Stop Getting Saved

It's hard to believe that I haven't worked in youth ministry for nearly 8 months. That fact kind of crept up on me recently. Prior to these past few months, I have a good five years of youth ministry experience under my belt. I'm pretty passionate about it and I can't wait to find a new outlet to do it through.

But something like youth ministry is bound to have it's ups and downs. I can take ups and downs. But there is one thing that I've experienced countless times that has become a pet peeve of mine. My goal is for this to be more of a processing than a rant, so bear with me. But I get a little tired of seeing students get saved...then get saved again...then get saved again...and again...and again!

Please don't misunderstand me. I realize that salvation is a process. Myself, I said a prayer when I was five, then I accepted Christ when I was 12. If all someone did was say a prayer, then the best thing that they can do is actually accept Christ rather than continue a life deceiving themselves.

But that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about someone who feels conviction, accepts Christ, eventually gets into sin again, feels conviction, assumes that a real Christian would never mess up so badly and get as far away from God as they did, say another salvation prayer, repeat.

I feel like a lot of the mentality behind this is develops because often, when someone accepts Christ, it's a very emotional thing. I know in my case, I really did feel God in that moment. Faith can bring about great feelings and experiences in a believers life, so when someone stops having those feelings it's easy to feel far from God and for us to question whether or not we even knew Him in the first place. I get that. I've been there. It's a depressing and often dark place to be.

But the question remains then: Why do we no longer feel God? The solution certainly isn't the answer to every case, but I do feel that it is to the majority of Christians around here, myself included. Dead things don't feel. James 2:26 says that faith without works is dead. How are we going to be close to God when our faith is dead.

The times that I'm closest to God come not when I'm just spending time reading my Bible and praying, but when I'm also out serving the Kingdom. In fact, ministering enhances those other times with God. We can't afford to be lazy; it kills our faith. I've heard it said that following Christ is like swimming in a river, you're either going forward or your going backward, but you can't stay in one place. If you're pursuing the Kingdom then you're gaining holiness, if you're not then sin and satan are gaining a foothold in your life and you're separating yourself from the Lord. So of course we'll feel doubt in those times, and we'll feel like we have to say a prayer to make it all better. But if we do that we're just setting ourselves up for a never ending cycle of failure.

Christ called us to follow Him, not pursue emotional encounters with Him. If we're following Him, then ministry will flow from our lives. You can't convince someone who's serving the Lord that they don't know Him.

PS: I totally stole this awesome little bit of wisdom from David Schendel. Sadly he doesn't have anything to link to, so you'll just have to talk to him in real life.

PPS: Sorry for the super long post today. I hope you enjoyed it.

Words cannot express

I am so humbled that I get to do what I do with the youth group at my church. I have some of the most amazing guys in the world and tonight just proved that.

I was given the privilege to pray over a few amazing guys tonight who took a stand to say that they know that living a true Christian life could lead to ridicule, but they want to do it anyway and break out of the mold of of listless "Christianity."

It's really amazing to me that when a couple of my guys were moved to tears they sought me out to pray with them. And even talking to a few of them afterwards, some of the things that they said just blew me away. They're only twelve but they seem to get it.

Two things in particular stood out to me after the main service. The first one being a talk I had with one of my guys and hearing him talk about his dad. This guy's dad is taking a major part in his son's spirituality and really is discipling him. He looks up to his dad and thinks there's no one like him in the world. I believe his exact words were, "Even when he's old, he's still going to be really cool." That excites me because that's the kind of dad I want to be.

And the other things that pumps me up is that a few of my guys approached me and Matt, my co leader, about reading through the Bible together. Granted, we decided against their idea of starting in Genesis, but it's just really awesome that they approached us and not the other way around. I know that I didn't start having a quiet time with God until I was a sophomore in college, but the difference it's made in my life has been huge. So seeing that these guys really do want start now just excites me. I am so incredibly unworthy of being able to do what I do, but I'm so glad I get to do it.

Deep Thoughts

Brandon has his small group from church over at the house for the night and it's been fun having guys around the house that are small enough for me to beat up. It's so cool! I hit them and throw them around and they just stand back up like nothing happened! I love middle schoolers!

At one point in the night though, one of the seventh graders exclaimed, "Man, you guys live awesome over here!" He, of course, was referring to the fact that we have a dart board and a PS3 in our living room on top of the fact that we can eat ice cream at 10:30 PM. But it's just a sad realization for me. I'm 23, single, and living the dream life of a 12 year old.

In one way, that's a sad fact, but if you consider the fact that I once was 12 as well, I've really arrived. Granted, that means that that also stands true of some 40 year olds that live in their parent's basement for "a lot cheaper than an apartment, so it really is more financially responsible than moving out" but that's really beside the point.

But that's all beside the point. What really matters is that someone looks up to me!