Re:Imagine - Session 3

Goal
Re:Imagine YOU. The goal is for students to begin to see themselves the way that God sees them.

Scripture
Judges 6 (especially verses 11-14)

Main idea
This is one of my all-time favorite passages of Scripture. It is the calling of Gideon to greatness. God shows up and calls Gideon to rise up and overthrow a nation that has enslaved & ruled the Israelites for years. Gideon's response? 'You've got the wrong guy. I'm a wimp who comes from a long lineage of wimpiness.'

Here's what I love, though. BEFORE God calls Him to do this impossible task, BEFORE Gideon responds with all of his excuses ... God speaks His vision of Gideon.

'Gideon ... mighty warrior'

Could it be that we have forgotten who we are? We have forgotten that we are the sons and the daughters of the King Most High. We have forgotten that we have been saved from death and have been set free to live. We have forgotten that nothing is impossible for the God that we serve.

Today, may you see yourself as God sees you ...
... you are a mighty warrior

180 retreat

Amazing weekend. Love these students!

Re:Imagine - Session #2

Goal
For students to take another look at WHO God is ... He is bigger

Key Verses
Psalm 113:4-6
2 Samuel 7:18

Main Point
We have made God less than who He truly is
We don't understand how crazy it is that He loves us

If we would really understand just how BIG God is, just how powerful, just how "other" than it would completely redefine how we view who we are, what He gives us and how we respond to Him.
[To do this we used clips from Louie Giglio's 'How Great is Our God' tour. You can see some of it here]

Re:Imgaine - Session #1

A few of you have been asking for a teaching outline of what we looked at on our 180 retreat this last weekend. Our theme was Re:Imagine and it flowed out 1 Corinthians 13:12. The idea was that we need to Re:Imagine, Re:Picture; Re:View who God is, what faith is and who we are.

OPENING SESSION
Big idea - Jesus meets you where you are at
Main Scripture - John 1:1-2 &14; John 1:43-46
Challenge - Choose to hear & to accept the invitation from Jesus for the weekend

If you look at who Jesus is (verses 1 & 2 of John 1) then verse 14 should never happen. God becoming man? God ripping apart the fabric of the universe and entering in? Unfathomable.

Perhaps the only thing more outrageous is what He does while He is here. He doesn't parade about in power and influence. Rather, He invites us.

John 1:43
- He seeks us where we are
- He calls us by name
- He invites us to follow Him, to see who He is and to experience His presence

He still does it ...
Do you hear His invitation today?

Do we avoid risk or engage it?

Here's a rule that's so inevitable that it's almost a law:
As an organization grows & succeeds,
it sows the seeds of its own demise by getting boring.
With more to lose & more people to lose it, meeting and policies become more about avoiding risk than providing joy.

Great thought from Seth Godin's blog.
How does this affect the church?
Where is it true in ministry?
What do we do to prevent it?

Story (NYWC)

Your life tells a story ...
What story are you telling?

At the NYWC Donald Miller spoke primarily from his new book (which is a great read by the way) and it really resonated with me. A few things that really stuck out to me:

In every good story a character is defined by what they DO. Not what they say, believe, feel or teach. What you DO makes you who you are. Who do my actions say that I am?

Often times we get stuck in a sin cycle because it's the only story we know, or because we don't really believe that there is a better story to live. What story do I need to be invited in to? What story do I need to invite others in to?

Every good story is made up of acts. In act 2 is where you find the conflict, the tension, the hardship, the obstacle that the character is trying to overcome. Act 3, then, is the climax where everything is resolved. One of the most dangerous things for us today is that we are promised an act 3 here and now. If we attain this, buy that, reach that level, change this thing, _____ (fill in the blank) then we will reach act 3 and everything will be made right. That's a lie. Act 3 doesn't happen on this side of eternity. Act 3 happens at the wedding feast of the lamb. We live in act 2.

New Familly Picture

Change

Change happens when the pain associated with the status quo becomes greater the pain associated with change.

