"Busted" Series

I must say that I love student ministry. I especially love preaching and teaching the Word of God in a way that can be easily understood by students. I know that when students can grasp what's being said, then so can I! We just finished up a three-week series called "Busted!". We took a look at (1) how temptations can be so easy to give in to, (2) hidden things aren't so hidden, and (3) could you be busted for being a follower of Jesus? It was some good times. I really enjoyed preparing and putting these together. The last topic was near and dear to my heart. I truly believe that I hold in my heart the spiritual gifts of teaching and evangelism. As I said before, I love to study and present the Word of God. I also love to share the wonderful news that though we've blown it (many times), God is still reaching out to us and calling us to have a relationship with Him.

I really got to thinking about the topic that we went over last night: could you be busted for being a follower of Jesus Christ? For some reason, I have not been able to get this out of mind. Here where I live (in the southeastern United States - Sweet Home Alabama), it is very common for someone to be called a "Christian". But does the term "Christian" mean today what it meant in the first century? I really think not. We can see from the Scripture that the term "Christian" was meant to be very derogatory. It was meant to be an insult, but somehow we've taken it to be one of our favorite "labels" that we place upon ourselves.

What are the qualifications of being a "Christian" in today's world? Go to church. Get baptized. Walk down front and say a prayer. These are some of the things that we talked about last night. These things are all good, but they in no way make a person a disciple of Jesus Christ. I found a video on YouTube that says it so much better than I could. Take a moment to watch it, and then answer the question: could you be busted for being a follower of Jesus Christ?

First Easter As A Parent

As Easter quickly approaches, I realize that this is going to be a very different Easter than ever before. For the first time ever, I am going to participate in Easter as a parent. It seems that with every passing day there is a new experience in this thing called parenting. This past Sunday, we gathered the family up after church, got some Sonic to munch on, and went and had our "Easter pictures" made. It was so much fun. I have never really gotten into the whole picture-taking craze in my life. This time was very different. I got to choose what I would wear. I also got a say in what the pictures should look like (with much help from the lovely Naomi). It was really good times. We had 143 pictures taken. Good thing was that I was only in maybe four. Most of the pictures were of our little man, Drew. I hope to get some of the pics up here soon. I think that you would like them.

In the way of ministry, I guess you can say that I'm bucking a trend. I know that Easter is only a couple of days away and that most of the attention of churches all around is on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I'm not saying that it's not important. I'm not saying I'm against it. I am very much for it. It was the resurrection that gave me hope of a future and eternal life. We have taken a different course though in our student ministry. We are currently doing a series called "Busted!" I am really enjoying this series. I am growing fond of hunting down funny pictures for this series. Here are a couple of pictures that have made their way to our screens that we thought were just hiliarious:

That's funny stuff... but the focus has been on times when people have been busted for things. The first week we talked about David and Bathsheba and how giving into temptations can get you into a world of trouble. Last night was a good night. We had our students back who were gone to Chicago on a school band trip (go Pirate Band). Last night we talked about Moses and our "hidden things". It was good times. I'm really looking forward to this next week. We are going to put a spin on things and take them in a totally different direction. It's always good to do that every so often. I will tell you more about it after next Wednesday.

Have a great and awesome celebration of the risen Savior this weekend!

Accountability

I am currently going through a study of Daniel from the Bible and I came across something in this familiar story that I had never seen before. In chapter 2, we see that Daniel and his friends were in a hard place - they had a death warrant on their lives. After finding out the reason, Daniel asks for a little time to interpret the king's dream. Here's the part that I had never paid much attention to: Daniel goes to three friends and asks them to pray. It got me to thinking about the precious few that I have in my life that I can call on at any time to pray with me about something. I thank God so much for giving me a couple of guys to lean on during times of decision. Do you have someone that you can go to about anything and know that they will lift you up in honest prayer? If not, ask God now to send you someone to be a real friend.

"As iron sharpens iron, a friend sharpens a friend." - Proverbs 27:17

DNOW

Wow, how time flies by. It has been a couple of weeks since I last got on here and dropped a few thoughts down for people to read. So let's see what we can come up with. We are on the other side of our church's DNOW. This was a great weekend where First Baptist Church of Fairhope, Alabama joined together with the Church on the Eastern Shore and the Way Community Church. We had close to 200 students from the Fairhope area participate. It was some good times. Gary Permenter (http://www.garypermenter.org/) was the speaker. If you are in student ministry and looking for a good speaker, I would highly recommend Gary. Check out his website and tell him that "the Fireant" sent you his way.

I noticed something during the DNOW worship services. I don't know about where you live, but to get churches to come together and do things together can be like trying to pull a tooth from a pit bull's mouth. Everything went so well and I truly believe that we got a glimpse of heaven. It was people who loved Jesus together singing, praying, listening with one heart. It was truly a beautiful sight.