E3 Parents

Tomorrow our entire church staff is going to Dallas to attend a one day conference on children’s, youth, and family ministry. I am really excited about this conference and what we will be able to bring back home with us. Next week I’ll be blogging about my experience at the conference.

Yesterday in Sunday School our youth discussed the strategy that Jesus gave us to fulfill our purpose (to make disciples). The verse we looked at was Acts 1:8. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The strategy includes: 1. Living a Spirit driven life (…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…); 2. Living a purpose focused life (…and you will be my witnesses…); and 3. Living a vision directed life (…in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth).

We ended by evaluating our own lives. How focused is your life on the purpose and strategy that Jesus gives us as believers when it comes to how you spend your time, your money, and your energy? Laser sharp? Needs adjustment? Total blur? In your day to day life how important is being Christ’s witness to you? Very important? Somewhat important? Not very important? How would you grade yourself on how much effort you put into being a witness for Christ? A? B? C? F?

What do you do as a family to make sure you are pursuing the purpose Jesus has for you as believers?

One of my heroes in ministry is Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor at The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas. Matt has had an incredible spiritual influence in my life and in the lives of thousands of others. On Thanksgiving day Matt had a seizure at his home and was rushed to the hospital. Tests revealed a brain tumor and a week later he underwent brain surgery. The pathology report came back…Matt has Anaplastic oligodendroglioma…brain cancer. Matt is my age. He has a wife and 3 small children.

The phrase that I see and hear often from Matt is this: “Christ is All.” As long as I have known him and listened to his teaching he has spoken and lived this phrase. And now he still speaks and lives it.

Christ is all. I’ve been evaluating my own life in light of this phrase. Is Christ all? Is Christ all in my marriage? Is Christ all in my job? Is Christ all in my day to day tasks? Is Christ all in my free time? Is Christ all in my checkbook? Is Christ all in my words? Is Christ all in my thoughts? Is Christ all in my home? Is Christ all in my attitude? Is Christ all when things are going great? Is Christ all when things seem to be falling apart? Am I living this out? My prayer for myself is that I would be able to say and follow through with my life “Christ is all.”

I also want more than anything for this to be the message we teach and live out in our youth ministry. It doesn’t matter what we do… teach great lessons, play fun games, take exciting trips, build incredible facilities, sing loud songs, build deep friendships…none of it matters if Christ is not all. Would you join me in praying fervently and regularly that Christ would be all in our youth ministry and in the lives of all of our students, parents, and workers?

Our big youth trip for the summer will be July 9-17. We will be going to Arlington for some fun time (Rangers game, Six Flags, Great Wolf Lodge), some mission work (with Mission Arlington), and some times of intense worship. Please plan on keeping this week open for your teens. We need everybody to be a part of this trip. Lots more details coming soon!

In just 27 short hours we will have our E3 Parent Open house and meeting! I hope you have made plans to be here tomorrow at 6:00. We’ll be meeting upstairs in the new E3 Lounge. We will be talking about the summer events for 2010 and there will be the new 2010 E3 Release forms available to fill out.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

I learned about the term “withitness” today while studying for the Sunday School lesson. Apparently “withitness” is being used in education circles to describe a teacher’s awareness of everything that is going on in the classroom at all times.

So, naturally I thought about how else I could use the term…scrabble, boggle, confusing my daughter…or maybe as a term to describe a parent’s awareness of everything that is going on in the world of their teenager.

I am a student of youth culture and I’ll be the first to admit that it is next to impossible to keep up with everything going on in the world of the teenager because as soon as you think you have it figured out, everything changes. However there are some great tools to help old folks like us. And the best tool I’ve found is the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding. Take a look at their website. They have some great articles and resources for parents, but pay particular attention to the research and trends section. This is one of the best ways to keep up with teen pop culture on a weekly basis. I hope this will help you with your withitness!

The Bible doesn’t have much to say about Jesus’ teen years. As a matter of fact it doesn’t really say much of anything about Him between the ages of 12 and 30…with one exception. There is one verse that kind of bridges the gap between 12 years old and 30 years old. That verse is Luke 2:52. “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”

Tonight at E3 worship we talked about what we know about Jesus’ teen years from this verse and used that as a springboard to evaluate our own lives as compared to Jesus. I challenged our students who were here to take an honest look at their life and see if during 2009 they have been growing in wisdom…growing in stature…growing in favor with God…growing in favor with man. And we talked about setting goals for this new year in each of those areas. We talked about the fact that ultimately our goal as Christians ought to be to become more and more like Jesus (as we heard in the sermon last Sunday, “to live as Jesus lived, to love as Jesus loved, and to leave behind what Jesus left behind”).

Maybe you could encourage your teen to follow through with the challenge I issued and help them set some practical goals. Then remind them from time to time to check up on themselves to see how they are doing. Hold them accountable. Above all else pray for them often…that they would truly become more and more like Jesus.

Next Wednesday, July 13 January 13, we will be having a parent open house and meeting in the new E3 Lounge upstairs in the youth ministry area. We will meet from 6 – 6:30 and look at plans for the spring and summer of 2010. We will also have the 2010 E3 Release forms available. Please plan on being here!

Have you ever imagined what it would have been like to be a part of the early church? There was this group of uneducated, unimpressive, and unrefined guys who had spent the last 3 years of their lives hanging out with Jesus who became apostles filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Thousands were being saved, people shared everything they had, the believers met together every day…they shared every part of their lives together. People were being healed. Missionaries traveled all over starting new churches. It must have been pretty incredible!

In our youth Sunday School we will be looking at this new community of believers and what made them so awesome. We will be discussing the key characters…Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Peter, and Paul to name a few…and the key concepts and events that provided the foundation of the Church.

Our goal and purpose in doing this is not to simply study history, but to encourage our small groups and our youth ministry as a whole to embrace and live out the same foundational concepts and principles that defined the early church. We started yesterday with Peter’s confession of Jesus: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” and Jesus’ response “Upon this Rock (Peter’s confession) I will build my church.”

This next week will be looking at the purpose of the early church…and the purpose of the church still today: To make disciples.

In 14 months of blogging I have been inconsistent to say the least. My purpose for this blog was (and still is) to support and serve parents by communicating and providing:

• What we are teaching
• What we are doing
• Who is leading and teaching
• Encouragement
• Devotional thoughts
• Resources and links for parents
• A forum to hear your thoughts, ideas, concerns, and questions

One of my goals for 2010 is to bring consistency to this blog. I will be blogging 3-4 times a week except for the weeks I am traveling with the youth group or with my family. Please check the site often, or better yet subscribe via email or one of the available readers to receive automatic updates anytime there is a new post. Share this site with other parents you know who may benefit. Also, leave a comment to communicate your thoughts, questions, and ideas with each other.