Yesterday I had a new adventure. Working with the Alternative Education program, I traveled to the elementary school to work with a 3rd grade class on some team building skills. The four high school students had worked on some games and other kinds of team building skill exercises, and now they were seeing how difficult it is to take something from the drawing board to actual implementation. It was a lot of fun.
I enjoyed helping keep these 3rd graders inside the parameters of the game. What was really fun though was seeing their excitement. I could not help but think of how much more effective we would be in the discipling process if we brought the same kind of excitement to the table about our Lord and Savior. Once again I am amazed at how God uses children to teach me.
I recently corresponded with someone and was telling them that I think I have learned more about true theology from elementary students than from seminary professors. Jesus was so right when He told us that "unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
The other exciting thing for me this week is that things seem to be coming together to host a Son Life Seminar at Bayshore Camp in April. This 8-hour seminar over two days, April 10-11, is designed to emphasize the Strategy of Jesus and how He went about putting together a team that would plant THE Church. We are hoping to gather people from the LEAD Team Churches as well as from the Sebewaing area to learn these concepts and then put them into practice as we build disciples in Sebewaing and throughout the Thumb.
Praises:
The three discipling contacts that I have going on now
How out of those contacts people are reaching out to minister/disciple other people
The way this Son Life Seminar is seeming to come together
Concerns:
A couple whom I have had contact with who are struggling. Pray for them and the people I have asked to meet with them
The details for the Seminar
That momentum will not be lost as I lose a couple of Thursdays to Christmas and New Years
Pastor Brian
Friday, December 12, 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Engaging the Culture
After missing a week in Sebewaing because of the Thanksgiving holiday, this past Thursday I was back at it. My morning prayer walk around Sebewaing was a little chilly with the 16 degree temperature and the north wind blowing. However, this time continues to be very special to me as I simply listen for God's voice. (I also found out later through casual contact with a couple of people that they noticed me out there.)
At lunch time I went out to the school because there were a couple of students that I wanted to interact with. I was a little overwhelmed because a number of students kept coming up to me, and so the conversations that I was hoping to have were detoured to another path. So I simply jumped on that path and went with it.
The conversation now included the huge movie that came out last weekend. I believe it is entitled "Twilight." It is based on a series of books that have become very popular especially, it seems, with teenage girls. These young ladies told me a little about this love story which involves vampires and werewolves and such. They also told me that some of their parents didn't like them reading it. I asked them what it was about the books and the movie that drew them to it. They told me it was the love story that was taking place and the romance of it. Now a number of things went through my head. The first was about how in so many instances today things that were once considered evil now are cast in a friendly light and the dangers that exist because of that. Somehow I felt like that was not the right information to keep this conversation going. So instead I took another tact.
I told them I understood why they might be drawn to that kind of story. After all, the world is so void of love and romance today. After that thought I began to talk about what real love looks like and the importance of seeing that idea from a Biblical perspective. I encouraged them to stay plugged into their youth groups and churches and the scriptures and to interpret everything through the scriptures.
Since that time I have done some more research on the Twilight series, and I sat down with a Christian who read the book and who gave me some insights to it. I am looking forward to my next conversation with these young ladies. (I told them we would talk again in a couple of weeks.) More and more I am learning that if we want to create disciples, we need to engage the culture of today and then look for opportunities to share the truth of the gospel.
Praises:
One of the guys whom I have been working with has started a discipling relationship with a another guy! Pray for John.
Kevin and I have been meeting, and through some of the materials we have been talking about, he realizes that he needs to change some of the places he has been placing emphasis.
The couples' discipleship thing that Deb and I have been involved in seems to be taking some exciting new directions.
Prayer Concerns:
Wisdom for me as I begin to attempt to "partner" some people up in disciple-making relationships.
For direction as we consider some ways to engage the community and the LEAD churches in creating a greater emphasis on the disciple-making process.
The momentum will not be lost as we go through the holiday season.
Your Servant in Christ,
Pastor Brian
At lunch time I went out to the school because there were a couple of students that I wanted to interact with. I was a little overwhelmed because a number of students kept coming up to me, and so the conversations that I was hoping to have were detoured to another path. So I simply jumped on that path and went with it.
The conversation now included the huge movie that came out last weekend. I believe it is entitled "Twilight." It is based on a series of books that have become very popular especially, it seems, with teenage girls. These young ladies told me a little about this love story which involves vampires and werewolves and such. They also told me that some of their parents didn't like them reading it. I asked them what it was about the books and the movie that drew them to it. They told me it was the love story that was taking place and the romance of it. Now a number of things went through my head. The first was about how in so many instances today things that were once considered evil now are cast in a friendly light and the dangers that exist because of that. Somehow I felt like that was not the right information to keep this conversation going. So instead I took another tact.
I told them I understood why they might be drawn to that kind of story. After all, the world is so void of love and romance today. After that thought I began to talk about what real love looks like and the importance of seeing that idea from a Biblical perspective. I encouraged them to stay plugged into their youth groups and churches and the scriptures and to interpret everything through the scriptures.
Since that time I have done some more research on the Twilight series, and I sat down with a Christian who read the book and who gave me some insights to it. I am looking forward to my next conversation with these young ladies. (I told them we would talk again in a couple of weeks.) More and more I am learning that if we want to create disciples, we need to engage the culture of today and then look for opportunities to share the truth of the gospel.
Praises:
One of the guys whom I have been working with has started a discipling relationship with a another guy! Pray for John.
Kevin and I have been meeting, and through some of the materials we have been talking about, he realizes that he needs to change some of the places he has been placing emphasis.
The couples' discipleship thing that Deb and I have been involved in seems to be taking some exciting new directions.
Prayer Concerns:
Wisdom for me as I begin to attempt to "partner" some people up in disciple-making relationships.
For direction as we consider some ways to engage the community and the LEAD churches in creating a greater emphasis on the disciple-making process.
The momentum will not be lost as we go through the holiday season.
Your Servant in Christ,
Pastor Brian
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