The Call Countdown

Talked with Travis, of Exodus, on the phone today making some plans for the weekend's worship gatherings at The Call.  I'm really looking forward to the event, it's gonna be great!

I'll be talking Friday night about God's Love.  Here's a sneak peek:

God Loves You, That's His Nature

I John 4:7

Psalm 139:13-16

God's Love is Evident

I John 4:9,10

John 3:16

God Loves Us Even Though We Sin

Romans 5:8

God's Love.  How Will You Respond?

Ephesians 2:8,9

Saturday I will unpack John 4 and I'm really looking forward to those messages.  Sneak peeks on those coming soon!

The break out sessions for both the youth leaders and the students will be relevant and useful.  It is going to be cool to watch how God uses this weekend in the lives of students and their leaders.

Refuel Book Report

I have finished chapter 1 of Refuel.   I know that I'm not the only one that struggles with consistency in having time alone with God on a daily basis  in prayer and in reading the Bible.  Refuel is a great book that deals with that very topic.  I know if you have the book or get the book you will say, "Andy sure is a slow reader."  The book is a small book.  My plan is to take it very slow and to really think about what I'm reading and not rush through this book that I could easily read in a day.

Here are a couple of things that Doug Fields wrote in chapter 1, I'm a Spiritual Loser, that stood out to me or made a connection with me:

"I've become very aware that if I don't connect with God on a regular basis, I run out of passion and become spiritually empty."

"Please stop comparing.  You're not Mother Teresa or Martin Luther.  Neither am I.  You're you!   God designed you to be in your faith too.  I'm not sugesting that you can't have an intimacy with God similar to that of other heroes of our faith; of course you can.  But I'm asking you to quit comparing, and instead be challenged to learn how to be spiritually refueled in realistic ways that fit with how you're wired,  You can to this!  I know you can.

I certainly can relate with the first statement.  Sometimes I allow myself to get so busy (don't make excuses for your busyness) that I fail to take time, some time, any time, during the day with God.  It is also a danger for those that teach for a living in the church to get so wrapped up in reading and studying for a lesson or sermon prep that we forget how important it is to just spend time in the presence of God.

I love the second statement that I put in "bold".  We are all wired differently.  We learn differently, some are morning and some are night time type of people.  What's wrong with praying in the car? (please make sure your eyes are open if you are driving)  Doug wrote about the reading the Bible through in a year plan.  That's nice and I'm proud of those who can do that.  My mind just doesn't function that way.   I started to attempt that again this year and have already failed.  

This week is going to be a very hectic one.  We have The Call on Friday and Saturday.  Due to circumstances beyond my control I have become (reluctantly but realizing this is what God wants) the speaker in the main sessions.  This means I have two more messages to prep this week as well as one break out seminar for leaders.  I also have the other stuffs that go along with prep for the event, good thing we have a ministry team for The Call, it's going to be a busy week.  The danger is that I don't spend time with God, just me and him, then step up to speak to hundreds of students and be "empty, have no passion". 

So why am I sitting here typing this?  I gotta go get some refueling!

Twins Update

"Fred" and "Wilma" are doing great.  Growing, packing on the ounces.  "Fred" is weighing in at 5 lb 12 oz and "Wilma" is 5lb and 5 oz.  They are sleeping well only waking once during the night.  They both have a lot of "alert" time during the day which we enjoy.  It's fun holding two sleeping babies at one time!

Refuel

If you've always struggled with the stereotypical quiet - time, don't give up hope! You've been told that you're supposed to spend time with God. You've valiantly set your alarm clock an hour early or worked partway through some ambitious study guides, but sooner or later your busy life creeps back in and steals your resolve. Why do you consistently fail at your quiet times? Maybe it's because you've bought into somebody else's unrealistic, unsustainable idea of what time with God ought to look like. Lose the guilt. Drop the unrealistic expectations. You can connect with God stay spiritually full. Doug Fields, pastor at Saddleback Church, offers a simple, uncomplicated plan that you can carry out. All you have to do is: STOP, BE QUIET, MAKE A CONNECTION. Simple. But not simplistic. If you can practice these habits throughout your day, you will enjoy a new depth and fullness in your spiritual life. Book includes group study guide and questions!

If you would like to purchase a copy of the book simply click on the pic of the book.

The Call 2009 (Bump)

The Call is the only Purpose Driven Student Conference on the east coast.  Each year we focus our them on one of the 5 purposes.  This year we will zoom in on evangelism, sharing your faith.  Our theme verse is John 4:35.

Worship in music will be led by Exodus from Liberty University.  These guys were here last year and rocked.  They related great with the teenagers.  

We have a great line up of relevant break out sessions for both the students and youth leaders led by some of my best friends, we are bringing in 3 great youth pastors (and me) and my little nephew to lead some sessions.  

You can listen to a couple of last year's sessions here.

For the Students:

Following and Growing

The SHAPE of your Life

Your Mission Should You Choose to Accept it.

