership you ARE a model! What model are you asking people to follow? What type of example of a Christian are you?

I read a number of years ago about a Northern Beaches youth leader who dragged a dead possum behind his car. That was a pretty dumb model! But I’ve also witnessed many great youth leaders who have been models worth following.

1 Corinthians gives us a great picture of following an example. Paul says: “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (11:1) That’s a big call! He’s calling the church in Corinth to look to the example of his conduct among them, and be like him. But ultimately, it’s not about about following Paul for the sake of following Paul, it’s about following Paul for the sake of following Jesus.

1 Thessalonians has a great example of modelling. Read 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10

  • How did the church in Thessalonica follow a model?
  • How did the church in Thessalonica become a model?

Read 1 Timothy 4:12; 1 Peter 5:3; Philippians 3:17; 2 Thessalonians 3:9; Titus 2:7

  • What is the expectation upon the Christian leader from these passages?

KEEP IT REAL:

What type of model will you be? The teenagers are watching you. One way or another, they’ll copy you. What habits are you modelling to them? Godly or ungodly? Wise or foolish? Measured or accidental? As we follow Jesus we are called to have others follow us. This doesn’t mean we will be the perfect model, only Jesus is the perfect model. But it does mean we will be honest when we make mistakes, confess our sins and keep clinging to Jesus.

In what ways do you need to take more seriously the call to be a model?