Reggie Joiner spoke those words in the very first session. How true. Change is inevitable. The reality is that (in any type of organization or even relationship) if you don't change, you (at best) stagnate and most likely die!

As a leader what is my role?

1. Distinguish between what is CORE and what is CULTURAL. What is core remains, what is cultural is up for discussion.
2. Change needs to be INITIATED by the leader.
3. A leader needs to look around the corner, to see what is ahead and to cast VISION for why change needs to happen.

Where you are ... what needs to change?

NYWC 2009

I have spent the last 5 days in Cincinnati for the National Youth Workers Convention. Can I be honest? I wasn't so much looking forward to the conference as I was to just getting away for awhile.

Then God, as He often does, showed up ...

or maybe it was that
I
finally showed up

Amazing time with a ton of key insights. Over the next few posts I'll be letting you in on what I learned.

Trick-or-Treat pictures

Rescue (thoughts from Galatians 1)

Jesus gave Himself so that I could be rescued; and there is no doubt about it, I was in NEED of being rescued! I needed to be rescued ...

... from my sin
... from death
... from despair
... from slavery

And so Jesus came, He gave Himself, and through Him I am rescued.

So, how is it that today, this moment, I fall into thinking that because I have been rescued, that now I'm good? I'm done? the focus tends to be so much on what Christ has DONE that I often miss what I still need Him to do in my life.

Yes, I have been rescued; but the truth of the matter is that I still need to be rescued. Every day, every hour, every moment. I am in desperate need of a rescuer. I STILL need to be rescued ...

... from myself
... from my attitudes
... from my pride
... from my sin
... from my small view of God

Jesus, may I look to you TODAY ... right now to be my Savior and to be my Rescuer.

Monday Mind Dump

WEEKLY RUNDOWN
Had a Daddy-buddy day on Saturday which consisted of pizza, football and a movie. Gotta love it when the boy picks things near & dear to my heart.

Kicked off our SELL OUT series last night & I'm really looking forward to what God is going to do through it!

Almost have our signups done for our 180 fall retreat. Looks like we'll end up bringing 40 - 50 people. Very cool.

Short week this week as I'm heading to OH for a conference on Thursday. That would be a good thing if I didn't have so much work to get done!

Doing this Titan workout with Mike Hardy ... and I can barely walk. Not good.

THINGS TO PRAY ABOUT
Brainstorming, dreaming, planning and writing for our 180 retreat in a few weeks. I am definitely up against the wall on this one.

That our middle school students at The ROCK would move from loving youth group to passionately loving Jesus.

For this conference to be one of that re energizes & rejuvenates me.

Ninjas 4 Christ

Josh Griffin & Saddleback church have put up an amazing site. You need to check it out! Go HERE and be amazed.

New 180 Series - SELL OUT

One of the central messages of the Bible is that God has a plan for our lives. Yet, one of the consistent story lines is of people selling out, settling for less, trying to write their own story and trying to walk their own path outside of the one that God has for them. Not much has changed. What do you sell out to?

New Worship from Kutless

Kutless as got a new worship album out and it is good. You can listen to the whole thing for free right here. Enjoy!

It Is Well - Kutless

Turning 7

Ru turns 7 today
Man these 7 years have gone fast
Every year we take a picture like this
My daughter and her daddy walking hand-in-hand

I look at them and see how big she is getting
I look at them and remember the last 7 years
... daddy - daughter dates
... funny moments
... tender moments

I also look at this picture and pray
... that she will continue to grow in her love for Jesus
... that she will always know whose she is and how much she is worth
... that she will always want to walk hand in hand with her daddy

Happy birthday Ru

The Basketball Guys - Dude Perfect

If you haven't seen their videos you NEED to check them out. More than that, you should head to their website (http://www.dudeperfect.com/) and check out why they do what they do. Pretty amazing.

New ROCK series

Tomorrow night we are starting a brand new series at The ROCK. We are going to be walking through the book of James. James is a how-to-guide for dealing with hard issues, living life and following Jesus. It's going to be an amazing 5 weeks that you don't want to miss!