Check these links out…

http://justpaste.it/3ky – “Earth From Above” is the result of the aerial photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s five-year airborne odyssey across six continents. It’s a spectacular presentation of large scale photographs of astonishing natural landscapes. Every stunning aerial photograph tells a story about our changing planet.

http://theresurgence.com/2011/02/02/our-fathers-our-future-day-1 – live blog from Acts 29 conference – day 1

http://theresurgence.com/2011/02/03/our-fathers-our-future-day-2 – live blog from Acts 29 conference – day 2

http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110131&content_id=16537102&vkey=news_phi&c_id=phi – 5 MLB teams go all in to win in 2011…who will it be?? I’m going with the Phillies

http://www.fogodechao.com/ – an authentic Brazilian steakhouse in Philly that I’ll be eating at before going to the auto show at the convention center. So good!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The First Obstacle in Working with Young People is YOU

I was reading a blog by Dan Wolgemuth, who is the president of Youth for Christ, on http://theresurgence.com this morning, and he offered this challenging article that speaks to youth workers about their motivation and heart in ministry with students…

And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:35-39).

The more I work with young people, the more I witness what does and doesn’t work. It’s clear our perspective has a significant impact on the success of the interaction.

Youth workers, both professional and volunteer, tend to approach their “calling” with one of two widely divergent perspectives.

An obligation

On one hand we find youth workers that feel as though they “must” work with young people. They engage with teeth gritted and resolve mustered… but their “will to work” far exceeds their “want to work.” They measure their success by how long they’ve been engaged with young people.

Just chillin’

At the other end of the spectrum there are youth workers who are just looking to hang out, to be a part of something fresh and new, exciting, and entertaining. These workers measure their success by whether they are included and accepted.

Serve out of love

Both of these philosophies and motivations are flawed, and frankly, out of line with our biblical calling. Jesus elevates the command to “love our neighbor” to an unmistakable pinnacle. In doing so, he obliterates the notion that “teeth gritting” youth ministry has any part in his design.

“God-honoring youth ministry starts with our own heart; transformed by the Spirit, engaged with the Word, and controlled by the love of Christ.”

Jesus also had something to say about our ministry objective when we engage: “When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). This involves far more than just hanging out.

Minister out of compassion, not a to-do list

The model of ministry engagement Jesus established was one birthed out of a deep sense of compassion. His heart was stirred before he spoke a word and before he lifted a hand. Jesus resisted the urge to just hang out, to just mingle with the right people. He felt a genuine urgency and pain over the condition and the direction of the individuals he engaged with; including young people.

Youth ministry is often too focused on programs, methodologies, and events. Consequently, we equip our youth ministry team to be great planners, organizers, communicators, or entertainers.

Check your motivation, check your heart

If we follow the model of Jesus, we must first pray for a heart of compassion and love when we work with young people. I’m convinced we pray for a lot of things when we engage with 13, 15, or 18-year-olds: safety, favor, salvation, transformation. But how much time do we spend praying for our own heart?  For a perspective of true, Godly compassion—for authentic love. Frankly, we’re usually too busy, too focused on an activity, or too driven to just get through whatever we have in front of us.

God-honoring youth ministry starts with our own heart; transformed by the Spirit, engaged with the Word, and controlled by the love of Christ. If we start anywhere else we will miss what God has in mind for us, and his flock.

 

“Overcome” – great worship song!!

I didn’t know animals could talk :)

Psalm 18

“I love you, O LORD, my strength.

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.”

Bearing Spiritual Fruit: Part 1

Spiritual Fruit Defined

I would describe spiritual fruit as the tangible  evidence of good things – either external changes that everyone can see or priorities changing within – that God is working out in your life as a result of an internal spiritual heart change. PS: I wouldn’t try to look that up in any spiritual dictionary…I just created that definition, but I think it’ll work for our purposes here.

Colossians 1

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worth of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:9-10)

Have you ever thought about the process that God uses to produce good things out of our lives? Do we just have to try harder? Do we need to just stop trying all together, sit back in our chairs and let God do all the work? What do we do??? In the context of the entire 1st chapter, there are at least 4 principles that we an learn about bearing spiritual fruit:

4 Princples:

#1: God is the initiator. No growth would be possible without God the Father sending God the Son to earth for the purpose of redeeming us from the bondage of sin.

#2: The natural progression of the Gospel taking root in our lives is for us to grow in knowledge of Jesus Christ and produce good works. We really can’t have one without the other without becoming unbalanced.

#3: Even the strength we have to grow in knowledge and works is directly given to us by God, so we really can’t take any credit.

#4: Based on the first 3 principles, we need to respond and start living like a person delivered from the dominion of darkness! In the next post of this series, we’ll look at some of the the tools, aka spiritual disciplines, that God provides so that we can become more like Jesus!

Jesus Throughout the Bible…