Progress...

What a wonderful time we had this Sunday together!

The middle school students and I talked about Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. It was a fun time retelling the story in modern vernacular and seeing that there is but one, true God who will not share His glory with anyone or anything. We saw that God means business when it comes to who/what we worship and that He alone must be the object of our worship. We saw how worshipping and putting our trust in anyone or anything else is futile and simply foolish.

This was cleverly illustrated by a makeshift tug-o-war match between Jessica M. and 5 boys. It was initially apparent that Jess had no chance of winning. Then I gave the boys their instructions. They had to lay on their bellies and pull only with their left hand. This was absolutely hilarious and most helpful to show the students that the 5 boys were basically useless in the contest.

What a great time we have together!

May God truly bless the Student Ministries as we seek Him in all that we do!

For His Kingdom...

For my students...

As was blatantly evident from some conversations held last night, there are some valid and honest questions and concerns circulating through our student community. This should not come as a surprise, nor should it be simply swept under the rug of "oh, they're just kids." The majority of these students are communicant members of this church (CRPC) and have not only a right to these questions, as they pertain to their church, but a right to a fair and tender treatment of theses questions and concerns.

As such, I attempted to give an adequate answer to some of their questions and concerns last night. The students I spoke with were genuine in their concerns and also quite willing and open to discuss them in an unbiased and humble manner. Thus, we were able to converse together as loving brothers in Christ. As we chatted I tried to present the facts of all that has and is taking place in our church as I know them. I was also able to encourage these students to be mindful and aware of a couple of things.

First, in all of this there is a great deal of emotion involved. Not that emotion is all bad, but emotion unchecked by reason and facts can wreak havoc on any situation or conversation. So, I humbly asked these students to keep this in mind and to be a people who don't overly cater to emotions but check them with truth. Also, when someone comes emotionally charged, making accusations and definitive statements of which the students don't have adequate facts and truth, I requested them to kindly defer from discussing the situation.

Second, there is a lot of here-say and second hand information being disseminated amidst our community. Therefore, I asked these students to check the sources of those who are speaking this or that to them. If it has come from someone who heard from someone else, then to dismiss it as what it is - gossip! It is very easy to not only misconstrue a persons words when you hear them from that person, but when you hear it from someone who heard it from someone else, this leaves much room for misunderstanding and even reinterpretation. So, I asked them to just be careful what they count as truth and facts and what they count as gossip.

Finally, I encouraged our students to consider the frailty of people. We need to remember that we are all vessels that are so easily broken and that the utmost care needs to be taken in dealing with each other. We must seek to be a gracious and loving people, even to those we count as being of differing opinion than us (Matt. 5:43-45). So, as we are engaged in conversation regarding all that is taking place here @ CRPC, we must be swift to entertain the proverb that says, "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger" (Prov. 15:1)

This was my humble word to the students I spoke with last night. I know that I was unable to answer all their questions and satisfy all their concerns, but it is my hope and prayer that they will continue to come to us. I hope and pray that as life descends quickly and heavily and even harshly upon them that they will come us. They will continue to question and have concerns and wrestle with their faith. As this happens, we are here for them. We (the Student Ministries dept.) love all our students dearly and deeply! We love those who signed the petition and those who didn't. We love them regardless and pray diligently for all of them. We are here, and we are praying that we would spend ourselves and be spent for these students and their families.

So, for my students:

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Thank you for sharing your lives with us and for allowing us to minister to and with you! Let's make our ministry truly heaven on earth!

Num. 6:24-26

For His Kingdom...

Hooray Weekend!

What a weekend!

So many things to talk about regarding this past weekend; where should I start???

Most important, at least in my humble opinion, our church rallied behind our Senior Pastor this Sunday and with a significant majority voted to retain him as our Pastor. I am thrilled about this outcome for several reasons, of which I will name just a few.

Tullian is first and foremost a man on a mission. He takes God and His Word seriously and makes no buts about it. He has a specific purpose and vision for our church and how we are to reach both our community and this world for the Glory of Christ!

Tullian is also a dear friend and wonderful leader. I have no reserve following him. He is a man I believe is following Christ with all his might and that is something I need to see. As the Apostle Paul said "Be imitators of me as I am of Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1), so I shall seek to imitate Pastor Tullian as he imitates Christ before our church!

Lastly, Tullian has 3 children that are all either in the Student Ministries or are going to be. Thus, he is a huge proponent of the S.M. and sees what we do as valuable and important. For that I am most grateful!

This being the event of utmost importance this weekend I thought it should receive first mention in this post. However, we did have another fantastic event this past Friday night Saturday.