Plug In

For Youth Leaders:

Purpose Driven Youth Ministry

Campus Ministry

Do You Techno At All?

Engaging Students in Worship

Teaching Teenagers about God, Jesus and other Spiritual Stuff

In the past we have brought in a main session speaker to challenge the students.  This year since we flew in the talented and gifted to lead break outs we are letting them share.  I'll be delivering the message on Friday night about God's life changing love.  Saturday we will unpack John 4:35. 

Each year our church turns out in force to staff this event.  We have a great team of caring adults that show up to serve in registration, product sales, concessions, greeters, set-up and clean-up.  It is a fun time for the adults who don't usually serve in youth ministry to get involved in serving and rubbing elbows with the students.  Last year we had 300 from 27 different youth groups from 5 denominations.  I expect we will pack out again this year.  We only charge $25 to help cover the expenses and a couple of local hotels give groups a break on the price of rooms.

The purpose of this event is to challenge students and their leaders to live life on purpose.  My prayer is that we again see students trust Jesus Christ as their Savior this year as we have in past years.

If your youth group is close enough to come to The Call we would invite you to check it out, we even offer online registration.

Please lift up The Call in your prayers, we truly desire to see student's lives changed.

There are those moments in youth ministry. . .

Tonight was great from a youth pastor's point of view.  There are those moments in youth ministry that make a youth leader stop and say, "I'm right where God wants me."  I joined some students up on the balcony to hang out and eat pretzels with them.   I think there were 7 or so sitting up there.  Then the next thing I know they are praying together.  Come to find out they have been doing this every week for some time now.  They were gathering over by the door to the unfinished youth room but have moved to the comfy sofas.  Totally student initiated, totally student led.  I was blessed and humbled to get to join them in prayer tonight.

It's Super Bowl Sunday night.  For those of those who couldn't give a flip about football we really don't care.  For me half time show is better than the game.  Over half the students came to youth group tonight.  We had a great time hanging out during hang time, playing farkle, ping pong, Apples to Apples.  Several students wrote notes to soldiers in Iraq.  Lots of pretzels, chips, cookies were consumed.  Youth group Super Bowl parties drive me nuts because the majority don't watch the game.  We probably could have had a Super Bowl Party and not even showed the game and would have been just fine at least half probably wouldn't have noticed.

We had the largest group we have ever had on Super Bowl Sunday for youth group even without a party.  (we used to do youth group on Wednesday nights so this was the first Super Bowl Sunday for us to have youth group)

Our lesson was about faith tonight.  I'm pasting the outline below.  I also encouraged students to pick up a copy of The Case For Faith by Lee Strobel.

Ephesians 6:13-16

DEFENDING MY FAITH (What are fiery arrows?)

• Fear
• Lies
• Temptation
• Doubt
• Confusion
• Words

 DEFINING MY FAITH

 Belief - Accepting something as truth

Faith – Giving your life to what you believe

2 Corinthians 4:18

·       Faith requires action

James 2:17

  Romans 5:1-2

 Faith gives me . . .

·  PEACE

 CONFIDENCE

JOY

SECURITY

DEEPENING MY FAITH

If I’m investigating my faith, I should:

 Start small

Luke 17:6

 If I’m struggling with my faith, I should:

 Ask for help

If I’m sold out in my faith, I should:

Remember God’s faithfulness

1 Samuel 12:24

  

Old School

Back in the day we would do events after Sunday night church called Destination Unknown.  The idea was you gathered together as a group after the service and then went somewhere but you didn't know where you were going, the youth leaders had that all lined up.

Last night we went old school.  We met at the church at 4pm and then loaded up in vehicles and headed out.  The girls went to Cloud 9 a jewelry making shop in Nags Head and they got to make necklaces.   From what I hear they had a great time and from what I saw they did a great job creating their own jewelry.  I was impressed with their bead working skills.  The guys went to Nags Head Bowling.  We had a great time hanging out and competing lane against lane.  Lots of fun.   After our adventures at Cloud 9 and the Bowling center we met back at the church for supper together.  Some parents hung out at the church while we were having fun and cooked a full on spaghetti dinner with salad, bread and cake.  I wasn't there in the kitchen but I'm pretty sure the parents had a good time of fellowship as they cooked.   It was very good.  We dined in the big lobby and ate on 44 feet of table.  It looked like a king's dining hall.  Lots of fun!  

The parents did a fantastic job!  Which brings me to the point of this post.  Last night's event was:

1.  Inexpensive (important right now with the shape the economy is in)

2.  Lots of fun (you don't have to go to an amusement park to have fun)

3.  Impossible without the involvement of parents (youth ministry is parent ministry)

Youth Ministries need to realize the value in teaming up with parents and getting parents involved in events, activities and in the youth ministry as a whole.  Our parents knocked it out of the park last night as they drove students and prepared the meal.

