Follow-up Post to a verse a month…

So every since I posted the D&W Idea of the week about memorizing a verse a month I have been convicted to memorized God’s Word myself.  I still advocate that our teens need to memorize scripture as it is my perception that this is a fading discipline in the church.  That being said, I need to memorize scripture as well for my personal spiritual benefit as well as owning my responsibility and setting the pace for teens that I influence in my small group and the Youth Ministry at Northern Hills.

All of that to say, you should notice a new feature in the upper right hand corner of the Deep & Wide blog page entitled, “MEMORY VERSE FOR JUNE.”  Each month I will provide a new memory verse and invite you to join me in memorizing that verse.

This month’s verse is Ezekiel 33:7, “Now, son of man, I am making you a watchman for the people of Israel. Therefore, listen to what I say and warn them for me.”  It was inspired by today’s Dare 2 Share chapel that Greg share with our staff. 

Beyond memorizing this scripture, my prayer is that I will heed the words of James and apply this to my life as well (James 1:22).

D&W: Building an online community of Youth Leaders

This is stating the obvious, but as many of you know I am a huge fan of Deep & Wide Youth Ministry.  That’s why I blog about it so much, train on it, discuss with Youth Leaders through email and phone calls…it’s in my DNA.  That being said, as much as I love to explain the concept and strategy and introduce Youth Leaders to this philosophy, I have my limitations (I know, stating the obvious again ).  While I have the opportunity to lead a small group for our Youth Ministry at Northern Hills, I am not at the helm of the ministry itself.

That being said, I am looking to grow the online community of Youth Leaders who are implementing Deep & Wide Youth Ministry.  Starting in May (a little over a month away) I want to feature guest bloggers through this site that are actually doing D&W Youth Ministry.  If you would like to contribute, leave me a comment below and I will gladly follow-up with you.  I am looking for Youth Leaders who are willing to blog once a month.  Topics of these blogs may vary, but the goal is for you to share your successes, failures, ideas, and things you are trying as they relate to “doing” D&W Youth Ministry.

I have a few Youth Leaders on board, but my goal is to grow this into an ongoing and growing community of Youth Leaders, not just a select few.  Let’s connect and I can share more of the details. 

Incredible Meetings

I know. Those two words together seem almost an oxy moron, but it’s true. I spent my entire day in two uniquely different meetings but were both amazing experiences and opportunities.

My first meeting was an all-day Leadership Retreat at work – Dare 2 Share. I love our Leadership Retreats because they are great opportunities to step out of the trees and take a panoramic view of the forest. The two big high lights for me today were discussing Strengths Finder 2.0 and looking ahead to our next fiscal year (July 09 – June 10). It was an awesome experience as a team to look at how God has wired and gifted us. From there we are able to see as a team where we have strengths and how to maximize our potential at Dare 2 Share. Considering the rough times the economy is bringing it was perfect timing to wade through it all. Looking ahead to FY10 was exciting as it shed some light on where we are headed as a ministry and we got to discuss some big picture ideas. I love taking looks ahead as a ministry and then helping determine how we are going to get there.

Meeting number two was a first time experience for me. At our church, Northern Hills, we have a Teaching Team that shares the responsibility of teaching & preaching. The main pastors carry the majority of that load, but there are a few more of us that have the opportunity to preach once every few months. Tonight was a planning meeting for our upcoming series on Psalms. It was my first time being a part of the bigger picture strategy of helping prepare and speak into the entire series. As exciting as it was to be a part of this meeting, I am more excited to dive into the series later this spring!

HS Small Group 1/6/09

We kicked off the 2009 year with our small group ministry in 2 big ways this week:

1. The group reached the size & capacity this past fall where we felt confident splitting the group.  Sam has kept a Monday night group at his house and I have taken the small group “plant” and started a Tuesday night group tonight.
2. To help keep momentum going now that the groups are half this size they were, we began the Gospel Journey MAUI DVD-curriculum from Dare 2 Share!

We dove into our MAUI experience tonight in episode 1 of the curriculum which asks the question: “Is there a higher power?” which also led right into another BIG question in life, “How was all this created?”  It was a little slow going at first but the teens began to open up and share their thoughts and opinions about these questions and a variety of others related to this topic.

I was pleased with their willingness to respond and interact, but was a little burdened by a trend that was represented by most of the teens in the room – a reluctance for anyone to say that we can, in fact, know truth with any level of certainty.  These are not teens who don’t go to church or are living a life outside of a relationship with Jesus.  On the contrary, these are kids who know the Lord Jesus Christ, attend on a regular basis, and invite their friends with them.  Several of them felt that even in answering questions about creation vs. evolution or if is there a God or not that everyone can have an opinion but we can’t know with certainty.  At the core of this dilemna, the struggle concerning if there is absolute truth.

As we dialogued they began to see through scripture that we can know with confidence answers to these questions and more.  The good news in all of this: these teens are willing to wrestle with their faith and their doubts in a youth group setting and still seek out scripture as a source for answers.  To be honest, it was refreshing not to get the “Sunday School” and “Pat” answers to these questions we dealt with.  I feel like I can be a more effective Youth Leader having a realistic handle on where these kids are at and what they are going through.  The responsibility I now have is meeting these kids where they are at and helping them find answers to their questions.

Pray for me, Robbin, and Jake as we lead this group as well as the teens we have the opportunity to minister to: Steven, Andrea, Shawn, Brandon, Mason, Tyler, Stephanie, Riley, Marissa, Matt, Breanna, Michael, and the rest of the teens that will join us along this journey!

Reading the NKJV #1

So I’m not really big on the whole New Year’s resolution but this year I’ve decided to take the concept seriously.  Some people are anti-resolution, some people set “goals,” others set resolution year after year and have never accomplished one…I’ll be honest, I don’t know that I care enough about the concept “resolution” to have a strong opinion.  At the very least, it’s the start of a new calendar year and I’m hoping to start a new habit and spiritual discipline along with it.

I have decided to read the Bible from cover to cover.  I know there are several different reading plans for tackling the Bible: chronilogically, New Testament first (Old Testament second), OT & NT simultaneously, alternate a book from each Testament, etc.  I’m going the simple route and have been challenged and inspired to do so by an Elder in our church, Northern Hills.  He simply told me that he likes to challenge people to read the Bible from start to finish, like a novel, in a translation that you have never read before.  So I took him up on it.

I actually started on December 31st because I’m excited to dive into God’s Word this year like I have never have before.  I have read the NT through a few times in the NIV and NLT.  I honestly don’t believe I have read the OT in its entirety.  So this is a first for me.  As far as the translation I have chosen, the NKJV.  This has surprised a few people that I have shared this with, so allow me to share a few thoughts behind why I chose it:

1. Other than checking out a few verses, I have never read the NKJV.
2. It is a very literal (word for word) translation, which is different than most translations I read (phrase for phrase).
3. Because it is a higher reading level than other translations, it will force me to slow down and pay attention to what I’m reading.

What I’m really excited about is not just doing it this year, but a few years running so I can read a variety of translations.  But first things first.  I’m 3 days in and loving it.  I imagine I will blog about what I read from time to time, which will hopefully make for sosme good blogs.

Until next time, happy reading!