Dylan, Brooke, Amy, Ali and myself along with 43 middle school students all experience a sort of preparation for what a Florida Winter may feel like. We met up here at the church on Friday night for some wild Winter themed games, such as "freeze tag," "carpet skiing," "toilet paper snowball fighting" and "icy toes." It was a most exciting and hilarious sight! Then, before catching some much need ZZZZ's before our early Saturday morning departure, we watched the movie "Ice Age 2" - Sid the Sloth, need I say more! Next stop, dream land...

Saturday morning came all too early as we awoke at a very brisk 6:00am. I woke the boys up and then proceeded to most gently and graciously wake the girls up with a bullhorn and whistle - I love my job! We packed up our stuff, had a hearty cereal breakfast and loaded up for our 3 hour trip to Orlando and the Winter themed water park "Blizzard Beach." We arrived around 10:30am and the rest is history. We had complete run of the place till it closed at 5:00pm. We went on some crazy rides, such as "Summit Plummet" which was basically straight down and the largest water slide in the U.S. We also rode some toboggan sled rides and tube rides that held 6 people - it was great! At the end of the day, we were all spent. Around 5:30pm we loaded the bus once again to begin our journey back home.

I love our church, our students and the time I get to spend with each and every one of them. This trip was meant to get to know some students better and just have some fun together. So, with that - mission accomplished!

Until the next crazy event...

For His Kingdom...

Oh, what a birthday...

Yesterday (Sunday) I celebrated my 29th birthday! It was a wonderfully peculiar day.

First of all, we are having a congregational meeting @ our church next Sunday to decide whether or not to retain Pastor Tullian as our Senior Pastor. This is a hard thing in the life of our church. The meeting will be one of pro and con address and a final voting process to determine a majority decision. This being the case, all communicant members are entitled to vote. So, naturally this affects 90% of our students.

So, we had one of our Elders here, James Turner, come and address the students during Sunday School. He talked about the meeting, how it was to be conducted, process and procedures and the like. Then some questions were addressed and hopefully answered sufficiently.

It was my heartfelt desire for our students to realize the magnitude of what is going on and to understand that it affects them. They are a part of this church as much as anyone and have the right to express themselves in all its dealings. Thus, I encouraged all our students to, along with their families, prayerfully consider what God is calling them to with regards to this meeting. I am praying that in all of this, God would be glorified and exalted by His people in unity and love!

As we closed and prayer and were ready to dismiss, Dylan interrupted me. He would not let anyone leave without singing "Happy Birthday" to me - mostly off key and extremely loud. It was super fun! Then we, all 90+ of us, enjoyed cake thanks to Dylan and Elizabeth - what a wonderful staff of friends! The students showed me more love than I could ever have wanted - or needed all at once :) Laura H. baked me a cake as well - it was amazing!

From there, it was on to an amazing worship service with my beloved wife, dad and step mom - they came down from Stuart to go to church and lunch with us (pray for their coming to faith please).

This was my morning...

That afternoon and evening I just relaxed with Amy - it was awesome!

Well, 30 here I come - Lord willing :)

For His Kingdom...

Put off Lies / Put on Truth-telling

So...

As another semester of school and ministry begins to pick up steam, we've had a great couple of weeks here in the Student Ministries @ CRPC. Last week we had our official "kick-off" for both Middle School and High School. For M.S. we had a wonderful time running, swimming, slipping and sliding @ our "Wet-n-Wild" Gangway. As for H.S., well, let's just say it was AWESOME! We had a great group of students participating in 4 different heart pounding, strength testing and gut checking events @ our "Gladiator" Gangway. All in all, it was an adventurous 2 nights!

From slip-n-slides and sock wrestling to gathering for fellowship and study, we began our regularly scheduled mid-week activities this week.

On Wednesday we had about 50+ Middle School students gathered in Bay D basically causing havoc on the entire South end of the church! They were jazzed for Gangway and it showed in their energy and rambunctiousness :) I hope to continue that energy and excitement, but perhaps just contain it and direct it a little bit better (sorry Wendy).

We began our time playing a game called "2 truths and a lie." We got a couple of students to come up and, as convincingly as possible, tell us 2 truths and 1 lie about themselves. Then the rest of us had to try and guess which one was the lie. The good news is that most of the students were terrible liars! The only one to successfully lie to us was Zoey Masters - way to go Zoey :)

On Thursday night we had about 15+ High School students (darn WA sports BBQ!) gathered for snacks, songs and, of course, fun (hopefully)! I am hoping that since we pretty much have the run of the facilities on Thursday nights we can begin to pack the place out - so students... START BRINGING FRIENDS!

The night started out with a real treat and blessing in that we had our newly formed Student Music Team leading us in praise and worship! I need to say "thank you" to all the team and especially to Matt Tyson for his work with the students - you're the man! It was a wonderful time of singing and praising and enjoying God together. Then we recapped for all who didn't make it last week what fun we had @ "Gladiator" Gangway - this was made possible by Dylan's expert technical video making skills!

