I'm pretty pumped for tonight!

Pretty excited about tonight! I'm going to be hanging with Junior Highers!!!

It's literally been like 2 years that I have done anything with Junior High after spending an entire year there. I'm really excited to kick off a new series called Footsteps where we try to offer practical ways that students can begin to show their relationship with Jesus to the world through different modes. It's going to be pretty fun. I will say, I'm having to really work to bring the message to a Junior High level. But, I'm recognizing that sometimes Junior High Level is higher than we think. So, we'll see how that goes.

Tonight, in Senior High, Derry comes back to the stage after a 4 month hiatus (the last time he spoke to Senior Highers was Summer Camp), and will be helping us ask a bunch of questions. I'm really excited to hear from Derry as he challenges us to think about our passions and give us some perspective on ways that we can get involved with helping Teens and the Trafficked all around the world. I really see these two foci becoming center to our global initiatives but we'll see what comes out of tonight.

It should be a fun night in Student Ministries!!!

GC

Camp Preparation

So, today is the last day before our Junior Highers leave for Summer Camp. Our camp is focusing on the words that Job hears directly from the Lord when Job is finally at his "wits end."

"Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me."

So, as they get ready to leave, I am praying that God may be saying this to them right now as they prepare for camp and get ready to launch out into an experience that I pray will change their lives. I pray that it is an experience that pushes them to desire Him more and more, everyday; when they get back.

Coming Tonight...

Tonight, we continue our series on Matthew 7. Pastor Terry is going to come and share about what it means to be constantly pursuing God. It has been interesting to see how this series has moved from one vision that Chris and I had to a new, more powerful vision. I love it when God takes what I have in mind and makes it into something different.

I'll have more about that last part later...

the Future

I was driving to The Cove today and began thinking about my future. Not just occupations, friends, or how in the world I am going to make all of the ends meet that need to be met. My thoughts today centered around something that has consumed me at times in my life and this blog post is basically a way for me to resist allowing that to happen by inviting accountability for this situation.

I was recently having a nice conversation with a couple that is pretty dear to my heart, whether they know it or not, and we were talking about many different things, but we hit on a topic that has some resounding effects with me. It somehow came up that one thing that I fear is never finding "that girl" as my Grandpa Cocanower might put it. It is a situation that I feel has been something of importance to me and I wonder if it is because I have put so much pressure and weight on the individual that I will possibly marry someday to be a ministry partner and one that will be able to assist, support, and be a part of the ministry that God places me in. I also wonder if I am just impatient with the whole situation. I hope not. I need to think more on this, but comments are suggested on this matter.

In other ministry news, I have a really busy day tomorrow and somehow I have to plan the Bible Study for tomorrow night as well as be creative with the things that I come up with for the Fall.

Also, I am very seriously and pretty much accepted the role of Jr. High Intern at NMC for the Fall and Spring. I am very excited about this opportunity to learn and build into a bunch of students. So thanks for this opportunity!

Finally, I am so excited for the School Year approaching, I can hardly contain myself... more on that later..

Camp Reflections

In the few short weeks that I have been here at NMC, I have had the opportunity to speak, build relationships, and learn from some of the greatest men of faith I have met in my short 22 years of existence. With that all said, nothing could be more uplifting, wrecking, personally challenging, or life-changing as the past few days that I have had the opportunity to spend with Jr. Highers and Sr. Highers at Summer Camp. I have been blessed to be able to experience one or two camp-type of events or times in my life, but none comes even close to the time I had in Ohio.

Jr. High Camp was all about teaching me about ministry and different ways that things would need to change in order for me to be successful in the current system. I learned so much about planning and preparation for disaster that I think I would be ready to survive ANOTHER hurricane. J I can’t believe how much has to go into rerouting the plan to fit the conditions of the setting.

Sr. High camp was all about me exercising what I feel, God has called me to; working with High School and College-Age students in pursuing Christ with all of their heart. The amazing thing that in finding these answers, I was also pushed by Pastor Derry to examine my own life; to look introspectively and realize that I am in need of some sacrifice in order to fully catch what God has planned for me. Senior High camp gave me some perspective. I feel myself being more and more intro-flective about many topics of my life.