Destination Unknown is very easy to plan:

• Decide where you will go 
  
• Cost of the event for the students (will you pull money out of the budget)
• Contact the location of the event and make plans with the management (well in advance)
• Promote the event with the parents well in advance
• Invite parents to join in and help, weeks ahead.
• Promote the event with the students for at least two months in advance.
• A Destination Unknown would be a great event to have a ministry team put together and pull off.

Coming to Contagious

More on the adoption

Names of our children are withheld for privacy reasons.  For our friends and family that may comment please don’t mention their names in the comment.  Thanks

I know a few are wondering how the whole process of adopting twins came about for us.  First of all we realize that God’s plan for us to have a family is through the miracle of adoption, this is how our family is growing.  Second we realized that our desire to parent was more important than the desire to achieve pregnancy or give birth.  We also know that there are children who need a family and we are a family who desires children, a perfect match.  We are amazed by a birth mom’s love for her child, to give her child the best life she possibly can.

Last summer we began the adoption process by completing a pre-application.  That was about the extent of our effort.  We were looking at the economy and thought there was no way financially we could adopt, as a result our adoption plans were put on hold.  Our prayer was that if God wanted us to adopt, He would need to drop a baby on our laps and provide financially for the adoption.

Fast forward to December 31.  I received a call from our friend at Christian Adoption Service.  She asked me if we would be interested in adopting twins.   I then called Misha and we both agreed we were up to the task, after all we weren’t pursuing adoption aggressively and God dropped a baby(ies) on our laps.  I let CAS know that the only barrier for us adopting right now is the financing.  Plainly and simply adoption is expensive and we don’t have that kind of money.  Long story short the adoption agency is working with us and with some organizations to help us raise the funds.  To finance the adoption will basically be a fundraising effort on our part and another miracle.  Because we had put adoption on hold we had no plan for financing this adoption.

We set up a meeting with the agency for January 7.  Part of this meeting would include meeting with the birth mom (people always want details but we are holding those back until the twins are old enough and interested).  While at the agency they asked us if we were ready to parent twins?  I said, “We will roll with the punches.”  Then they threw the punch, “Your babies were born this morning!”

Life comes at you fast, in a week we went from the parents of 1 to 3.  Thinking we had about 6 weeks to prepare.  Our twins arrived premature.  Both were healthy and doing well.  We were able to go to the NICU and hold and feed them.  It was incredible!

The babies were so small, I was a bit nervous about picking them up.  They were hooked to monitors and there were alarms and noises going off but that didn’t bother us because of our experience in NICU this time last year with our great-niece.  We got to hold them and feed them and they were only about 12 hours old. 

When the nurse placed our babies in our arms I immediately fell in love.  I can’t explain how that happens but it does.  We weren’t sure we could adopt again, I never thought I would have a baby girl, but God had his plans.

Our prayer request now:

1. The babies continue to be healthy
2. For their birth mom.  Her sacrificial gift of love is amazing to me and we want to continue to pray for her.
3. The financing of the adoption

 If you are interested in partnering with us in this adoption please drop me an e-mail me at twinsadoption@gmail.com.

 

Contagious Last Night

Last night was much fun.  Of course I'm not getting much sleep right now due to the sleep schedule of the twinkies but I had a whole lot of coffee yesterday which may have affected my approach and delivery. ;)

Students did much hanging out, playing Skip BO, ping pong, chillin on the balcony.  Adult leaders were mingling and building relationships with students.  A couple of guests last night and a couple of return guests which is really good.   

We talked about peace last night.  Here is the outline:

A PICTURE OF PEACE

 Peace with God

. . . by him [Jesus] God reconciled everything to himself. He [God] made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross (Colossians 1:20).

Peace with others

Do your part to live in peace with everyone (Romans 12:18).

Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you

(2 Corinthians 13:11).

Peace with self

. . . if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace (Romans 8:6).

[Jesus said] "I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27).

 PROBLEMS WITHOUT PEACE

 Enemies of Peace:

·       Worry

·       Control

·       Purchase

·       Procrastinate

 A SPIRITUAL “FIX”

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you (Philippians 4:6-9).

 Filter the NOISE (verse 8)

Investigate for TRUTH (verse 9)

X-out the ENEMIES of peace (verses 6-7)

Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us (Romans 5:1).

[Jesus]"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me, and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me, and you'll learn to live freely and lightly (Matthew 11:28-30).

This lesson is part of a series, All Out War, from Simply Youth Ministry.  To check it out simply click on the box on the top of my sidebar for this series and many more great resources for youth ministry in your church.  Simply's series come with everything you need to teach including promotional materials and Powerpoint materials.

 

Slipping Through the Cracks

Rick is my brother (oldest one) and has written a good post about slipping through the cracks.  So often when someone drifts away and slips through the cracks it is because they have not developed meaningful relationships in the church body.  It's not something that happens automatically, it takes effort on your part and on my part to build these relationships.  Relationships are like glue. 

 "What can we do to make sure no one is slipping away and/or falling prey to the enemy. And if you think missing church isn't a sign of that, you're likely slipping away yourself. " READ MORE