The discussion for both nights were centered around the same text and theme. We looked at Ephesians 4:17-25. We talked about how this text is calling for action, not just belief. We saw that there are 2 ways to live; according to the old self or according to the new self. We, as Christians, are to live according to the new self, putting to death the old self. So, Paul gives us in Ephesians a principle to follow; the Put Off / Put On principle. We need to, by God's grace and empowerment, put off certain thing and put on other things.

But, how? What does this look like?

Well, we looked at vs. 25 for the first application of this principle - put off lies / put on truth telling. We discussed the reason for this and the implications, both positive and negative of living this principle out. If we live according to the old self, as liars, there will be negative implications, both for us and for those around us. If we live according to the new self, as truth-tellers, there will be positive implications. We noted that living as liars or truth-tellers doesn't only affect us, but those around us - family, friends, community, church... It was a real good time of fleshing out practical ways of living according to the new self.

All of this is to say that we are having a great time here in the Student Ministries! However, please continue to pray for us, as we continue to pray for you and may God bless us as we endeavor to train up students in the way of Godliness!

For His Kingdom...

President Obama's Speech to Students...

First of all, if you perchance missed our President's speech to students this morning I will below post links to both see and hear it - I hope you will visit these links!

The speech itself was a well delivered and necessary one. In a time when school is just not "cool" and education sits low on most young people's priorities, President Obama exhorts students everywhere to commit to their education. He also reminds students that though it is partially the responsibility of parents, teachers and schools to be the educators, it is very much the responsibility of students to be educated and to take their education seriously.

In his address, the President makes many good points of application to our students regarding their education. Some of these points of application are things such as Discipline, Commitment, Hard Work and Perseverance. As these points can and should be applied to our students education, they can also be applied to our students Christianity. As in their education, and so much more in their faith, should our students take responsibility, work hard, be disciplined and committed!

This is a crucial notion in our day. For we live in a time that does not often portray hard work or commitment or discipline as virtues. Students simply do not see value in eduction or church or really anything that expects these virtues. Yet, this is not only what our President calls for in education, but what our God calls for in this life. We, as Christians, are called to Spiritual Discipline, Commitment to God's Word and His Church, Hard Work and Perseverance in doing good and right. This is our lot and our privilege. Thus, we need to be about not only calling our students to a higher standard, but modeling one as well.

So, with that, I say, "Thank you Mr. President for your bold proclamation of a real need in the life of education. Also, thank you for a viable application of real virtues in our Christian life."

For His Kingdom...

Here are some links to check out:

Al Mohler's blog - www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=4404

John Piper's blog - www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1989_ive_read_the_presidents_speech_amazing/

Speech in writing - www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/

Speech in video - www.foxnews.com/video/index.html (title: "fulfill your responsibilities")

Here we go...

This past Sunday morning we finished up our Summer curriculum for Sunday School. We, the Middle School students, closed out the Summer talking about King Solomon. We looked quite intently at the end of his life. Though he began doing great things for God, later in his life he fell into utter ruin.

King Solomon was lead astray in his heart! He had multiple foreign wives (exactly what God warned not to have in Duet. 7 & 17) who turned his heart to false gods - IDOLS! He made a Great Exchange! He exchanged God for things that were not God; he exchanged the greater for the lesser. Because of this Great Exchange there were consequences. God stripped the Kingdom from Solomon. All that Solomon was, all that he did would come to naught. He would become but a memory. Yet, because of God's covenant/promise to David, God gave a small part of the Kingdom to one of Solomon's sons. God is faithful even in the midst of our disobedience and waywardness.

This was a great place to end the Summer. We noted that we are not all too different from King Solomon. We too are lead astray in our hearts. We too are idolatrous. We too have made a Great Exchange! All the time we exchange the greater for the lesser; God for what is not God. We exchange God for friends, God for sports, God for fashion or technology. Thus, we are much like King Solomon - utterly ruined.

So, as Summer comes to an end we see ourselves as like Solomon at the end of his life - failures.

But, we begin this new semester with Hope! We have hope because God is faithful even in the midst of our failures and disobedience. Though we have made a Great Exchange by exchanging God for idols, another Great Exchange has taken place. Christ has come and Exchanged His life for ours. He offers us an even Greater Exchange than the one we daily make; he offers life for death; righteousness for sin; hope for despair. This is the great faithfulness, love and mercy of God! For He is the Son of David who now sits on the eternal throne who has not failed but fulfilled all that God has commanded. He is our hope! He is our Great Exchange!

So, here we go!

This semester we, the Middle School students, will be looking at the divided Kingdom. We will still see some failure, but we will also see God's faithfulness and sovereign workings pointing us to hope in Christ. It's going to be a wonderful time!

For His Kingdom...