Over the next few days and weeks, I am going to be featuring a few individuals that are affecting my life in a positive way that I can look up to and have been changed by. This is going to be fun for me and hopefully a positive thing for you.

Update

So it has been awhile since I updated last and that is the reason for having a blog right? Or at least that is the way that you lose readers, right? So this is the update.

Wednesday Night
I spoke to the Jr. Highers on Wednesday last week and I would be lying if I said it was easy. It was far from it. Relating to the age group of the Jr. Highers is more than difficult. Then again, maybe it isn't, I just haven't been in tune with that age group for so long that it made it difficult to feel as if I was relating properly. However, this was a situation where I had had so long to think about the topic that I think that I "over thought" it. I mean come on, distractions really shouldn't be that difficult right? you get distracted, so turn back to Jesus and you can walk on water! haha... I did enjoy the experience with the Jr. Highers as that is the only time that I will be upfront speaking to them. But then again, maybe that is the best thing for me. Maybe that allows me to focus on the more important part of being in ministry and that is the importance of relationships. More on that later.

Friday with Pastor Dave
Don't tell Christy, but I think that I love this guy. Friday we had our leadership meeting with Pastor Dave. Pastor Dave Engbrecht is the Senior Pastor here at NMC and he is responsible for growing the pastors here into leaders as well as shepherding those in the congregation. Pastor Dave shared some of his thoughts on leadership, especially in ministry, and gave us many different qualities of a good leader as well as visited with us about our lives and just kinda got to pour into us. Let me just say, I could sit and listen to this guy talk for hours on end. I mean, I seriously was locked in on this conversation think it might have been the most focused hour and a half that I have been apart of in a long time.

The biggest thing that most of us took from this time was Pastor Dave's relation of leaders to this idea of leaders who "multiply" and those that "add." I thought about this as he detailed what exactly each leader does and how each leader acts. I found it so important to realize where I fit into this spectrum as it relates to excellence and empowerment. The "Adder" focuses more on excellence while the "Multiplier" focuses on empowering people to achieve excellence. This would become quickly used in my life as the Sunday School setting was arriving soon and the planning for this was quickly becoming a situation that I needed to focus on buying to the multiplier mentality.

This guy is sweet.

Sunday Morning
So, we have started this curriculum called "Fuel" and this curriculum is very deep, I feel, for the Jr. Highers and Preteens. But what made it even more difficult was the fact that we were using a new format from the format that we had used the week prior. So this was a challenge. I was responsible for developing questions for pre and post question sessions for both 7th and 8th graders when they would be in classrooms with leaders. I think that the hardest thing about this was not forming the questions because that was a matter of thinking about what I would like to know more about and simply putting it down and then paring that list down to that which seemed more relevant than the others. But what was more difficult was my desire to make sure that the leaders got the students to where they needed to be in order to fully comprehend the message that we were trying to portray. All in all, this was a difficult process that really grew me in a way that I didn't know was going to happen through one simple Sunday School lesson.


This Week
I have found myself growing more and more this week as I took a bit of an assessment about where I am at in my pursuit of Christ. I am reading Francis Chan's new book Crazy Love and it has given me some perspective. I will add a post about some of my thoughts on this probably later today or tomorrow, perhaps. But this book has challenged me to think more and more about the way that I view the world. WHAT AM I LOOKING TO ACHIEVE? I almost wonder what it is that I am pursuing on this earth? Is it fame? Fortune? Success? What am I defining my success with? These are some of the questions that are in my head right now. I have found that perhaps I am starting to realize that I need to be more focused on that which is important. But that wisdom is coming.

Pray for the Preteens tonight as they will be going through that which God has laid on my heart.
Pray for the Impact team in Mexico as they continue to do God's Work in Mexico.
Pray for the DCGO team as they continue to learn how they can share their faith with others in a meaningful way.
Pray for all of those that are in need of God's undying Love.
Thank Him for everything that He has given us today.