Posted on

Simply Amazing.

This past Sunday at “Pulse Sunday Night,” we unveiled something that I find high value in. It’s not a new thing, but every time I have done this in Student Ministry it has been an amazing experience. This past Sunday for our worship component we lead Pulse Students in doing prayer creatively with the use of prayer stations.

We had four stations: Prayer doodles, Joys/Hopes/and Concerns Wall, Making a Bracelet to “wear” what we have learned on Sunday Nights, and lighting a candle as you prayer for someone in your life.

What is so amazing to me about this experience was that for 30 minutes I got to view teenagers engage and embrace the quiet and communicate with God.

I mean seriously of all the things that teenagers hear about themselves this is groundbreaking to experience.

I saw first hand Christ living within the students at St. Philip’s UMC. There was this connectedness to something divine that left me wanting to do  more and more. During this experience I was challenged to do more with my communication with God, because the simple fact is that sometimes the students at Pulse Student Ministries teach me how to be a better disciple.

Simply Amazing.

Posted on

Real Ministry?

Sometimes as a Youth Worker I am asked when I will grow up.

OK.

I admit I am asked this a lot, if you know me you know this to be very true.

All joking aside, sometimes I am asked this in regards to my career choice and no I am not referring generally to the ministry career, because that is many things.

What I am referring to is youth ministry.

“Brad, when are you going to grow up and do real ministry?”

This begs a question.

What is real ministry?

Sometimes I can take this personally that sometimes we think youth ministry is just a social group of crazy teenagers and insane adults who willingly hang out with these crazy teenagers.

But I ask again what is real ministry?

Isn’t real ministry where we talk about being disciples and following the life that Jesus laid out his life for us to live? I think Jesus says it best when he says that a true friend lays down his life. This does not necessarily mean physically dying, but willingly hanging and be present with a certain group of people that may try and even kill your patience.

Because here is the thing.

As much as my teens sometimes get on my nerves I know that Jesus died for them and they deserve to have someone be present with them and love them as they are and accept them as Christ has accepted them. His grace tells us that no matter what we do in our life His grace is always here for us.

So I pray that today we realize that we all need Christ’s love and caring and that a part of that commitment we take on as His disciples is extending that love and grace to all that we come into contact with. My students at St. Philip’s deserve to have someone say to them:

Jesus loves you, and I love you and I am here.

That’s real ministry.

Amen.

Posted on

Starting Off Right

Every week like any other church we have a full staff meeting together and share what is going on in our ministry together at St. Philip’s United Methodist Church. At St. Philip’s we start our Staff Meeting with the sacrament of communion.

So before we do anything we start with what God did for us.

Why is this so important?

Simply because you are not defined by what you do everyday but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. This faithfulness is the launching point for everything we do.

So, are we starting our day off right?

Let us together start with Christ and let Christ’s love and grace be the launching point of everything.

The end.

Posted on

Prayer through the Psalms

Last week at our Wednesday night program for Pulse Student Ministries we started a new series. It’s called “Reach” and it is all about the Psalms and how they are really honest communication between God and King David and several other Kings as well. The Psalm we covered last week has still been on my heart since last Wednesday. For the purpose of this post I would like to focus on Psalms 86:6-7

“Listen closely to my prayer, Lord;
pay close attention to the sound of my requests for mercy.
Whenever I am in trouble, I cry out to you,
because you will answer me.” (Psalms 86:6-7 CEB)

At first glance this last Wednesday night I was struck by King David’s confidence in verse seven that God would answer him when he cries out, but even more so with the somewhat arrogance to say:

“God pay attention closely.”

I have always admired how honest David is with God. Though he made many mistakes, but he constantly bows down to God and pleads for help. I have to ask myself how honest I am with God in my prayers.

Which is kind of a ridiculous thing, why wouldn’t we be honest with God? I mean he already knows everything why wouldn’t we share everything with Him?

However, we really don’t do we?

There is a part of the human condition that motivates us to resist being open to God, or anything or anybody for that matter. We are selfish and stubborn after all, or at least I am. I know that I am so stubborn that I will mess up tons of time before I totally realize that my approach may not be the best in the world.

When we truly embrace the love and grace of God and let him in we truly embrace the best approach ever.

We are made to desire to be in community, to have relationships with others, but its more than that. We have this desire to have a relationship with God because we are made in His Image and He desires to be in relationship with us because of His great love and grace.

So, are we being completely honest with God?

If not, why?

Lord God help us to know you anew. Help to fall in love with you a fresh and embrace the goodness of grace.

Amen.

Posted on

Jesus is Serious.

After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?[a]”

“Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.”

“Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.

Jesus repeated the question: “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

“Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.”

“Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said.

A third time he asked him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep.

“I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others[b] will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.” Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, “Follow me.” (John 21:15-19)

 

There are many statistics out there about the future of the church, about how it is very limited and that the church is dying and more and more people are not going to church. I don’t know if this is true or not, I know that what fuels me as a youth minister is preparing students to be disciples for Jesus Christ and I am beyond blessed to be a part of that journey.

The Journey that we experience now in our lives with being disciples starts in this passage.

Today, I had the awesome opportunity of co-leading a Leadership Lab with with my friend and fellow youth worker, Jason Weaver. Today obviously we talked about Leadership, but specifically we talked about how true leaders are learners as well, that journey is not a destination but a life long process. We really tried to stress that we never know everything about being an effective leader because we are always learning how to better ourselves.

An example in this discussion was the disciple Peter, because we felt that he was a shining example of a leader that was constantly learning, faltering, getting back up and trying again. The passage above is an example of his getting back up and trying again. Jesus is preparing him for what’s coming next which is huge. The creation of the early christian church. One observation that came to me as I reflect on our experience of learning together today:

1. Leadership is uncomfortable.

It doesn’t matter who you are, at some point in time I am sure you have experienced this notion. There are times as leaders where we wonder why the heck are we doing what we are doing, but we are and so we continue. If you are as stubborn as I am then when you have decided to do something because God has called you to it you are going to stick with it to the very end. Nothing is going to stop me from trying again and again, but that doesn’t change the fact that at times God brings me to a very uncomfortable situation and usually God uses my mistakes to my message in this time.

So put yourself in Peter’s shoes.

How many times recently have you denied Christ’s call on your life because it was just not comfortable and not convenient. If you are like me this happens like a lot and if we are honest we are not comfortable with where God leads us, but know this and be encouraged with the simple truth that as He brings you to a tough situation you are being equipped and empowered in this situations!

In this moment Jesus is serious about the task that He has for Peter. It’s not enough that Jesus has shown Peter the best way to live. It can’t end there, Peter must now go and do likewise. This might be the uncomfortable part of being a disciple. When we finally get up to show up and listen to Christ, he has the gall to tell us to leave His presence and share the love and grace with the world.

What do mean leave?

I just got here!

Exactly. Now go and share what you have learned in the showing up.

Jesus, our Lord and Savior has called you to something. It is very unique to you because you offer something that no one has ever offered in the history of world. You were created to do this exact thing. He is dead serious too, so….

Next time you feel that God doesn’t know what He’s doing…..

Be still.

Trust.

And Know that God is with You and everything He does is for the good!

Then all of God’s children together said:

Amen.