E3 Parents

Here’s Where We’re Going in ’09

December 22, 2008 at 4:29 pm Leave a comment

9 Days! That’s all that’s left of 2008. As we come to the close of another year I tend to think about what the coming year will bring for my family and for my ministry. Isabel will turn 4 and begin her last year of preschool before going to “real” school. Stacy will turn 29 and spend a good deal of the year talking about how “old” she is getting. We will have completed our first full year in Levelland. I will welcome my second group of 7th graders into the youth ministry here. We’ll get to see God do some really cool thinks in our youth ministry and in our church.

One of the things this new year will bring is new teaching focus as we dive into a new curriculum in our Sunday morning Bible groups. For the first 16 weeks of 2009 we will be going through a curriculum called Beneath the Surface from Inquest Ministries. The goal of this material is to introduce our students to the why and the how of spiritual disciplines. The first thing that got my attention was the title of the material…Beneath the Surface. There are only a few things that I really don’t like at all. At the top of the list is surface level Christianity. There are just way too many people who wear the title Christian like some kind of badge of honor or accomplishment. We forget, we didn’t do anything for this. According to the Bible, all we deserve is death (Romans 6:23). Sometimes people think “becoming a Christian” is something they need to do in life to avoid going to hell when they die, and once they “take care of it” they can get on with life.  Again, the Bible clearly says that once I give my life to Christ, my life ends and from that point forward, Christ lives in me and through me (Galatians 2:20). And there are others who think that being a Christian is a one day a week gig. Once again I have to defer to the Bible: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). I think probably God isn’t too crazy about surface level Christianity either.

And the best way (really, the only way) to grow as a Christian is through practicing the spiritual disciplines. These include (but aren’t limited to) prayer, Bible study, personal worship, corporate worship, fasting, stewardship, and serving. For a great read on spiritual disciplines, I highly recommend Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. This is one of those books I read at least one time every year. (I’ll make sure our church library has a copy).

So the title “Beneath the Surface” captured my attention and the content is incredible. I’ll be blogging each week about the lesson for that week. I’ll also be providing additional resources and tools to help our students (and their parents) start putting these disciplines into practice. My prayer is that during these first 16 weeks of 2009 (and beyond) all of us will take a step forward in our spiritual journey through the genuine practice of the spiritual disciplines.

Entry filed under: Bible lessons, Youth Ministry. Tags: Bible Lesson, Sunday School, Youth Ministry.